Divisive dialect: Post-vote comments suggest no one has learned anything in Washington

Tea Party supporter or not, if you are an American, you should be offended by the rhetoric that poured out of the liberal side of the aisle after Tuesday's debt ceiling resolution.

Comparing Tea Party members to terrorists, those who started the barrage of criticism implied that those who campaigned hard for what they believed in were somehow less than American and dangerous.

What they ignore, of course, are the "terror tactics" from the other side -- the empty threats to hold Social Security checks and the images of children and the elderly being tossed aside like garbage.

So here it is -- one last time.

When you have a debt that you have created because you have increased spending -- and you increase a debt ceiling -- you have done nothing to cut the spending, or to send the balance back down.

You are still spending. Period.

To solve the problem, you have to jettison the extra spending, vow to live within your means and then add in a requirement that does not allow anyone else to build up such a deficit again.

In the end, the debate in Washington is really about economics and what this country can afford.

You cannot spend money you do not have, finance it with what is, in essence, a huge government credit line, and then move forward like there is money to pay for what you have spent. A family who managed its finances on that kind of shoestring would be bankrupt in a year.

Those who feel strongly that this nation has picked the wrong economic path have every right to express their views. To assign other motives to that debate is irresponsible.

Published in Editorials on August 3, 2011 11:32 AM