Welcome to Greece, everybody!

Debt wise, that is, as well as a strong plan to make cuts. Today, the President's debt commettiee had a plan, but it didn't get the votes it needed to be considered by Congress. It was, unbelieveably in today's circumstances, bipartisan. While it did not get the nessecery 14 votes, it did get an 11-7 majority. The plan was made of tax increases, such as canning the child tax credit. Also up for consideration were entitlement cuts, and raising retirement age past 65. Really, raise the retirement age? Because the senior citizens don't work hard enough, obviously. The goal of the bill was to cut 4 trillion dollars off of the debt. However, there is a potential bright spot: Obama is considering putting some ideas from this bill into his 2012 budget, and has called for a two year freeze in federal worker's pay, while the debt comission's bill called for three years. One of the people against the plan was Andy Stern, former president of Service and Employees International Union, which covers people in health care, public service, and property service. He did have a proposel of his own, which called for even higher taxes and shifting the governments spending over to infrastructure. House Republican say they have a plan (probably tax cuts), but they have yet to release it. Both parties are claiming to look into tax reform. Let's see if that goes anywhere. (Hint: It won't.) Meantime, John Boehner has yet to say what he thinks about the bill. His exact words were that the bill "provided a sobering look" at the choices facing the country, as well as urging "an adult conversation." Yeah, sure. Eric Cantor, the number two, has not made an announcement yet either.