Robert Ariail for January 16, 2013

Houdini needed?

It’s not either or, it’s both and.

pull the plug? Or open the door and ruin the bathroom.

You mean solutions like social security, which is all that stands between tens of millions of senior citizens and abject poverty?

Or Medicare, which is all that stands between millions more senior citizens and pain and even death?

Perhaps others like yourself will then take up the slack and actually “honor your parents” like it states in the bible?

Up to actually supporting them in a reasonable and dignified manner?

And seeing the tone of most of your posts here, why should I even doubt your “compassionate conservatism”?

Fitch is saying, cut spending or we cut your credit rating.

The Doomsday Clock is at 5 min to Midnight.Climate Change is one of several reasons, but this cartoon shows another. The willingness to destroy the world’s economy in order for one side to ‘win’ over the other.I firmly believe there are hundreds of ways to reduce the cost of government, I’ve seen it being done by people who work in civil service and inspect/audit/review military contracts and methods. This one office of intelligent motivated people, led by a supervisor who believes in the purpose of their mission, has more than paid for their compensation and future retirement in savings they have brought to our nation.To tell the world that we will no long pay the bills on money borrowed is dishonorable, unethical, and immoral. It endangers countries. This debt ceiling ‘crisis’ is not the battleground the Republicans should be trying to hold. If this was a republican president, they would cheerfully raise the debt ceiling and then work to cut spending.The last time we did this, it raised our cost of borrowing as a nation and increased our debt.I agree we need to cut spending, but this is not the place to make that stand.Respectfully,C.

Perhaps if they made a rule stating that they couldn’t attach an unrelated rider to a spending bill?

Congress does the spending. It’s their debt ceiling, not Obama’s.

As I understand the situation, the debt ceiling has to do with paying for spending already agreed upon, not new spending. If people want to cut future spending, okay, let’s see a plan and get to work. But paying for spending that’s already been agreed upon just seems fair. If they didn’t want to spend this much they should have made the cuts already. The Republicans have no credibility on this issue.

It really isn’t a good metaphor for excessive spending or raising the debt limit. A better concept would be running out of something you are obligated to provide. In this illustration, the House approved the amount of water that would fill the shower without addressing the fixed limits of the budget (which is smaller than the approved spending). Regardless, there is no representation in this drawing for revenue, which I assume would be the drain. So a better proposed solution would be to unclog the drain to increase revenue, which again I would assume by this illustration is set to “No revenue.”

The elephant forgets who added all the spending. Clinton balanced the budget, Bush destroyed it.

What can I say? Your picture is perfect, speaking more than thousands of words.

“CUT BACK ON THINGS PEOPLE HAVEN’T PAID FOR”-Amen brother (sister?) And since we didn’t pay for the invasion of Iraq or Afganistan, or the resulting occupation, I say we cut back on war. Good call 4my.

This is actually completely accurate. It would have been the “line item VETO” that would have given the President the power to remove “pork” projects attached to spending bills. Unfortunately this would limit a senator/congressman’s power to buy votes.

The line item Veto and term limits for EVERYONE in Washington DC would drastically transform this country… for the better.

@ ScottPm – sorry, I was wrong. Misread your post and took it out of context. I do apologize.@ Mikefive – not sure why I took it the way I did the first time, thank you for making me reread it and for providing more info.Respectfully,C.

The President says that the debt ceiling has nothing to do with spending. Then he must be planning to borrow money to pay some of the debt that we have already borrowed.

How stupid does he think we are?

Sick of debt metaphors?

After 4 years of misery, America has decided to keep the messiah, Barry, for 4 more years. If he wants to, he can certainly go without Congress or the Senate to push anything thru. He can do anything. Remember how he stopped the gun running to Mexico investigation? Besides, as the double standard goes, If it is a Democratic president,he is not to be blamed, If a Republican is, he always gets the blame. Tough break, if Congress seems to be the obstacle. Eat C- – P

False equivalency, the money is already spent so, you have to raise the ceiling to pay for money already spent. Leave it to the GOP to manufacture a crisis and tank the economy.