As we said yesterday, the language being used in the current fiscal debate is not making the situation any easier to deal with. It's making civil discourse next to impossible. We were also of the impression that the President should use his power to put an end to it, but alas, he still continues to be an all to willing participant in the name calling. Here is a sample of what he has been saying. For my money this is not leadership. The emphasis on certain words is mine.
"We're not going to pay a ransom for America paying its bills," President Obama said Tuesday, sticking to his demand that Congress pass a spending bill and raise the federal debt ceiling without conditions. "I'm not budging."
Instead, Obama doubled down on his favorite metaphor for Republicans' demands: the GOP as a band of terrorists.He described their strategy as "hostage-taking" and "extortion."
Breaching the debt ceiling, he warned, would be "insane, catastrophic,
chaos," the fiscal equivalent of using a nuclear weapon.
