FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Our growing national debt and the political games being played around raising the debt ceiling have created what's probably the most serious crisis facing the United States right now. And yet President Obama remains pretty much above the fray on the matter. Today he was hosting the president of the West Central African nation of Gabon at the Oval Office. Meanwhile, Vice President Joe Biden was holding a meeting with lawmakers from both parties on the debt ceiling.
The U.S. technically hit the debt ceiling back in April. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has said the government can get by paying its bills for a few weeks until the beginning of August. In the meantime, Republican lawmakers say they will not vote to raise the debt ceiling unless steep and meaningful spending cuts are agreed to.
The Biden-led meeting is part of the debt-ceiling working group the president requested the vice president head up earlier this spring. So far, both sides have agreed to about $200 billion in spending cuts, but that's just a drop in the bucket compared to what some conservatives want. Today, the group was to discuss taxes and entitlements. Good luck on that. Expect talks to continue, and expect them to get ugly.
This all comes on the same day that Fitch Rating Service said it would assign a "junk" rating to all U.S. Treasury securities if the federal government misses debt payments by August 15.
But President Obama was busy hosting the president of Gabon.
Here’s my question to you: Should President Obama become personally involved in negotiations over the nation's debt crisis?
Tune in to the Situation Room at 6pm to see if Jack reads your answer on air.
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