Debt ceiling deadline looms

Loveland (Colo.) Daily Reporter-Herald: The clock continues to tick down to an Aug. 2 deadline for Congress to raise the debt ceiling or face defaulting on its financial obligations. The longer it ticks, the more it sounds like a time bomb.

Our federal government is $14.3 trillion in debt. Social Security and Medicare need serious reform to meet their obligations. The weak U.S. economy is teetering on the brink of recession again. Three Wall Street financial rating agencies have warned they could downgrade U.S. bonds if lawmakers can’t defuse the fiscal time bomb.

And — no surprise here — Democrats and Republicans continue to stick to party-line positions.

Republicans want deep cuts in spending. Democrats respond that deep cuts will worsen the unemployment rate. Democrats say cuts should be accompanied by revenue increases, primarily by closing tax loopholes.

Republicans see that as raising taxes.

Impasse

Unfortunately, semantics won’t end the impasse. Nor will jockeying for political position for the 2012 election, which appears to be the strategy of both parties.

Breaking the impasse will happen only when both sides awaken to the reality that neither side has all the answers and that no solutions should be “off the table.”