House Speaker John Boehner's debt plan was put on hold Thursday night after lacking the needed votes to pass, but he may try again Friday. The frustration about the inability of Congress and President Barack Obama to reach a deal to raise the debt ceiling and prevent a possible government default has sparked a firestorm of anger directed toward Washington.
But there's no shortage of people who believe they have the answer to solving the crisis or who is to blame for it.
As Washington struggles to reach a deal, CNN is listening to what you have to say about the debt fiasco as well thoughts from influential voices, politicians and analysts.
iReport: Your message to Congress
With the both chambers of Congress seemingly unable to come up with a debt-ceiling solution, constitutional law professor Jack Balkin wrote about three ways Obama could bypass Congress and try to solve the crisis on his own.
"We are having a debt-ceiling crisis because Congress has given the president contradictory commands," Balkin said in a CNN.com opinion piece. "Congress has ordered the president to spend money, and it has forbidden him to borrow enough money to obey its orders." But Obama may be able to save the United States from defaulting, he suggests, perhaps by issuing two $1 trillion coins or selling the Federal Reserve an option on $2 trillion in property.
CNN.com readers jumped right into the conversation, discussing whether it would be the right move for Obama to sidestep Congress. One commenter named svscnn said: "I don't know if I'm relieved or concerned about some of the revelations in this article. While they all seem a bit shady, I suppose it's good to know that there are still some executive options on the table to keep us from going over the brink that Congress has brought us to."
Marc J. Yacht said he thinks that Obama is being “held hostage” and that he should stand his ground in the debt-ceiling debate.
“Use your power of the executive order to break the impasse, if you can,” Yacht told CNN's iReport. “Not raisng the debt ceiling undermines this country's stability. Equity and balance has to be the driving force in this debate.”
Skip Wininge, another iReporter, got so fed up with Congress’ inability to reform the tax structure that he has devised a plan of his own. He uploaded his thoughts to iReport, explaining, “Don’t pay for wars and tax cuts on the backs of senior citizens who barely get by on Social Security and Medicare. They have already paid their dues."
Another solution? "If far-right conservatives can't listen to reason, maybe they will listen to Ronald Reagan," CNN contributor John Avlon argues.
"Because Reagan had stern words for Congress when it tried to play political games with the debt ceiling in 1987. They still ring true today...," he wrote before quoting the late president's exact words. "Congressional Republicans should read that paragraph (from Reagan's speech) out loud twice before going to vote on the debt ceiling in the next few days. It is essentially the same argument Obama has been making. But in our current hyper-partisan environment reason doesn't resonate across party lines. Instead, there is too often an overheated impulse to oppose Obama at any cost. Hearing the same argument from the Gipper might inspire a needed sense of perspective."
Candy Grossi has someone else in mind that Congress should call for help. She said she is weary of the “Washington political game playing” because she doesn’t think that politicians really care what average Americans have to say.
Her advice to Washington? Enlist the help of people who are used to balancing their household budgets.
“Advice for Washington: Bring some normal housewives who have to really work a budget, putting food on the table ... ," she told iReport. "Maybe then our budget will get in line. We need people who don't have any special interest. We need people who really care for the good of our nation, which means our people (all of us).”
CNN also asked former officeholders for their views on how to resolve the debt crisis. What do they think should happen?
Former Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania said he thinks Obama should hold in reserve the prospect of using the 14th Amendment to get around the debt ceiling.
“This extraordinary assertion of executive authority could be justified because the Congress has, in effect, abdicated its constitutional responsibility to agree on legislation through the bicameral conference before the drop-dead date leaving a vacuum which must be filled if the government is to function,” he said.
Ex-Reagan budget director David Stockman said, “The crisis lies in the debt, not the ceiling. Kicking the can with a six months' ceiling increase is the worst possible alternative because it allows the politicians of both parties to continue making the big fiscal lie.”
Former Sen. John Danforth said the real issue is the size of government. He urges Congress and the president to agree on raising the debt ceiling and to make the 2012 election a vote on the size of government – between Obama’s plan for a government that spends nearly 24% of the gross domestic product and Rep. Paul Ryan’s plan for a smaller government, amounting to about 20% of GDP.
“The appropriate size of federal spending as a percent of GDP will not be resolved by politicians without input from the American people. In other words, it will not be decided before the 2012 presidential election,” Danforth said.
