Cliff Diving: The American Debt Ceiling Debate

Victoria Falls also known as "Mosi oa-Tunya" ("the smoke that thunders") is positioned almost exactly half way along the mighty Zambezi River's 2700 km journey from its source to the sea.

While it is neither the highest nor the widest waterfall in the world, it is claimed to be the largest. This claim is based on a width of 1,708 meters (5,604 ft) and at a height of 108 meters (354 ft), forming the largest sheet of falling water in the world. The falls' maximum flow rate compares well with that of other major waterfalls

For a considerable distance upstream from the falls, the Zambezi flows over a level sheet of basalt, in a shallow valley bounded by low and distant sandstone hills. The river's course is dotted with numerous tree-covered islands, which increase in number as the river approaches the falls. There are no mountains, escarpments, or deep valleys which might be expected to create a waterfall, only flat plateau extending hundreds of kilometers in all directions.

As we head into the New Year we are once again faced with what to do about the money we already spent.  An insane argument if you ask me, but one that keeps our government divided.  Unlike Victoria Falls we do not need to go over this cliff, this is a man made crisis that has a very simple solution and not resolving this has a very big impact.

As we move closer to the date of decision the President has aligned himself with the business community and that makes prefect sense.  See the Business Community will be the hardest hit by this crisis, as the World watch our internal bickering and inability to govern they lose confidence in us as a country.  Just as the Government does, Corporate America does business using debt so all the goods and services used to make a company run are not paid for in cash.  No company is waiting with a stack of dollar bills when they ship goods or order essential office supplies.

Looking at things the first thing that happens is our countries credit rating will probably be lowered again and the impact of that is not just a loss of confidence in America, but American Business's as well.  Without Corporate America able to function on a debit and credit system, because goods and service providers do not have the confidence in them to pay their debt there will be mass lay-offs.  This is nothing unusual for America and the American population, we have been through this before and we will go through this again.  The secret is our last bout with mass unemployment taught the American people how to live on less, especially the shrinking middle-class and lower.  While Corporate America sat on billions of dollars, not hiring and not helping the people suffered, but they managed.

As unemployment increases the need for goods and services used internally by Americans will decrease, kind of a self fulfilling prophecy.  In order for American Business to be strong they need a strong American Economy.  So as bottom lines drop and corporations eat through their reserve capital and possibly go out of business, they will scream.  Yes we want smaller government but you need to help me and my business now.

In the immediate aftermath of this looming disaster decision are easy, we pay our debt on our Treasury Bonds and then we have the hard decision on what to pay next.  What Social programs do we not pay?  Do you tell mothers on Welfare that they have to starve, old people that they can't seek medical attention for what they need or do we tell the person that recently lost their job because of this Cliff Dive that they can't receive benefits to help them through their time of need?  But wait it gets more interesting, lets say we have another disaster similar to Sandy.  What do we do?  Do we allow this community ravished by disaster to tough it out on their own when we have told the senior, recently unemployed and the underemployed hey "It Sucks to be YOU!!!"?

Let's go over the cliff and see who the American people hold responsible.  Personally I think this will be the first time a Democrat has won the White House for 3 consecutive elections.  Talk about a party out of touch with reality even the business community which the GOP claims to be supporting has all but told them this is not good.

So sit back, laugh, enjoy the ride and watch as Hillary Clinton is elected the "First Woman President" in history in 2016.  Remember you heard it hear first, while others say she will run I say she will run and win by a landslide.  What does this mean?  Simply "Goodbye GOP" it was nice, but you wrote your own epitaph when you allowed the Tea Party to dictate your policy.