Problems And Solutions

[Today's commentary was compiled and written prior to the announcement of Osama bin Laden's death. We will likely address that topic tomorrow.]

Another work week has dawned, one that includes Congress actually doing more work, which may come as a shock to some, considering the schedule set by House Majority Leader John Boehner.

There are a large number of problems that Congress needs to deal with swiftly and firmly as they return, including the debt ceiling, tax breaks and the Federal budget.

In the spirit of a radio show hosted by a fellow member of the media in Lincoln, we're going to attempt to help the members of our readership heading back to work on Capitol Hill by not just addressing these problems - but giving solutions as well.

We think Warren Buffett said it best over the weekend that if Congress fails to raise the U.S. debt ceiling, their actions would be "most asinine". As Mr Buffett pointed out, “We’re a growing country, and we’re going to have a growing debt capacity." We all want America to grow stronger again - and yes, we are concerned about long-term debt. But that long-term debt was not created overnight, and it will not be solved overnight, as we and countless others have reminded everyone until we're nearly breathless.

The solution to the problem of the debt ceiling is simple: raise the debt ceiling. We have done it many other times before with no apocalyptic consequences. In fact, during the Clinton years we raised the debt ceiling AND managed to have a surplus by the time the decade ended. The alternative - NOT raising the debt ceiling - does have the possibility to cause massive disaster, as we've discussed previously. As others have also stated elsewhere, raising the debt ceiling is actually constitutional, as Section 4 of the 14th Amendment reads, “The validity of the public debt of the United States…shall not be questioned.” Finally, as a matter of national security, President Obama can technically ignore the debt ceiling, if he chooses to, with no significant consequences.

Assuming then, that we do raise the debt ceiling, that still leaves us with the problems of a Federal budget that needs more revenue, and gives far too many unnecessary tax breaks.

In the midst of a weekend that included a trip to the tornado ravaged areas of the South, a quick trip to Southern California, and the White House Correspondent's Dinner (also known colloquially in DC as "Nerd Prom"), the President found time to give his weekly radio, tv and internet address, where he touched on both of these problems.

While President Obama blasted the oil companies, he didn't do so for their having record profits, so much as he did for them having record profits while taking approximately four billion dollars last year in government welfare. They did so through subsidies, a policy where the government is supposed to use some of our tax dollars to support struggling industries.

No one who has even a rudimentary grasp of reality believes the oil and gas companies are struggling.

As President Obama pointed out, “When oil companies are making huge profits and you’re struggling at the pump, and we’re scouring the federal budget for spending we can afford to do without, these tax giveaways aren’t right,” Obama said. “They aren’t smart. And we need to end them.”

Democratic House & Senate members have already committed to demanding that we end those subsidies. Republican lawmakers have already said they'll defend the rich oil companies, while pump prices continue to climb above four dollars per gallon. We have to say, the Republican Party's position on this issue is appalling - but sadly not surprising, given their current leadership.

There are other subsidies, in the form of tax breaks, that we also think should be eliminated - like the Bush Tax Cuts for the Rich. Tax cuts are something we can afford when times are good, and our pockets are flush with money. That is not the case right now - and everyone knows it.

It is time to quit coddling the crybabies, and put back into our budgets the money we can no longer afford to give out to those who don't need it anyway. Doing so would move us significantly closer to solving both the problems of the Federal budget and wasteful tax breaks.

Friday Funday: Weddings and Holidays

By the time you read this today - even before we publish this today - the future King of England, Prince William, and his new bride, Princess Catherine, will be married, have gained new titles (Duke And Dutchess of Cambridge), and will have been celebrating for some time at Windsor Castle.

To be frank, while we admire some of the pomp and circumstance of such a massive event, the media circus that goes with it is something we could do without.

We think the most important part of the young royals' wedding will be the same as any other wedding of two people we hope to see live a long and happy life together - the marriage.

Every current member of our staff has been with their spouse for a long, long time. Even though we have all been involved in professional pursuits that - at times - have had our significant others concerned about our finances (if not our sanity), our spouses have allowed us to work in cartooning, broadcasting & media, and language translation & editing without much complaint or persuasion to choose other, more lucrative, career paths.

To say our spouses are fantastic is an understatement. They've all been nominated for sainthood, in our hearts, for standing beside each of us every step along the way.

