Sarasota News Leader

11/16/2012

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Sarasota News Leader VICKI COLE, WHERE ARE YOU NOW THAT WE NEED YOU? OPINION November 16, 2012 By David Staats Contributing Writer COMMENTARY On Tuesday, Oct. 22, 1968, the Nixon-Agnew Campaign train en route to To- ledo made a whistle stop in the village of Deshler, OH. The day was chilly by Suncoast standards; the median temperature was only 54 degrees. Among the crowd at the depot was 13-year-old Vicki Cole. She was accompa- nied by her father, Deshler's Methodist minis- ter, and her mother, who taught third grade. Vicki carried a hand-painted sign that read, "Bring Us Together." Its simple plea to unify a nation then divided by the seemingly end- less war in Vietnam, dissatisfaction with the Great Society's direction and cost, regional opposition to the Civil Rights Movement and voting rights legislation, the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the many urban riots that followed in its wake and the assassi- nation of Robert F. Kennedy found resonance with many Americans. It briefly became a Re- publican campaign slogan. Nixon won the 1968 election but failed to unite the country. It is still divided. Today, no party has a clear mandate: Democrats keep the White House for another four years and retain control of the Senate; Republicans have control of the House. Not much has changed since Nov. 5, the day before Election Day. As mentioned, national divisions run deep. In this still tense atmosphere, politicians in the White House and Executive Branch and on both sides of the aisles in the House and Sen- ate would do well to remember Vicki's words. As a practical beginning to this process, both political parties should not hesitate to seek compromise and find common ground on the following five issues: Pass a Long-term Federal Budget. The bud- get assigns spending limits and priorities to federal government programs. Without a clear understanding of, and agreement on, those spending limits and priorities, the government must to resort to deficit spending by raising the debt ceiling and selling Treasury bills and bonds. Those sales will be more expensive for the government as the result of recent down- grades of U.S. creditworthiness. Some rating agencies have said downgrades could contin- ue if, as expected, debt levels rise. The debt ceiling has been raised nine times over the past decade. If debt financing is not approved by Congress, the government will have to shut down. These are irresponsible alternatives. The last "federal budget" was passed in 2009 as an "omnibus spending bill." The two are not the same. Simply put, running the government without a real budget is like driving your car from Sarasota to Tallahassee with no cash or credit cards, a maxed-out debit card and only Page 59

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