by Glenn Mollette

Americans can breathe a sigh of relief but not for long. We've kicked the financial crisis can down the road for at least three more months.

Our budget deficit, debt ceiling and American leadership crisis reminds me of a game we used to play in the creek as a child. Someone would count while we held our breath under water. It was only a matter of time. We couldn't stay under forever.

It seems like the average American is holding his or her breath today. Time is ticking while our faces are becoming bluer by the moment.  How many more trillions of debt can we stand? Our paychecks are shrinking all the more as we are crunched with another trillion dollars in debt. Our sigh of relief is short lived as our heads are actually being pushed under, much deeper and far longer than we can survive as a nation.

In response to this brutal drowning of America we stand back shrugging our shoulders and wagging our heads. What else are we going to do? Many of us made it to the polls to vote and we will be back there to vote next time. We write letters, call our representatives and senators and feel like screaming bloody murder. What good does it do us? Our nation continues to spend what we do not have and cannot afford.

If our outgo exceeds our income then our upkeep will be our downfall.

America needs to make a simple adjustment. We need to spend what we take in and not more than we take in. This simple adjustment works for individuals, families, businesses, and so forth.

When we spend more than we take in we accumulate debt that makes life tougher for us. We have to pay the debt back so this actually gives us less money to live on. Every few months our country is making it tougher and tougher on all Americans because we are accumulating more and more debt which is devouring the income we have.

Average Americans make house and car payments. However, our payments must be based on our income and what we can afford. Our government is incurring more and more debt and it's not based on the national income nor what our country can afford.

America will take in 2.7 to three trillion dollars over the next twelve months. I would suggest to our leaders that we formulate our budget based on what we expect to receive. In the meantime why don't we create more income for our nation by creating more good jobs that will in turn create more income for America? We need to stop the flow of jobs slipping away to Mexico and other countries while our government taxes America's diminishing middle class more and more. It's time for new leadership in America. We can't hold our breath any longer.
 
Glenn Mollette is an American columnist read in all fifty states. Contact him at GMollette@aol.com.

Like his facebook page at www.facebook.com/glennmollette and find his books at barnesandnoble.com.

.