After being AWOL on the debt-ceiling debate for weeks, President Obama is now trying to swoop in like some superhero who is somehow above the fray in Washington. He is trying to convince us that he is the lone leader among 535 want-to-be congressional leaders. And if they do not solve this Obama-created crisis, Obama is positioning himself again to blame the Republicans.
Some of us are not that gullible. We’re not buying it.
It’s Obama’s lack of leadership that has led to this situation in the first place — a situation that would never have happened under President Herman Cain. Why? Real leaders anticipate and analyze crises to prevent them.
In this current debate over our debt ceiling and government spending, if there is no agreement reached, it will not be because the Republicans are not serious about cutting spending. It will be because President Obama is not serious about cutting spending, and therefore he is incapable of showing any leadership on the issue.
You can’t be a leader if you can’t figure out which way to go — or if you’re determined to go the wrong way.
Last week, Democratic pollster and commentator Pat Caddell said that the elephant in the room is the fact that our president is simply clueless about what to do. Now, I don’t know if Mr. Caddell is correct or not, but the fact remains that the way the president is handling this debt-ceiling issue is just the way someone who is clueless would handle it.
He has been plenty specific on his class-warfare talking points and on ways to continue to punish the producers in our economy with all kinds of regulations and tax increases he wants on the backs of the American people, but he remains awfully vague about any ideas for reductions in government spending.
I suspect he is just being himself. He believes in big government and redistribution, and he is not a big believer in the free-market economy.
The American people and certainly every business owner know that now is not the time to increase taxes on America’s job creators and employers. That would be counterproductive. Our problem is excessive government spending, not low taxation.
Besides, history teaches us that tax increases are the wrong way to go with regard to revenue. We have seen in our nation’s history — under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan — that a growing economy produces more tax revenue than an overtaxed and overregulated economy. A tax increase now would just lead to more unemployment and more entrepreneurs going on strike.
It would be a disaster.
And yet, we are told by our president and other liberals that failing to reach an agreement on this debt ceiling would be a disaster. They are simply not telling us the truth about this situation, trying to scare the American people into punishing the Republicans who are standing firm. The fact remains, without raising the debt ceiling, our Treasury will have enough money to service the debt, to pay our soldiers and to pay for Social Security and Medicare. Anyone who says differently is lying to you.
What not raising the debt ceiling means is that the rest of the federal government would have to finally share in some sacrifice for a change. We’ve heard a lot lately about shared sacrifice, but it’s never our government that has to sacrifice. It’s always the producers, job creators and families that have to sacrifice.
We have a crisis of leadership in the White House, and we are all watching it unfold before our very eyes in this debt-ceiling debate.
It’s not a serious debate. It’s a disaster. Hang on!
Herman Cain, the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, is a Republican candidate for president.
