Its July the 29th and time seems to be running out.

On August 2nd our country could see an event it hasn't witnessed before: America in default.

Keeping up with the proceedings of the debt debate and who has the better plan has been an exhausting enterprise.  Listening to the bitter squabbling from each side, the push and pull of the issues and the non-stop blame-game is beyond tiresome and gives the average citizen no hope for learning anything of value nor expecting anything postive to come of all the wrangling. For the first time, the issue of raising the debt ceiling has become front page news and the front-line fighting between the Democrats and Republicans, the House and the Senate seems to be all we ever hear about.

The fact that this has become the number one news issue just makes our government look even more like two warring factions, both set on taking over this piece of the world and not caring if they destroy it in the process. As so many people have pointed out, this is  NOT the first time the debt ceiling has been raised and no one has done it more times than Republican presidents,  but yet they will not admit it or own up to it being a solution this time and I can only account for it this way: 'whatever we have done or said in the past, now we will fight for the opposite side since that goes against you'.

How many times have journalists, analysts, former advisors been quoted as saying how irresponsible these actions are and making a crisis out of whole cloth is just another political power move that serves no purpose. If everyone else knows that, why do we allow this stalling and metaphoric heels-in-the-sand?

These two branches have lost touch so completely with the American people and what we really want and need and what should be happening and so easily could be happening to strengthen our country and our economy that they are more like the Hatfields and the McCoys, up in the mountains, cut off from the civilized world around them, fighting their fight having long ago forgotten why it started and no one to tell them that so much time has past that everyone who ever was connected to the original issue is long dead. They don't care that the fight is moot, they just like the fight itself.

Supposedly our elected officals are educated and experienced, but we see no evidence of that lately. President Obama has a hope of bipartisanship that requires intellect and common sense and true service to the people to ever have a hope of succeeding. Its a nice dream. He's grabbing at dust in the middle of a cyclone. He cares too much and needs to care a little less about all their sensibilities and opinions as they seem to have no care for his. Its way past time to take control and tell them all what HE wants done and not the other way around.

 Journalists and political writers much more informed than I continue to state over and over that this whole "crisis" is a non-issue. That Republicans are using it to force the Senate to make concessions that they will then turn around and use against them. Sounds familiar and has become an irrevocable part of the GOP's never-ending game playing. Destroy the economy to put the blame on the current administration and then turn around and say to the American people "Look, see? We told you. You should have listened to US."

And underlying all this is the real bone of contention for the GOP: the tax breaks for the wealthy and big oil. Clinton already proved that raising the tax for the wealthy and bringing the cash flow back into the US created jobs and still made the rich money. How much more common sense do they need to have shoved in their face? And why protect the top 2% of the country and destroy the remaining 98%? The wealthy spend their money overseas and the rest of us spend it here. I can't help seeing that as a DUH moment that just doesn't penetrate.

I will never claim to understand a political agenda that goes against most all Americans and eats away at our infrastructure while ignoring anything close to resembling common sense and straight-forward business sense.

And since no one can say there was any common sense working in the Hatfields and the McCoys' clan war that allowed it to continue for over 100 years, my comparison stands.