A comparison of the U.S. Congress reaction to the BP oil spill vrs. the U.S. National debt: who's motivated to "plug this hole"?

1. What about that “Gusher” in Washington, D.C.?
By Tom Tierney 23 June 2010
The U.S. Congress brought BP CEO Tony Hayward in for a “dog and pony show” last week: Hayward
knew nothing about anything when questioned during the BP hearings while the self righteous
Congressional members knew everything about all things. Hindsight is 20/20 after all.
The BP oil “gusher” could possibly spill 100,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico per day. This is
definitely an environmental disaster and BP needs to clean it up and address all financial claims.
However, there’s a bigger “gusher” that isn’t being addressed: the U.S. Congress presides over a
national debt that has spilled and covered each taxpayer with over $118,000 of individual debt (and
growing, for the real time numbers see www.usdebtclock.org, our national debt equivalent of the BP
“spill cam”). Unlike the pelicans in Louisiana, there’s no simple cleanup for this financial disaster.
When is the U.S. Congress going to turn its investigative eye toward our $13T debt? BP apparently took
risks with their well and relied on a “blow out preventer”, a failsafe mechanism, to save their bacon (it
didn’t work). Similarly, the U.S. Congress is taking risks with deficit spending, entitlements with
unfunded liabilities we can’t afford and is, apparently, relying on future tax payers as their “blow out
preventer”. Like BP’s “fail safe mechanism”, this too shall fail: see Greece’s financial problems as an
example.
When is the U.S. Congress going to address spending , liabilities and be honest with the U.S. taxpayer as
to what the future will be if this isn’t addressed? They blame the BP CEO for ignoring risks and
ultimately causing one of the world’s largest environmental disasters, when are they going to be equally
introspective as to their culpability in creating, possibly, one of the world’s largest financial disasters?
This problem can’t be solved by taxing businesses, it can’t be solved by taxing individuals, it has to be
comprehensive and address current spending and past spending (liabilities). It has to be done in a way
that doesn’t completely ruin the U.S. economic engine, but does share the burden across individuals and
businesses both to tax policies and individual entitlements.
Most importantly: there has to be some mechanism put in place to keep budgets balanced and future
spending controlled, as a “blow out preventer” for the future. President Obama was famously quoted
as wanting to “just plug the damn hole!” in reference to the BP spill. Well, he’s got a bigger gusher in
his own backyard, is he equally motivated to plug this one?
For business investors and citizens this is arguably the biggest problem we face, we keep ignoring it and
kicking the can down the road for future generations. Our “national business” is facing bankruptcy, we
are “gushing” debt over each citizen and no one seems motivated to “just plug the damn hole!”.
Tom Tierney lives in Encinitas, CA and is a member of Tech Coast Angels (www.techcoastangels.com).
Also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tech_coast_angels for more background information on the TCA.