By Adam Bitely
The United States has been dealing with one crisis after the other for the past decade. Currently, the U.S. faces an unemployment crisis, a financial crisis, and a political leadership crisis.
What is the political leadership crisis?
Simply put, the political leaders in Washington, D.C. have proven themselves unable to make spending cuts — when they are most desperately needed.
In 2010, the Democrats at the leadership helm in Congress chose to punt on the budget. That punting has led to a series of “continuing resolutions” that fund the government for a short period of time. If Congress does not pass another continuing resolution, the government will shut down non-essential services after April 8.
We are faced with this crisis because the politicians in D.C. refuse to be honest about the high level of government spending, with a national debt of $14.1 trillion and an annual deficit of $1.65 trillion. These supposed leaders in Washington have not been honest with themselves, or the public, about the level of debt that the nation has accrued.
When push came to shove and courageous political leaders were needed to do what was right, these supposed leaders have chosen time and again to kick the can just a little further down the road.
If they think that they can continue to punt on spending cuts, they will soon learn that the decision to ignore their fiscal recklessness will have been a grave error.
Inside of Congress, politicians are debating whether or not cutting $61 billion, less than two percent of the budget for fiscal year 2011 is a wise decision. And while they debate whether less than two percent is too high a number, the budget deficit continues to grow.
Congress has shown in the past that it can act quickly when the nation is faced with serious disasters. In the wake of the financial market collapse in 2008, Congress acted in record time to enact TARP to bailout the inept financial institutions that were deemed “too big to fail.”
But when it comes to facing the government-spending crisis, Congress has signaled that they do not mind allowing the nation to spiral into an endlessly deep hole that is harder to climb out of with each passing day. Congress has shown that it is much better suited to allowing their spending problems to fester.
Where are the leaders that are willing to make the tough calls in a time of disaster? And by that, where are the leaders that are able to see the disaster of their own actions and will seek to put an immediate end to their abuse of the power of the purse.
The issues the nation faces of unfettered government spending are real. It is not unheard of for a government to ruin a country through its spending habits.
So while Americans watch the events of a possible government shutdown unfold, people need to keep in mind that this problem was fixable countless times in the past. The only reason that it was not remedied earlier was that there is a severe political leadership crisis that is ongoing at the highest levels of government.
When there was a desperate need for someone to say “enough is enough” that person was not present. Instead, we are stuck with politicians that are wondering whether or not a little over $61 billion in government spending cuts will be enough to stop a budget deficit that is in the trillions of dollars.
Adam Bitely is the Editor-in-Chief of NetRightDaily.com. You can follow Adam on Twitter at @AdamBitely.
