President Barack Obama now faces 2011, “The Year of the Tightrope.”

An emboldened Republican Party now controls the U.S. House of Representatives. Senate Republicans have one eye on 2012 and their other eye on creating legislative havoc. Given this, the president must start this year with a spectacular tightrope walk.

Obama is coming off a successful lame-duck session. He got his tax compromise, repealed “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” achieved passage of the START nuclear control treaty, and demanded and received aid for 9/11 emergency responders who were sickened by dust at Ground Zero.

Now, for this new session of Congress, he must maintain his balance fiscally and politically, while walking a very narrow line “far from the madding crowd,” with no safety net below.

Obama must deal with the trillion-dollar deficit. Different debt-creating expenditures have enraged people on both sides of the political divide. Republicans detest spending on social welfare programs. Democrats detest spending on welfare programs for the wealthiest 2 percent, who got out of having to pay their fair share of taxes. Understanding what caused the deficit  the total spending bill, as well as money to pay for it  is a prerequisite for reasoned debate on controlling our debt.

Before he begins his balancing act, a tightrope walker makes certain his poles are secure and his rope is taut. So, too, must the president avoid the unbalanced poles of “tax  or cut.”

Lawmakers must find ways to get some additional revenue to pay for obligations made during the Bush years, as well as modest spending cuts in programs that might be long past it’s time. According to the bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, the nation cannot slash-cut its way to prosperity. The country needs a proven path — built on the principle of shared sacrifice to get back on the path to fiscal sanity.

However, if lawmakers just start cutting without a serious discussion of the values we ought to embrace, we risk losing our balance. Like a slapstick routine, the president  and we with him  will flail our arms, teeter first one way, then the other, and fall off the tightrope.

Our measuring-stick values must be the same simple American values that got Obama elected in the first place  protect and restore the American dream for all, invest in our children’s future and assist the poor, the sick and the elderly.

Any discussion of spending priorities must also involve the “how.” “How” do we ensure that those American values survive? “How” do we arrange our nation’s priorities so that we not only provide for our security but fulfill our responsibilities to our citizens?

Empowerment for the middle class is one of those universal values the president must focus on. Brutal spending cuts for the middle class are the new mantra for some Republicans. While we, the people, suck it up and suffer, the Republican Leadership, who are blithely beholden to lobbyists and special interests, will act to secure the blessings of prosperity for the wealthy alone. Going in that direction is how we slipped off the high-wire in the first place.

President Obama’s balancing act excludes any falls. He must keep his concentration and focus. He must avoid the GOP’s deliberate distractions from the causes of the recession namely, their irresponsible fiscal policies.

Republicans extorted unpaid “tax cuts” for the rich. (They already amended the Democrat’s “pay as you go” House Rule to exclude paying for tax cuts). They hid the cost of war. They created expensive programs such as Medicare’s prescription drug program and the Department of Homeland Security, without finding means to pay for them.

These irresponsible actions are the causes of our economic turmoil. They constitute the voting legacy of those now holding congressional leadership positions. These policies enfeebled us. They made our knees weak and our feet unsteady. They were why we fell off the economic tightrope we must always walk.

The president’s economic policies must continue to empower the entrepreneur, encourage the enterprising, and enable the energetic middle class’s productivity. Obama will have to get  not just tough, but smart  on spending. Let’s pray he finds the right balance for a nation yearning for solutions, and a Republican Party still intent on seeing one man fail even if the rest of us will suffer.

The president must lead with a commitment to preserving those values he ran on. He must remember the first rule of a tightrope walker: Keep your goal in front of you, and you’ll know where to put your feet.