I have to confess. The last half of this month has had me verklempt. Each passing day of the news story called“The Debt Ceiling That Can’t Get Passed” sucked air out of my chest, making it hard to sleep, obsessive about the news, and living with a cloud of worry unnamed over me, unable to type a word. If you were wondering where Fe-911 went to, I’ve been in a mental hell of debt and default angst.
Clearly, I am not alone in my worry. We have been smothered by 24-7 debt and deficit news: the trillions of US deficit, talk of entitlement reform, the debt ceiling negotiation stalemate, the threat of US default on the world’s economy. We are bombarded by all-debt-all-deficit-all-the-time on All-Debt Radio — enough to make an already anxious nation sit nervously at the edge of its seat. As if we haven’t had enough Shock Doctrine here and around the world over the last week, let alone decade, we’re now getting pistol-whipped with the threat of our parents, our grandparents and ourselves getting robbed blind of the fixed monthly income we paid ourselves over decades of working life.
This weekend, the Senate and the House have worked on a compromise that would raise the debt ceiling by $1.3 trillion through 2012, and cut three trillion from the deficit. There are still hurdles to overcome, as revealed by Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts: