A deficit of leadership: economic leadership is vital to a recovery.

• Author: Gochnour, Natalie
• Position: Economic Insight

I had the privilege recently of visiting our National Archives and viewing George Washington's first inaugural address. Yes, I'm talking about the real document ... yellowed parchment, faded ink, handwritten cursive and brilliant content. It begins, "Among the vicissitudes incident to life no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was transmitted by your order ..." Washington had received notice that he was elected the first president of the United States. He was nervous, humble and ready to serve.

During this same visit to our nation's capital, I felt an uncomfortable disparity between the Washington I was experiencing and the inaugural speech of the city's namesake. Everyone within the beltway is bickering. Everyone is pointing fingers. And no one is listening. Many seem cocky, flippant and self-serving. Nowhere is this dynamic more evident than in the talk about our nations burgeoning budget deficit.

Elected leaders quote with ease various stats about the deficit-what it was a few years ago, what it is today and what it will be tomorrow. Deficit spending is the talk of the town in a town that loves to talk. And everyone is talking about the federal government's spending problem.

While I admire their command of the numbers, and even share their concern about our nation's fiscal problems, I hear something else behind their words. The deficit talk is what they want me to hear, but my instincts tell me something else. My reality radar is beeping. The budget deficit talk is veneer. The lack of leadership is the real message.

Our nation suffers from a budget deficit, but the leadership deficit is the more chronic and serious problem. Now, more than any time in my lifetime, we need economic leadership in Washington, D.C.

Most economists agree that the risk of a new economic downturn is very high. A series of painful and unfortunate events and a crisis of confidence are to blame. In the spring it was surging gasoline prices and the shocks from the Japanese earthquake. This summer it was the debt ceiling talk and an unfortunate Standard and Poor's downgrade of...