Many people in Michigan disagree with Gov. Rick Snyder’s business tax reform and pension tax plans that he pushed through the Republican-controlled Legislature. But stuff has gotten done. A state budget has been passed months early for the first time in decades
That’s how government is supposed to work.
What’s happening in Congress now is nothing but a disgrace. Unless the nation raises its debt ceiling Aug. 2, the country basically runs out of money.
It has no way to make Social Security payments. It can’t pay wages for prison guards in federal prisons or its soldiers overseas. It can’t make interest payments on its debt.
The United States officially becomes a deadbeat nation, with the downgraded credit rating of a Third World nation. And the nation’s federal government goes dark.
The only thing holding up progress on raising the debt ceiling is pure ideology. To get elected, many House Republicans foolishly signed a pledge saying they would never consider a tax increase under any circumstance.
President Barack Obama has tried to work out a compromise budget reduction plan containing 75 percent spending cuts and a 25 percent in tax revenues, mostly through closing tax loopholes. Republicans are calling any closure of loopholes a tax hike, and they have refused to budge: In a recent interview, Republican House Speaker John Boehner refused to even say the word "compromise" when discussing negotiations, despite repeated prompting.
In other words, it has to be entirely the Republican way, or the nation goes down in flames. Even though Democrats control the Presidency and the Senate -- and should rightfully have a voice.
Compromise has always greased the wheels of democratic government. Without it, the machinery comes to a grinding halt.
If the United States is not willing to pay its debts or govern responsibly, then it deserves the shame of being a deadbeat nation. And future generations can bear the burden of higher interest and borrowing costs due to an abysmal credit rating.
