Washington Agenda, July 11

In the middle of agonizing negotiations, Democrats and Republicans will continue with their intentions in order to reach common ground that would allow the debt ceiling to be raised and to reach a difficult agreement to reduce the debt by $4 trillion over the next 10 years.

Over the weekend, Barack Obama remained very closely informed of the complicated negotiations in which the economic stability of the country is at play. Not only is the economic stability at play, but also the credibility of Obama as a leader of a nation that, if it fails in its negotiations, could negatively impact stock markets the world over.

If the United States fails in raising the debt ceiling, it will begin sliding down a slope toward a new crisis due to the suspension of payment, the first in history.

The need to reach an agreement will be defended again this Monday by President Obama himself during a press conference in which he will appeal to the responsibility of the Democrats and Republicans.

“If [Congress doesn’t] act, then we face catastrophic damage to the American economy,” said the Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner, in a message dominated by urgency and worry.

The sense of urgency that the Obama administration has used has become sharper after the release last week of the latest unemployment statistics. They confirmed the incapacity of the economy to absorb the army of unemployed (more than 8 million) that has left in its wake the worst recession since the 1930s and that maintains unemployment at 9.2 percent.

Over the course of the next few days, Democrats and Republicans must demonstrate if they are capable of putting the good of the citizens above their electoral aspirations. In the case of Obama, the urgency of instilling a degree of confidence in the economy necessary to recuperate the stock markets and job-creation has become a question of life or death in the face of the presidential elections in 2012, when he will play his odds at a second term.

In the margin of the negotiations to elevate the debt ceiling and reduce the deficit, the United States has begun the countdown to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

With this in mind, Congress has organized a series of audiences to determine how much the United States has learned from its errors after a tragedy that ended forever the sense of invulnerability of the world’s most powerful military force and launched the nation into a permanent state of war.

The fortification of security systems, the capacity to prevent future attacks, the revision of intelligence systems and the capacity of the United States to commence a dialogue that will stop marginalizing the most radical sectors of Islam will dominate the agenda this week of the hearings and conferences dedicated almost entirely to a review of the first 10 years after the September 11 attacks.