By Leo Hindery, Jr. - Huffington Post Politics
A U.S. Senator friend of mine suggested that the ongoing 'Debt Ceiling' versus 'Jobs Creation' battle underway in Congress -- that began in spades within hours of the polls closing last November -- can be best understood if you envision Mitch McConnell, John Boehner and Paul Ryan sitting on a settee -- think of the opening scene from the movie Animal House -- and President Obama sitting in a chair opposite. McConnell/Boehner/Ryan are the nation's "Budget Cutters" and the President is the "Jobs Creator."
The 'Rs' invite the President to slide his chair forward in their direction, and in a spirit of reconciliation he does so -- again and again and again.... Of course, throughout this 'negotiation' the Republicans haven't moved an inch and only a de minimis number of jobs have been created.
This one-way negotiation has to cease -- it should never have started -- yet each side's core objective is imperative and appropriate.
It's indisputable on the one hand that as Gretchen Morgenson has written, the "U.S. Has Binged [and] Soon It'll Be Time to Pay the Tab" (NY Times, 5-28-11). Ms. Morgenson writes compellingly of a new report by the Peterson Institute for International Economics which states plainly that "government debt will grow to dangerous and unsustainable levels in most advanced and many emerging economies over the next 25 years - if there are no changes in current tax rates or government benefit programs in retirement and health care."
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Leo Hindery, Jr. is Chairman of the US Economy/Smart Globalization Initiative at the New America Foundation and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Currently an investor in media companies, he is the former CEO of Tele-Communications, Inc. (TCI), Liberty Media and their successor AT&T Broadband. He also serves on the Board of the Huffington Post Investigative Fund.
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