Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Debt ceiling

There has been a lot of talk about the debt ceiling lately. Most of it has centered around the idea of the federal budget and the national debt. However, as has been pointed out very nicely, the budget, while important, is not what should be the center of debate. It's really about transparency and accountability.
A national treasury is only accountable when the people have real power over the government.  When the people don’t hold such power – when they can’t remove officeholders at will, or expect to have their electoral choices respected – the accountability of the national treasury is one of the first casualties.  Honesty and transparency with the public is not the natural state of affairs when it comes to public treasuries.  Those qualities have to be guarded with the vigilance inherent in consensual, electoral systems of government, where the citizen’s rights are respected, and the rejection of incumbents results in peaceful transfers of power.
 The people of this country currently do not feel that their federal government is respecting their electoral choices or being transparent about how things are being run.

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