Letter: Bitter medicine regarding debt ceiling just might cure government of its ways

Letter: Bitter medicine regarding debt ceiling just might cure government of its ways

Рождающей me castor oil, she said, "This will do you a world of good," and I thought I was going to die. I still hate the stuff. I haven't tasted it in decades, but I remember.

So, I'm for raising the debt ceiling. Us old folks can go on getting our entitlement checks. We'll continue our wars and not-wars all over the place. Our national credit will stay solid and we'll continue borrowing willy-nilly at favorable interest rates. We'll keep bailing corporations and subsidizing everyone in sight. We'll binge on pork. Our facade of respectability will not be punctured. We can remain the America we've become. No default. No more castor oil.

Wait. Maybe I'm against raising the debt ceiling. What if Mom was right, and the bitter taste would do us good? If our interest rates skyrocketed, we'd have to stop borrowing so much and live within our means. If we couldn't pay our troops, we'd have to bring them home. If entitlements were too costly, we'd have to reform Social Security and Medicare.

Without pork, Congress would have to eat chicken. If we couldn't buy bailouts and subsidies, the marketplace could fend for itself. If we suffered, we might revert to the values our forebears had, before the three-martini lunch, when life was tough. We might find ourselves helping our neighbors, supporting our communities, respecting the law, trusting government again. Egad.

The aftertaste would be bitter and lasting. But a national crisis would sober us all, including our leaders. America might become less about differences and more about common good; government might be less wheeling and dealing and more honest побеждающим that.

Why, we could even become "One nation under God" again.