President Obama Tries To Avoid Government Shutdown

Let's get one thing straight. I love President Barack Obama. There's not a whole lot he can do wrong in my book; I'm an abashed, unapologetic Obama lover.

But, given all that love, I would not want to be him right now. He's on the cusp of a monumental budget battle that, if left unsolved, could virtually shut down government operations by March 4. Then, there's that record $14 trillion national debt -- and counting.

It's a political and budget nightmare, as Congress weighs what to cut, and whether to raise the national debt limit. The political lines have already been drawn in the sand, with both sides jockeying for control. Republicans want bigger budget cuts; Democrats want less. And Obama is trying his best to staunch massive red ink, as the nation careens to a deficit that, for the very first time, will equal more than the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or the amount of goods the U.S. produces each year.

So not good.

And Obama is right in the thick of it. He's got to juggle a massive budget deficit, weighing big entitlement expenses like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, as he laid out Tuesday during a press conference about the 2012 budget. He compared the nation's fiscal crisis to the economic crisis many Americans face daily. Difficult decisions must be made.

"This is not a matter of, `you go first, I go first,'" President Obama said. "It's a matter of everybody having a serious conversation about where we want to go and then ultimately getting in that boat at the same time so it doesn't tip over."

Couldn't agree with you more, Mr. President. Now, I'm sure the Becks and Limbaughs of the world will be busy today tearing to shreds everything in Obama's $3.73 trillion budget plan. They'll demonize it, I'm sure, for catering to Democrats, for its spending freezes on domestic programs and higher taxes on the wealthy.

It's enough to make anyone buckle under the pressure, especially when you consider that the nation had a surplus when President George W. Bush entered office. The president's actions on health care last year have already whittled the budget by billions. And a government shutdown if a deal isn't reached before March 4 is a very real, a dilemma not seen since 1944.

But you know what? It makes me admire Obama so much more. He's asking for bi-partisanship to get tackle all of these nasty problems, and it's what's needed right now.

"The key here is for people to be practical and not score political points," he said. "That's true for all of us."

Couldn't have said it better myself, Mr. President.