50. "Credibility." The United States.

  

"A government's credibility is founded on its commitment to pay its debts," says The Economist in a leader.  The credibility of the United States government is now being lost.  Where? Not, certainly, in its commitment to pay its debts. That's as firm as ever. It's being lost in our inability to follow through on that commitment. It's being lost because we're letting a group of quirky politicians take advantage of a quirk in the laws to interrupt the payment of a debt already recognized and for which payment has already been budgeted. Who would have believed that the credibility of the United States would be lost on a quirk?

 You think our debt ceiling is not a quirk? We're the only country to have one. (You can't count Denmark because its ceiling, three times the country's present debt, is meaningless. Ours could be a once-in-a millennium accident.)

How to deal with the people taking advantage of this quirk?  Make the issue our standing in the world, rather than our fiscal responsibility. Make it a belief in the United States of America, her power and her word.  "Haven't you, Republicans, always painted the loss of that as a disaster?" That should put the pressure on them. They can see blame coming, and they certainly don't want it here.

Nor do they want their leaders to lose out in competition with the "world leaders" quoted in yesterday's lNYT ("In World’s Eyes, Much Damage Is Already Done"), whose countries stand to gain in stature if that of the United States is lowered. It's a zero-sum world feast, this "quality or power of inspiring belief." Somebody's always ready to jump on a spill, or see one. How often did De Gaulle tell Europe that this incident or that "cast doubt on America's leadership"?

But we ought to be used to loss of credibility. Think back 75 years. In that span America has probably lost its credibility more times than it's lost its innocence.