Opinion: Where Are the Ex-Presidents in Debt Talks?

Thursday, 28 July 2011 | by Pat's Picks

Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus asks a good question in today’s paper: where are all the ex-presidents? As the debt ceiling debate continues without a compromise in sight, Marcus suggests that the “four men alive [who] truly understand the exquisitely Solomonic dilemma facing President Obama” step in and provide some help.

She suggests drafting some sort of public statement that would cover four points: 1) Default is unthinkable. 2) The debt ceiling offers a useful moment for action on the debt. 3) There’s no reason to demand a dollar-for-dollar ratio of spending cuts to increases in the debt ceiling. 4) The current standoff is dangerous. Such an document would be easier for Presidents Clinton and Carter to sign, though both Bushes might have a harder time with it. But, Marcus points out that both father and son “have proved themselves willing, when the occasion called for it, to rise above partisan politics and to throw off ideological straitjackets.”