Soo-ee! Call 'em back!

Fellow Americans, the credit rating of our nation has been downgraded, as have agencies inexorably tied to the government (e.g., Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac). The stock market plunged yesterday, and today has been an up-and-down performance on Wall Street. Congress is on its August recess and the President is preparing to vacation on Martha's Vineyard, following his campaign bus tour, of course.

Americans are asking: where's the urgency? More fundamental than that: where's the interest?

Standard and Poors, the rating agency that downgraded the USA from AAA to AA+, cited as a contributing factor to the downgrade its opinion that the US system of government is not capable of addressing the issue of our debt. I take issue with that assertion. Our system is capable; our legislators (at least many of them) and our chief executive, however, appear to lack the interest to fix the problem.

In fact, the Founders, in their incredible, and I would say unique-in-history, wisdom built into the system a method for addressing urgent issues. The President "may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them." (It's in the Constitution. You can read it there, too.) If government intransigence that leads to questionable credit worthiness of the national government and faltering economic markets does not qualify as an extraordinary occasion, I'm at a loss for what does qualify.

It is astonishing that the President's press secretary, Jay Carney, said regarding economic plans and deficit reductions that the President "will be contributing to that process, not driving it or directing it." (http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-most-powerful-man-on-earth/2011/08/08/gIQA49w72I_print.html) As chief executive of the nation, it is his job to set the agenda of the national debate. Mr. Obama proves time and again that he is incapable of that. "Leading from behind" is a description of his leadership style (if it can be called a leadership style) that has been used by the right and left, alike.

It is time that the President heed the calls from the conservatives in the House of Representatives to exercise his constitutional responsibility. Call the Congress into session. Deal with this problem now, not wait until the legislative deadline to cut the deficit that was included in the recently passed debt ceiling hike legislation. If Congress and the President wait, as they did before, the nation will have to live with rushed decisions that rarely produce good results.