Americans have taken Obama’s battle-cry literally and started calling their lawmakers to put pressure on Congress to find a compromise over the debt limit crisis, which gets more divisive with Obama’s threats to veto a rival Republican plan.
Congress officials said the Capitol Hill’s phones were ringing off the hook and government websites were also experiencing heavy traffic with a large number of people trying to contact elected officials after President Barack Obama’s nationwide address, Associated Press reports.
On Monday, Obama criticized Republicans for stalling the talks and refusing to accept a balanced approach, and turned to the public for help in pushing through a deal on its debt. Republican Speaker John Boehner hit back, accusing Obama of spending beyond the country’s means and expecting ‘a blank check’.
It is still unclear whether the callers support President Obama’s approach or the Republican plan revealed by John Boehner, but the wide public response signals the growing dissatisfaction with the speed with which the decisions are made in Congress.
As Congress has less than a week until the devastating default deadline, the two parties are locked in a dispute over whether spending cuts or tax hikes are the answer to the debt crisis. But US Congress candidate Dan O’Connor says that in their debate both sides have ignored a key point.
“I think a lot of the politicians in DC – and this is both Republican and Democratic politicians – they continue all to neglect the biggest tax, and that’s an inflation tax, this is a perennial tax,” he said. “It is not politically beneficial for them to mention this because they benefit from this tax, because that’s a hidden tax, and they don’t have to impose it, they don’t have to vote on it.”
Dan O’Connor says both Democrats and Republicans allow the Federal Reserve to continue to print money constantly.
“We saw the biggest printing spree in the history of the world in the past few years,” he said. “We see the cost of living skyrocketing, we see the cost of gas skyrocketing. But none of the politicians in DC want to talk about this issue.”
Dan O’Connor believes everyone in DC should be shouldering the blame for this.
“[Politicians] just support one of the biggest bailouts in American history, and they are getting away with it. And the American people have essentially forgotten about the bailouts, but this is a complete transfer of wealth from the hands of the government into the large corporations and the banks.”