Debt Crisis: Obama asks parties to ‘work together’
appeal to Democrats and Republicans to “work together” to find a way to solve the nation’s debt problem
WASHINGTON:
US President Barack Obama on Saturday renewed his appeal to Democrats and Republicans to “work together” to find a way to solve the nation’s debt problem, but continued to insist on eliminating tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans. In his weekly radio and internet address, the president said that “Democrats and Republicans have to work together” in order to reach a deal on averting a debt default in early August. The US government reached its debt limit of $14.29 trillion in May, and since then the Treasury Department has used special measures to allow the government to keep paying its bills.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 24th, 2011.
The US has been faced with this catastrophic situation when it has to make enormous investments in national security and an overseas war being fought in Afghanistan. There will hardly be a choice to make fiscal space through cutting down the defense spending. Resultantly, other spending, mostly obligatory, will face the axe in the coming years which will hurt the common man and the taxpayers. Normally, cutting down government spending through austerity measures should be compensated by the private sector but there is no indication that the private sector will come forward in a big way. Employment will, therefore be the first casualty. The opposition is bent upon forcing the administration to cut federal spending and cap them and also strip the administration of the powers to raise taxes. The US economy, right now, is between devil and the deep sea.