Thread: U.S. political system needs a reset

U.S. political system needs a reset

By Cal Thomas and Bob Beckel
Updated 19h 56m ago

Cal Thomas is a conservative columnist. Bob Beckel is a liberal Democratic strategist. But as longtime friends, they can often find common ground on issues that lawmakers in Washington cannot.

Cal: The biggest "losers" in the debate over raising the debt ceiling are the Obama administration and the country. It is — or ought to be — the economic equivalent of "the mark of Cain" that for the first time in the 70-year history of credit ratings, America has been downgraded from AAA to AA-plus. We are now on a financial par with New Zealand and Belgium. Nice.

Bob: Along with many economists, I am taking the S&P downgrade with a grain of salt. Standard and Poor's is the same crowd that rated mortgage-backed securities as a solid investment, and those securities, we learned too late, were junk.

Cal: I see that the White House is in blame-the-messenger mode. As though today's economic pain is S&P's fault.

Bob: After being confronted by the Treasury Department before the downgrade announcement, S&P admitted that its debt numbers were $2 trillion off. This useless company went ahead and announced the downgrade because the news media were clamoring for a decision. Must make the Tea Party proud.

Cal: China is threatening not to lend us any more money and S&P is threatening another downgrade. We are setting ourselves up as a contestant on The Biggest Loser. Now the world will be watching to see whether our bloated debt can be brought under control or whether it will first kill us. I agree with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell that new members identified with the Tea Party are the big winners because they have begun to change the conversation from more spending to living within our means.

Bob: They changed the conversation all right … from a history of bipartisan approval of annual debt-ceiling legislation to hostage negotiations that almost took our economy — and the global economy — over the cliff.

Cal: Again with the blaming the messengers! What we are seeing with the Obama administration, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is the beginning of the end of old-style, cradle-to-grave liberalism that treats government as a first resource instead of a last resort. And that's a huge change, though not the kind of "change" candidate Barack Obama was thinking of when he ran three years ago.

Bob: Now that we've taken our shots, let's get beyond the finger-pointing. This profligate spending and reckless bookkeeping has been a bipartisan vice. We could spend 1,000 words fighting over blame. George W. Bush wasn't exactly an economic savant. Let's get serious.

Cal: It is about time to get serious. Just survey the hit that the United States is taking on the world stage. Headlines in European newspapers make me wince. One reads, "The humbling of America." Ouch. Others cited our "loss of leadership" in the world and "decline." I don't accept that America is in decline, though. It can quickly become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Bob: So a little hope is in order?

Cal: More like a little leadership that is laser-focused on how we claw our way out of this. Not if we will, but how. Think of Jimmy Carter serving "malaise" compared with Ronald Reagan offering vision and a light out of the darkness in 1980.

Bob: So we finally have common ground. I agree that America is not in decline, but if you listen to the GOP presidential wannabes — losers, all — America is falling apart. Yet not one of them had the courage to enter the debt debate with a single solution. These folks complain about jobs yet offer no proposals. They complain about education, transportation, energy and everything else under the sun but have no real plans. You see a president here? I don't.

Cal: I could toss a rock into a crowded subway station and have a good chance of striking someone who could do a better job with our economy than President Obama has. First, do no harm? Well, he fails that test.

Bob: So what's the GOP plan?

Cal: Have you heard Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.? He put forth a bold plan, one that may be politically toxic because it actually takes our debt and the nation's fiscal trajectory seriously. At least one conservative lawmaker is willing to take a risk to speak some hard truths. Unlike, I might add, our president.

Bob: I'm not here to defend Democrats or even President Obama when it comes to this mess, but politically, this is a loser for everyone. A New York Times/CBS poll last week found Americans pinned a bit more of the blame for the debt crisis on Republicans in Congress. Even so, the whole lot on Capitol Hill is in trouble.

Cal: We're all in trouble, and because of that we all have to bear some of the burden for our dysfunctional government. For one, too many Americans expect too much from their government, yet they don't want to pay for it.

Bob: I agree we should not let the public off the hook. In fact, in mid-May, our column took folks to task for solely blaming lawmakers rather than looking in the mirror. They may complain bitterly about Washington, but they voted for this Congress and this president.

Cal: Talk about buyer's remorse!

Bob: I think the public doth whine too much about government at the same time they whine when anyone suggests cuts to their cherished programs. They whine about the debt then whine some more when someone suggests they might pay a little more in taxes.

Cal: So where do we go from here?

Bob: Remember when President Obama decided to "reset" relations with Russia at the beginning of his administration? Well, Washington needs to come back from the August recess with "reset" in mind.

Cal: Starting where?

Bob: Obama resets with the Republican leadership, and beyond that with the Tea Party faithful, too. We're all Americans, and we should begin to act like one country with the best interest of the United States in mind.

Cal: The cynic in me says we've heard this song and dance before, but maybe — maybe — members of Congress will take enough of a beating back home that constituents will knock some sense into them.

Bob: I've been around long enough to know bad poll numbers are the smelling salts of politics. The president and Congress are being bludgeoned. A reset that leads to a substantive debt plan would be smart government and smart politics.

Cal: We need one more reset — with the American people. A strong president would borrow a page from a Democrat, Bill Clinton, and say that "the era of big government is over." But actually make it happen!

Bob: I still defend the role of government, but even a liberal like me can call it as he sees it, and yes, Cal, government needs to go on a diet. This strong president that you speak of, though, needs to play it straight with the American people: no more ice cream, no more cake, and dinnertime might not be fun for a few more years.

Cal: Fair enough.

Bob: That means reforming Social Security and Medicare to some degree, and realizing that a balanced budget will require that everybody give up something. Oh, and you better sit down, Cal, because it also means tax increases for the wealthy. We can't dig our way out of this with spending cuts alone.

Cal: Let's table that for now. I won't say no tax increase ever —Ã* la Grover Norquist— but I will say that I'd like to see a government crash diet before I'm even willing to consider it.

Bob: For you, Cal, that is progress. Even a reset, of sorts.

Cal: Don't push it.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/fo ... form_n.htm

Yeah, a reset back to following the Constitution and how it was intended. For example, let's reset back to when there was no 17th Amendment.

I really can't stand that Bob Bechel guy. Every time I see him, I vomit a little in the back of my throat.