Meanwhile, iReporter Valerie Bass, a Middleburg, Florida, teacher and the wife of an Afghanistan veteran, offers this advice to Congress: “This is not a game. Cut the benefits the politicians have as we can't afford them.”
Bass has a lot more to say in her impassioned iReport: "My husband lost his health and his ability to have a normal life due to his deployment to Afghanistan. We also have two children in college and are counting every penny. We have given our future and our health for this country. We are the military families!"
"My basic point is that this is a crisis that we have manufactured out of whole cloth. We have created a circumstance in which the world doubts our credibility, rating agencies are thinking of downgrading our debt and the dollar's role as the world's reserve currency could be jeopardized," Zakaria writes. "Please understand that none of these things are happening because the United States is running deficits. There was no indication – by any metric – that the United States was having difficulty borrowing money one month ago. In fact, the world has been lending money to the United States more cheaply than ever before.
"We face downgrades and investor panic not because of our deficits but because we are behaving like deadbeats, refusing to pay our bills, pouting while the bill collector waits at the door."
Many iReporters said they are sick of the politics behind the crisis and want lawmakers to put aside their differences and just solve the economic problems.
Steve Rokowski said he is tired of elected officials “hiding behind statements” about how the American system of government works. Those elected officials are the most to blame, according to Rokowski.
“Compromise is essential to get things done," Rokowski told iReport. "We all have to do it daily in our lives; it’s more important for Congress as their decisions are supposed to be for the greater good of the country. Stalemate is not an option. I am tired of our government officials always hiding behind the statements that, 'This is the system our forefathers have put in place.' They didn’t set up a government that was this dysfunctional.”
Lawrence R. Jacobs, a professor and director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey School of Public Affairs, takes a look at the implications across the board and who could walk away a winner or a loser in this war over the debt.
He said that Americans are turning against the GOP in the debt debate because of the party's insistence on cutting government programs only without any tax hikes. And Democrats are winning the argument on Medicare and Social Security. Obama also has a lot at stake here. His talk about the inability of government to get anything done implicates him, too, Jacobs argues. Any talk of a dysfunctional government is hurting his cause, he writes.
"The president's flagging of Washington's 'dysfunction' reinforces the distrust of government that many Americans harbor, oddly making it harder for him to rally support behind government programs such as Medicare and Social Security," he writes. "This may help to explain why the GOP is losing the debt-ceiling debate and yet three-quarters of Americans favor a constitutional amendment to balance the budget."
He adds, "The lessons moving forward are clear. Republican leaders intent on winning the White House and strengthening their position in Congress need to steer their party back to the views of mainstream America or squander what may be setting up as a propitious opportunity in 2012 to run against the 'in' party in a time of deep discontent. As for Democrats, they need to focus like a laser beam on the concrete programs that many Americans rely upon and steer away from the sweeping conclusions about government waste and dysfunction that undergird a genuine philosophical conservatism in America."
But Jeffrey Miron, author of "Libertarianism, from A to Z," writes this public spectacle is a blemish on both parties in part because neither side will concede on their big issues. Democrats won't accept that Medicare is the primary driver of the fiscal nightmare, he argues, and Republicans won't distinguish between two kinds of tax revenue – that from higher tax rates and that from fixing tax loopholes.
"Will the Democrats and Republicans be able to set aside their prejudices?" asks Miron, a senior lecturer and director of undergraduate studies in Harvard University's Economics Department and a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. "Alas, both parties are doing what their respective constituents seem to want, so compromise will not come easily.
"But something must change, and soon. Otherwise, nothing will stop the U.S. fiscal train wreck."
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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(A) – no masters, no gods, no managers...the only thing we have to lose are our chains
let it default so we can dismantle this whole system
I would love to punch you dead center in the neck and watch the lights leave your eyes. Get mad.
Thanks for your insight Mr. Obama, but all have figured you out by now...
shuffle by Nick, way abover your head here man
Looks like the tea partyers are pulling a Ralph Nader. They are going to drive the moderate conservatives to the left so that they can get something passed. Either way, if nothing gets passed, its the GOP with egg on their face. Soon the influence of the tea party will be gone, but for now, it is the liberal party that will benefit. All this is true if it is indeed congressional action that saves the day. I would love to see our president pull something executive out of his butt and scold the "revolutionaries", saying something like, "I tried to compromise, but apparently you can't compromise with children."
-my three year old must be a republican because all he says is "NO!"
