More Thoughts on the Debt Ceiling-- The Poor, Poor Rich

Some wise person said not long ago, "If you came to America for the first time and looked around you would think that rich people have no money." That's the elephant in the living room. This bill that finally passed takes away nothing from the well-heeled. If I understand what was voted on--what it does do is slash benefits to those most in need. Nary a word about extending payments to the unemployed. What are we thinking? We are in a royal mess. Read Bishop Spong's succinct words on this whole issue. Seems like to me he is on to something.

Do we now turn our attention to the hurting needs of this country? Will we wind down these wars? Or will we simply keep on playing Junior High School in Washington. I hope the pundits are wrong...several of those columnists I respect have some pretty hard words to say about what we have just done. Some of my friends are furious at President Obama for what they call "caving in." I vacillate on this issue. In conceding so much I think he has hurt the country and the people most in need. On the other hand--maybe he knew that to default and not raise the ceiling would create havoc. Lord knows we don't need any more of that.

 On my better days I remember something of our history. Democracy has always been messy. Those who speak of the founding fathers misty-eyed forget they went at it tooth and claw. Thomas Jefferson represented states rights and Alexander Hamilton was certain we had to have a strong government in Washington or this whole experiment in democracy would fall apart. Those two strands of less and less government--relying on the states to do almost everything for us is still with us. The other strand deeply believes believes we desperately need a strong government because there are some things that smaller groups cannot do. It has most interesting in Alabama to see how we turned toward Washington during this recent tornado. There have been plenty of howls months later from the anti-government crowd that say the federal government has let them down.

We can't have it both ways. Either we keep nodding toward the rich who are pulling most of the strings in this country--or we keep moving toward "the least of these" that will fall through the cracks without our help.
You might appreciate Joe Nocera's column in today's New York Times entitled, "The Tea Party's War on America."