We understand, in part thanks to our careers, some of the kinds of twists and turns that Kate and William will likely experience. Everyone thinks that the royal family members have life easy - and in some ways, they do. We doubt, for example, that either William or Kate will ever go truly hungry. The benefits of their station are enormous and unique, much as many of our own benefits are to us. The people we know, and the connections we have, make us blush sometimes at what seems like our sheer dumb luck. While we rarely acknowledge it publicly, we often wonder how we got to such fantastic places in our lives.

There is a price to pay for that good fortune, however - for us, as well as for William and Kate.

The responsibilities we have are heavy and many. For example, we will be, once again, traveling this weekend, to several events and meetings, and our abilities to truly rest will be limited, as they often are when our duties and loyalties call us away from our reading corners and couches. But as we noted, we've been blessed with some incredible people in our lives, and we're more than happy to trade a few harried trips down the interstate, and through airports, in order to collect the benefits of friendship and our careers that we've been so lucky to obtain.

To whatever degree you have been blessed, we're sure you also understand about the weight of your responsibilities, and the benefits of your own place in life too.

We also know that those benefits are always made sweeter by having our significant others in our lives, to share those great moments with them.

In the midst of all the hustle and bustle this weekend, we hope that Kate and Will do what we entreat all newly married couples to do: take a minute, just a moment, to be with each other, not as prince and princess, or media celebrities - but just as a couple of people who care about each other deeply.

We hope they take our suggestion for a momentary holiday from the craziness of their own wedding day to celebrate the one thing that always has gotten each of us through our own difficult times in life.

Our very significant others.

May you have a moment of your own this weekend to share with the people you care about most.

Obama To America: It's Time To Grow Up

There has been action on political topics of note around the country - like the latest infuriating news about the attempt by the Keystone Cops of safe oil handling, TransCanada. They continue their efforts to drive the Keystone pipeline through places in Nebraska where the people who live there really don't want it. Today, though, we're going to follow the President's lead from Wednesday.

We're going to address this issue just one more time.

In case you missed President Obama's press conference on Monday, we can give you the "Shorter Obama" as they say on Twitter. In short, he presented his long-form birth certificate, and told the nation - especially the media - to grow up.

We have a whole slew of problems to handle as a nation, problems we discuss and debate with you every day here at The Daily Felltoon. The Federal budget. The Federal debt ceiling. State budgets. State laws. Wars that our country is involved in, like Afghanistan and the cleanup still going on in Iraq. Wars we're just sending drones and aid supplies to, like the evolving civil war in Libya.

We've got diseases to fight, education to fix - and even our professional sports franchises aren't immune from the war on workers.

There are more challenges facing our country at one time than we've ever seen before. These challenges don't just affect one small group of us;  they are facing all of us together, regardless of race, creed, sexual orientation, or any other divisive measure one can conjure up. Yet millions of idiotic Americans have chosen to consciously, purposely, be obtuse about the truth of this President's birth - Americans who we feel are, to be blunt, racists.

No other President has EVER had to go through this kind of a ridiculous media circus before. This insult to logic and decency called "birtherism" has dishonored the office of the President, in ways no botched election, no ginned up excuse for war, and no stained intern's dress ever could have. In short, it's an embarrassment.

Yet, instead of simply calling out the idiots and the racists, our President has been courteous, genial, and tried to ignore the insane accusations of the birthers for years now. He has given them not just the initial, fully legal birth certification that Hawaii considers the ONLY legal proof of birth (which he did over two years ago). He has also finally gotten the clearance to release the "long-form", not technically "legal" birth certificate - which he did Wednesday.

We are proud of how he stood up for himself on Wednesday, as are all Americans who actually want to get to work solving the problems we collectively face.

There are still those who will say that this was just another ploy by President Obama.

So instead of insulting those people, and calling them worthless, we're going to let President Obama have the very last words on this topic that we hope to ever write:

"I know that there’s going to be a segment of people for which, no matter what we put out, this issue will not be put to rest.  But I’m speaking to the vast majority of the American people, as well as to the press.  We do not have time for this kind of silliness.  We’ve got better stuff to do.  I’ve got better stuff to do.  We’ve got big problems to solve.  And I’m confident we can solve them, but we’re going to have to focus on them -- not on this."