Why is it we can't raise taxes on everybody? Why just "the rich" that make over $250k? Aren't we all in this together? Don't those making under $250k use more of the tax money for services? A family of 4 with a house that make $75k or less pay no income tax. How fair is that? Compared to a family of 4 with income of $300k paying about 20% total income in taxes. $50k and less qualifies for food stamps? Let's fix the code so EVERYBODY pitches in 3% extra and we do this together.
because the rich have more to pay you dope
Great response. You are likely a freeloader like many in America. Probably living off unemployment because you don't want to take a $2 decrease in pay when you can stay home and drink beer.
How about I come solve your problems....Call me your problem solver....I'll bring you some tissues too.
sorry buddy, i actually work in the financial field, RIC S.E.C. and IRS and prospectus compliance..make over 100k and i'm sickened every day by what i see these fund managers do....i've got a front row seat for this mess
Bob: check your math or maybe just the facts. I pay taxes to my state at an overall higher incidence rate than someone making 300k. I make 34,000 a year The state's highest-income taxpayers — the 10 percent of households earning more than $130,000 — paid an effective tax rate of 10.3 percent. The remaining 90 percent of low- and middle-income households paid a substantially higher effective tax rate of 12.3 percent. Do you think that's fair? Before anyone goes off about me sucking up services, I was forced into unemployment by a state shutdown and yet I refused to apply for unemployment for weeks because my husband was still working and I wanted to "save that" for someone who needed it. And to be perfectly honest...I have no problem paying more taxes if it means children can receive an education, the elderly can live out their days in peace and comfort, veterans and 9/11 responders get the medical help they deserve and the services that are provided to people remain in place. If I have no problem paying more making 34,000, why is it that someone making 500,000 can't help out too??
People have worked 20-40 years plus contributing to Social Security for when they retire only to be the first thing cut when there is an argument amongst the girls on the HILL. We enable females to have babies out of wedlock at the expense of taxpayers, we encourage alcoholics and drug addicts not to recover at the expense of the taxpayers. We been paying for democratic social programs since I can remember. Dems and Reps got their pet projects they want to hold on to. They will eat, their children will go to college, travel the world and more even after they leave Capital Hill...that includes the president and his family too. Do they really give a hoot about the taxpayer? NOT it does not matter who created this or who messed it up....they just need to know they are going to NEED the Middle Class Income Voters when it is time to go to the polls again. You can bet your jordache jeans a lot of them will not be returning.
People still wear Jordache? *grin*
You are right...
This has always been so simple to me. Like a family's budget. When your in debt and spending more than you pull in... you look for another job (increase revenue) and prioritize your budget to cut back on spending. Neither party gets it.
i would disagree Andy. The Dems get that we need to make cuts...there are spending cuts int he proposed bills...its the Republicans that don't get that cuts alone will not do it...that we also need to increase revenue.
I think that was what he was saying.....if you discover in your family budget that you don't have enough money....you look at where you can cut and save yes....but if you are down to nothing else to cut, you make revenue. IT MAKES SENSE that you go out and get another job before you say, "well I guess we should drown our 2 dogs, not feed our kids, and stop the heat in the winter to save some money." Duh!
What makes sense is to cut government programs and have a balanced budget. Don't take money put into medicare / social security and spend it on other things (biggest ponzi scheme of all time). Don't force Americans to pay for health insurance and other programs if they don't want it. Reduce the size of the government and go back to a traditional consitutional government. There was never intended to be such a thing as a career politician. All they care about is furthering their careers. This is inarguably true on both sides of the aisle. We need LEADERS not POLITICIANS. The Government has gotten so big it is out of control. The more you rely on the government to support your daily life, the more freedoms you give up, the harder it is to fulfill the American Dream, and the more rights you lose. The only intended function of the government is to protect the people, THATS IT. No providing money for various programs, no stimulous packages, no bail outs, no invasion of the private sector, no spending more than you take in. You cannot run a deficit budget, this is economics on the most basic level. If a company spends more than it takes in, it goes bankrupt (or should, im looking at you GM and chrysler). For the politicians in Washington to think that a country is immune to this is beyond arrgoant and wreckless. I'm all for the balanced budget amendment, but what they need to do is LOWER TAXES, not raise them. Contrary to what ignorant people would think, raising corporate taxes actually REDUCES the amount of revenue the government takes in. This is because the cost of business goes up, drastically reducing profits and available capital for expansion. This also kills jobs. So here is my reccomendation America, balance the budget, get rid of so many pointless and inefficient government programs, establish term limits for senators, remove the pension plans for senators, remove tax payer funded government healthcare programs and let them pay for their own health care like everyone else. This is supposed to be the land of the free, not the land of the regulated and subsidized. Wake up, have some pride, and actually WORK for a living instead of sucking the teet of the government. Maybe then we can get back on track as a country. We cannot go on under this over bearing government structure.
