We got a clue last week just how serious — or unserious — our so-called leaders in Washington are about addressing the nation’s debt crisis.

On Wednesday, the Congressional Budget Office issued an alarming report pointing to the urgency of dealing with the burgeoning national debt.

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House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, right, decided he didn't like the way Vice President Joe Biden's "bipartisan" debt-reduction negotiations were going and stopped negotiating last week. At left is Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio. Associated Press file

On Thursday, Republicans decided they didn’t like the way Vice President Joe Biden’s “bipartisan” debt-reduction negotiations were going and stopped negotiating.

Both Republican negotiators, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia and Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, bailed on a scheduled negotiating session, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said, in effect, there was no reason to talk because there was nothing to talk about.

The sticking point, in a word: taxes.

“I think I can safely say this Congress is not going to raise taxes,” McConnell said Wednesday, “so why are we still talking about it?”

And on Thursday, they weren’t.

The argument is as entrenched as the debt itself. Democrats want to balance the budget and attack the national debt with tax increases. Republicans believe that tax hikes are counterproductive, that the road to debt relief is paved with massive spending reductions and tax cuts that will spur economic growth.

It’s a disagreement that has “standoff” written all over it.

FAMILIAR CHARACTERIZATIONS

Some news reports out of Washington suggested that last week’s GOP boycott of the debt-reduction talks Biden is leading on behalf of President Obama was more setup than breakup, with Republicans trying to gain the upper hand by portraying Democrats as taxing-and-spending enemies of the people.

It’s a characterization that many Americans find plausible, which is one of the reasons Republicans won control of the U.S. House of Representatives in last November’s election.

Now, though, the electorate may be getting frustrated with what it sees as Republican intransigence. One recent poll suggested that many Americans are as dissatisfied with the current Congress as they were with its predecessor.

Voters wanted action and what they’re getting instead is political posturing.

Both political parties are guilty, of course, and Obama has done little to advance the process. The president’s choice of Biden to head up the debt talks, in fact, has so far looked more like a recipe for gridlock than a serious attempt to find common ground.

And while our elected representatives serve up catchy quotes — McConnell chided Democrats by asking, “What planet are they on?” — the Aug. 2 deadline for raising the nation’s debt ceiling looms ominously on the horizon.

It’s hard to separate the political fear-mongering from the legitimate concern, but most experts seem to agree that failing to extend the current limit on federal borrowing — from $14.3 trillion, if you can fathom such a number — will be problematic for the economy, if not disastrous.

Like it or not, Congress has to raise the limit so that the government can keep making interest payments and continue selling bonds that bankroll the country’s fiscal obligations.

Republicans can posture all they like about refusing to raise the debt limit, but they know that in the end it has to be done and it will be done.

PLAYING CHICKEN

Obama and the Democrats know it, too. The only question is whether the two sides will play chicken to the bitter end, as they did when they nearly shut down the government over budget disagreements in April, or work out a deal that averts a potential crisis and moves the country in the direction of fiscal sanity.

McConnell says there will be no tax cuts. Democrats say they will not go along with gutting federal services in the interest of debt reduction. Great talking points. Excellent debate material at election time.

Lousy public policy.

It’s time for Republicans and Democrats to put aside ideology and partisan gamesmanship. It’s time for Obama — the theoretical leader of the country — to come off the bench and take charge of the negotiations his VP has driven into the ditch. It’s time for all concerned to get serious.

If they need inspiration, Congress and the president might look to the great state of Maine, where Republicans and Democrats in the Legislature hammered out a budget deal that featured significant concessions on both sides — and which, in the end, the Republican governor grudgingly accepted as a step in the right direction.

If, for the good of the country, the folks in Washington would get together and work out a similar compromise, maybe we could put it on a bumper sticker: As Maine goes, so goes America.

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