Opinion: Debt-ceiling negotiations: With the sky falling, is a big-picture deal do-able?

To summarize: He won’t tell us his specific position on any issue; he is willing to talk tough to his party on entitlement reforms but not taxes; he wants a big deal, but didn’t insist, as he had in the past, that it must take us through the 2012 election; and we all need to work together. Did I mention he want us all to work together? You get the drift. At a very fundamental level, persisting in a crucial negotiation without telling the American people what the White House position is with any precision on any issue is unseemly. There is no real means of determining what is going on and, consequently, of holding anyone accountable for the results or lack thereof. What is he willing to do? On what points is he challenging his party? He says to read the news. The press swoons -- we got it right! But which reports are correct: the ones that say he backtracked on entitlement reform, or the ones that say he is larding up the deal with more taxes?

Instead of working towards a compromise as the president has been diligently pushing for, Republican Congressional leaders would rather leave the American people out to dry while they continue to protect the rich. It’s a tired tactic they have utilized for decades, and it’s beyond time we call them out for their hypocrisy, their aversion for the working-class and poor, their blatant support for the wealthy and their desire to risk anything in order to attack the president -- including our nation’s future. The reality is, these individuals will do anything to oppose and disparage this president, even if that means holding the rest of the nation hostage. In an effort to ‘see him fail’, Republicans continue to prove that they will allow us to default on our debt, eliminate fundamental programs or anything else that hurts the American people.

Americans from both parties, and of no party, are sick and tired of partisan gridlock and baby steps. So go ahead, Mr. President: Let’s overhaul Social Security and Medicare. Let’s fix the tax system. Let’s quit spending insane billions on defense. Let’s stop farm subsidies that enrich people for growing the wrong crops, or no crops at all. We need jobs. We need to close the gap between rich and poor. We need to make sure that people who get sick can get medical care. We need immigration reform. We need the government to quit spending like a drunken sailor. Most of all, we need a president who will lead -– and we need people in Congress who will lead with him. So c’mon, Mr. President, and Mr. Speaker, and all you special-interest types and you ‘tea party’ types and you liberal types: Put up or shut up. Let’s be this century’s Greatest Generation.