In this March 7, 2011, file photo U. S. Senators Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga, left, and Mark Warner, D-Va., right, speak before the Virginia Chamber of Commerce in Richmond, Va. The two are leading a bipartisan partnership of six senators tasked with tackling a deficit crisis that has forced the government to borrow more than 40 cents of every dollar it spends.
BOB BROWN, ASSOCIATED PRESS
We're in a pickle. That's a grand old phrase from the 1900s. It served to explain that we had a problem, but with an added twinkle of hope that there was a way out.
A real sour pickle we're deailing with now is our indebtedness to foreign countries, amounting to $5.4 trillion, with China and Japan holding 42 percent of it. What if these nations suddenly demanded their cash? Another is our national debt, $16 trillion.
Well, folks, the solution seems very plain, with only two choices: (1) just keep adding zeroes or (2) recognize our situation, study the best way out and carefully make our way to safety.
Don S. Robertson
Spanish Fork
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Mr. Robertson, I didn't think anyone could propose a more vague solution to our nation's fiscal problems than Mitt Romney and the Republicans, but you've done it. Congratulations.
The U.S. is by the far the largest export market for both China and Japan. Neither country has any interest in inflicting severe damage to our economy, which would also inflict severe damage on their own. That doesn't mean we don't have a More..
When I think of the phrase, 'in a pickle,' I usually think of baseball, when a baserunner is caught off base, and has to run back and forth, dodging all the fielders trying to tag him out. What you can't do, in that situation, is More..