Let Me Tell You About Sisyphus, and Our National Debt

By Rich Kozlovich

In Greek Mythology Sisyphus was the first King of Corinth, and was known for his cleverness, deviousness, and callous disregard for others, but worse yet, he really offended Zeus because he thought he was more clever than Zeus.  Imagine that. Now that's just unforgivable.  

But in no way was that all he did, he was guilty of committing a lot of crimes, so Hades published him in Tartarus by making him push a boulder up a hill, and then cast an enchantment that made it roll down as soon as he got to the top, and this was an eternal punishment.  Hence the term, Sisyphean Task.

Currently our national debt is over 30 trillion dollars, and no matter how much money the federal government takes in, it's never enough to pay all the bills so it keeps borrowing, and borrowing, and borrowing.  

Now, this isn't a new problem, it was decided in the past all this borrowing and debt wasn't a good thing, and in .....watch out now.....here in comes......in 1917 they created something called a national debt limit which would prevent the federal government from borrowing over a certain amount.  

If that was installed in 1917, how in the world did the debt get so high?  

Well, I'm sure everyone is shocked to hear they found ways around that limit, and in recent years they resolved this problem with something called the '"Gerhardt Rule," a parliamentary rule that deemed the debt ceiling raised when a budget was passed", which was really convenient.  But it was decided that was a bad thing, and when the Republicans took over and Gingrich became Speaker of the House in 1995 that rule was a done away with.  But just like Hades' enchantment that made the rock keep rolling back down hill, it was resurrected when the Democrats took over. 

It's claimed the debt limit has been raised: 

"at least 90 times in the 20th century and 74 times from March 1962 to May 2011, including 18 times under Ronald Reagan, eight times under Bill Clinton, seven times under George W. Bush, and five times under Barack Obama. In practice, the debt ceiling has never been reduced, even though the public debt itself may have reduced."

This has become our ultimate Sisyphean task, only this isn't mythology, it's reality, and this can't, and won't, keep going on eternally.  

It's time the Republican's did something they're not very good at.  Standing firm!  This is the time to force the Senate and the President to either make some massive cuts in spending, or shut down the government and be prepared to defend that position, and that position is defensible.  If they have the guts they can start by demanding the federal government liquidate some it's 150 trillion dollars in assets.  Otherwise, the national debt is the Sisyphean boulder that will keep rolling down the hill, eventually crushing all in it's path.