OPINION:
Americans who care about the future of our country and our families have looked on in disgust and horror as our “leaders” have brought the world to the brink of economic calamity by failing to agree on a debt deal.
Congressional Democrats and Republicans know what needs to be done, but they have been unwilling to reach a grand compromise for the good of their constituents, placing us in peril of a stock market collapse, the infliction of soaring interest rates and a plunge deeper into the recession that has already claimed so many of us.
The president seeks to portray himself as the wise father of squabbling children, pleading with them to come together for the sake of the family, but he is by no means blameless in this international mess. Until recently, he displayed no serious interest in deficit reduction, instead advocating and implementing policies to extend the impossible concept of cradle-to-grave care with the government as the provider of first resort.
One must wonder whether he is serious about reining in government even now, as he has not provided a specific plan to reform our ways, waiting for Congress to act. This is not leadership.
I think national elected officials seeking to gain partisan advantage through their intransigence in the debt debacle are going to find themselves to be sadly mistaken. All will be justifiably tarred for fiddling while the nation burns. Perhaps a self-inflicted international economic meltdown is necessary for the American people to end their foolish belief that their elected officials are great while it is the other guy who is no good.
May the electorate come to its senses before it is too late. May we find a way to place individuals in power who do not become corrupt, arrogant, foolish and self-serving. May we re-establish government which is “of, by and for the people.”
President Obama promised us change. There is change, all right: accelerated federal spending and borrowing, a high rate of unemployment, compensation stagnation for all but the greedy and shameless corporate executive and Wall Street baron and an economy teetering on the brink of calamity. This surely is not the change that any sensible person wanted or anticipated. Today, there is no sign of positive change on the horizon. I weep for my country, as I know the Founding Fathers would. There is no responsible, wise adult at the helm of the ship of state.
OREN M. SPIEGLER
Upper Saint Clair, Pa.
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