Interesting that you point out the bailout of US companies that employ US workers, but fail to point out the billions we spent bnailign out banks who have made record profits.
The Tea Party started this mess.......Moderate Republicans and Democrats need to join together to get these people out. They are crazy. Time and time again we are told that raising the debt ceiling is about paying the BILLS WE ALREADY OWE. Yet you folks keep repeating that it is about spending more. GET IT CORRECT. The car has already been bought you have to make payments. When will that one sink in.........Only God Know.
how about moderate dems too......or are they all gone?....oh well.....
Everyone is a critic huh? Get mad....GET MAD!
Nick sounds like you can't think straight (MUST BE ALL THE BROWN ON YOUR NOSE) From the tea baggers.
The GOP will throw the middle class under the bus to save the wealthy from paying higher taxes. It's class warfare and there are more working class people than wealthy. We should band together to rid ourselves of the GOP once and for all.
Throw the current tax code in the trash. Implement a 100% flat tax, at an agreed upon percentage, for EVERYONE, with no deductions or exceptions for anyone for anything. Couple that with a VAT (national sales tax), again with a fixed percentage for everyone for everything. Then there are no more loopholes, or disproportionate "breaks" for special interests. Everyone pays into the system proportionate to what they earn and what they spend. If revenue needs raised sometime in the future, it will be in the form of tax increases on EVERYONE - again, no loopholes or special interest s to worry about.
We need a “Balanced Budget” Amendment. This whole debate has demonstrated that Congress and the President can’t do it on their own. They need hel to make the tough decisions that might not make votes for them, but it is the right thing to do.
I'M VERY SORRY TO SAY IT...BUT THIS CONTRY SAW ITS BEST TIMES...JUST LIKED ROME AND OTHERS,IT WILL CRUMBLED FROM WITHIN...5O YRS FROM NOW,IT WILL BE JUST LIKED THE OTHERS...A HAS BEEN...THAT;S VERY SAD,,BUT WHAT GOES UP,MUST COME DOWN...IS JUST A MATTER OF TIME
Agree. Same mistakes are being made.
This debate is about, and by, non-poor people – the group of people that the debaters have long forgotten about. The people who are pulling the strings of decision making are just not very bright; elected by people who are not very bright.
Poor people understand life so much better because reality flows downstream. Its about the spirit and not the mind. Keep the argument up until the breaking point then cry like cowards as the big one engulfs you. One love, have courage.
The government has to give out money for student loans, infrastructure, maintaining infrastructure and providing services such as Social Security, Medicare and programs that many Americans depend on. The government is not a household and therefore its finances cannot be run as such.
Yes, they do have to pay those things out. But the way they currently run the system is incredibly inefficient. Say I pay in $100k to social security in my lifetime. I will probably only get about 1/4 of that back. It is a ponzi scheme. The money should just sit in an account and collect interest but it is used to pay for so many other things. If I had a choice I would not pay into social security, medicare, and medicaid nor would I expect anything from these funds. I would have my own private retirement fund and my own health care plan in accordance with my individual needs. I would use my money how I want, not how the government tells me to. If I misuse my money than I suffer the consequences, thats called personal accountability, something almost no one in this country has anymore. Its always someone else's fault that you were spent your money on stupid things and didn't build wealth. However, you must respect someone's right to do as they please and stay out of their business unless they themselves reach out for help. If, and only if, someone reaches out for and legitimately needs financial counsuling should they be assisted by the government.
This debt crisis is one of many indicators that our government does not work and needs an overhaul. Political parties are just legalized gangs. You may as well have the Bloods and the Crypts in Washington. Most Congressmen are only concerned with getting reelected. They refuse to sponsor any legislation that will help Joe Taxpayer but is detrimental to their friends in the business world who are financing their campaigns. We do not live in a democratic society. If we did, the American people would be voting on this debt issue at the polls, like we should be doing for ALL big decisions! The only way anything will ever change is for us to have another revolution.