Skip to main content  Listen up, Washington; we've been there
Numbers tick upward on the National Debt Clock on Sixth Avenue
in New York on July 26, as the August 2 deadline nears.   • CNN
asked longtime Washington figures to give advice on debt
standoff   • Arlen Specter: President should invoke 14th
Amendment to exceed debt limit   • David Stockman: The crisis is
the debt, not the ceiling; deficits must be lowered   • Bill
Frenzel: Congress should pass competing bills, then reconcile
them  (CNN) -- CNN has invited prominent former leaders and
policymakers to offer their advice on the debt crisis standoff
in Washington. Here are their thoughts.  Alan K. Simpson, a
Republican, served as a U.S. senator from Wyoming from 1979 to
1997. He was co-chairman of the National Commission on Fiscal
Responsibility and Reform, a bipartisan panel established by
President Obama to find ways to reduce the federal debt.  Along
with most Americans, I'm frustrated and frankly disgusted by
what is going on in Washington right n