Everyone must remember this story from their childhood.  It is a story of a little boy who found it amusing to cry, "Wolf!" at the top of his lungs.  He would do this in the field behind the village and the villagers would all come running to protect the child.  But the child was never in any danger.  This was amusing only to the child.  The villagers became weary of interrupting their work to verify that the child was alright.  Then came one day when there really was a wolf.  The boy cried, "Wolf!" and nobody came.  The wolf killed the child.  The moral of course is that you never cry "Wolf!" unless there is really a wolf around because the time when it is finally true, no one will believe you and the consequences could be real.

Is this what is happening in Washington right now?  Since early in the Clinton Administration we have heard from the White House and the Congress one cry of 'wolf' after another.  Everything has been a crisis.  Everything that has been brought forward that required negotiation and consideration has been prefaced with the recognition of the shortage of time for consideration.  TARP, the Stimulus, Continuing Resolutions and now the Debt Limit.  With each of these pieces of legislation there has been a demand for the Congress to act before a date certain.  We watched as this happened with TARP and although much of TARP has been repaid, many remain unconvinced that there ever should have been a bank bailout.  Then came the Stimulus.  This had to happen immediately.  There was no debate.  There couldn't be debate.  The stimulus was emergency legislation that must be passed immediately or dire consequences would result.  In March 2010 it was a Continuing Resolution that had to be passed to fund the government.  A shutdown was imminent and the Congress again had to act before the government ran out of money.  This was a crisis.  This was an emergency.  Now we have the Debt Limit.  The negotiations have been taken to the eleventh hour.  The President did nothing initially but to ask the Congress to raise the limit unconditionally.  Republicans said, "No, we must have spending cuts.  

The fact that our Debt Limit was $14,3 Trillion was no secret to anyone, especially Barack Obama.  When Obama pushed through his Stimulus, when he pushed through Obamacare and when he pushed through that Continuing Resolution, that limit was already there.  When he presented his 2012 Recommended Budget, the limit was there and he did nothing to manage spending in that budget.  His apparent expectation was that the Congress would rubber stamp his request and allow that Debt Limit to climb to $16 Trillion or $17 Trillion with the one condition that this not be done in an election year.  Horrors that the true face of a politician should ever be exposed during an election year.

Did the stimulus need to be passed for signature in Feb 2009?  No.  The country would have benefit from a number of months of debate on this issue given the abject failure this $800 Billion legislation has been.

Did Obamacare need to be passed so quickly?  Yes, but only for a partisan political reason.  The Senate Majority Leader knew that with the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts that he no longer had a filibuster proof Senate.  It was more important for him to have bad legislation pass than it was for him to allow debate and perhaps save this country from another Congressional debacle.  Did the House cooperate with the Senate?  Yes.  They too preferred bad legislation over the possibility that the legislation be stopped.  This matter was so urgent that we have a famous quote for American History, one that will rank there with Nathan Hale who said, "My only regret is that I have but one life to give for my country."  Patrick Henry said, "Give me liberty or give me death."  John Paul Jones said, "We have only begun to fight."  Washington had his farewell speech, Lincoln the Gettysburg Address.  John F Kennedy asked his countrymen to "not ask what your country can do for you but ask what you can do for your country."  Then finally, there was Nancy Pelosi who said, "We've got to pass the bill so that we can see what is in it."

Did the Continuing Resolution need to be passed so quickly?  No, not really.  The only reason we dealt with a Continuing Resolution at all was because the prior Congress had failed in accordance with their Constitutional mandate to pass a Budget.  They could have.  They had the votes.  What they did not have was the courage to define who they were by passing a budget just prior to the 2010 election.  With the Continuing Resolution the crisis was manufactured.  The Congress was on the eve of shutting down the government unless Democrats could come to agreement with Republicans.  Republicans failed us when they agreed to a solution as a matter of expediency, not political responsibility.  Republicans caved because of the urgency of the "crisis".  

And now we are approaching August 2, 2011.  This is the date provided by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner as the date the government risks default if we do not have the ability to create more debt to finance the dreams of Obama's father.  Crisis!  The result of this crisis is that people have the same doubts those villagers had when the little boy cried, "Wolf!"  How genuine is this date?  How genuine are these cuts that are being promised?  How genuine is this cry for help?  Many don't believe it to be genuine at all.

Regardless of whether the cry is genuine it should be clear to Republicans that a vote to raise the Debt Limit must be within legislation that includes immediate spending cuts (2012), no increase in taxes and a Balanced Budget Amendment.  If these terms are not included, it is not a good deal.  One must always remember when negotiating that one does not give up something for nothing and one must always identify what the something is that they need to make the deal.  If they can't get those three conditions, then the Republicans must walk away.  I would rather that Boehner and McConnell walk away and allow the Debt Limit to remain at $14.3 Trillion until the next election than that they give in another time and fall prey again to the dastardly tricks that are constantly played in Washington.  Democrats, you have cried, "Wolf," once too often.