Brawner: Who Will Balance The Budget?

Arkansas News Bureau columnist Steve Brawner has a sobering column on the magnitude of the national debt and our political system’s inability to solve the problem.

Noting that the U.S. national debt has reached $15 trillion and will surpass $16 trillion by next year’s elections, it’s no wonder that Congressional job approval numbers are as low as they are — 9%.

Brawner notes that despite the finger-pointing, the two major political parties both are to blame.

That either Republicans or Democrats would blame the other party for what has occurred since 1835 under both of their watches is the height of hypocrisy. Since that last debt-free year, either a Republican or Democrat has been in the White House all but eight years, and continuously since the election of 1852. For the past 150 years, almost all members of Congress have been either a Republican or Democrat. The most that either party could say in its defense would be that the other is slightly more at fault.

At some point, members of both parties must realize that the lack of progress on the debt and other issues hurts them both. Nine percent approval ratings — that sticks to everybody up there, regardless of party label. In a poll released by USA Today and Gallup in August, only 21 percent of registered voters said most members of Congress deserve to be re-elected.

Unfortunately, as usual, a majority in that August poll also said their own representative is OK, which means we might have more of the same after next November. If that happens, then the responsibility for all of this red ink belongs to the voters, who eventually must accept that politics as usual is not going to address the usual problems.

You can read his full take at this link.