An Annoying Roommate, A High Stake Game of Poker, and Decency

You know the roommate that always vocalizes what he doesn't do around the house. He says it with a half-smirked smile, a laugh. By doing so he believes it alleviates his responsibility of participating in household chores. Because instead of actually doing the dishes he just says, "You know, I need to do the dishes." It is said as a faint apology but translates into an actual unwillingness to correct the problem.

This week President Obama acted like an annoying roommate. In his town hall meeting yesterday, he said “But the long-term deficit and debt that we have accumulated is unsustainable. We can't keep on just borrowing from China, or borrowing from other countries because part of it is, we have to pay for -- we have to pay interest on that debt. And that means that we're mortgaging our children's future with more and more debt…”

This is an extraordinary statement from someone who has outlined a budget that has been revised to have a $1.8 trillion deficit this year (meaning we are borrowing 50 cents for every dollar we spend); the stimulus package will end up costing $1.3 trillion when you factor in interest; and next years' budget deficit has been revised to $1.26 trillion.

Mr. President, rather then just stating that our long-term debt is unsustainable and that we can’t keep borrowing money, how about you stop creating more long-term debt and borrowing money. As you also mentioned, Mr. President, we are in danger of having interest rates skyrocket, but undoubtedly it will be because of your policies; stating the adverse consequences of your own policies does not make you blameless. It is time you go into the kitchen and clean the dishes, especially since you are the one dirtying them.

If Nancy Pelosi’s press conference yesterday were a poker game, she put it all in. Time will tell if this was the right move but she looked uncertain, discombobulated, and out-right pathetic. How many versions of the truth can we continue to stomach? But she really lost me as she deflected by talking about the lack of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. What? Are we in 2009?

She also said the CIA had lied to her. Huh? Accusing the CIA of a blanket lie to a senior member of Congress is frankly ridiculous. We finally received confirmation yesterday that she in fact knew in 2003 about enhanced interrogation methods. She knew, yet did nothing to protest. Will someone call her bluff, please?

What has happened to common courtesy and decency? Wanda Sykes was the introducing comedian at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last Saturday night. She was funny at times but equating Rush Limbaugh to the 20th hijacker was beyond the pale. Clearly she knows provocative gets you instant press; an unfortunate side effect of our multimedia world.

Worse yet was the President’s reaction; he laughed, he smiled. This is not a time to appease a comedian with a courtesy laugh. Thanks for sanctioning this line of humor, Mr. President. I'm glad you've brought a new sense of decency to Washington.