False Debt Ceiling Crisis
Republicans have created what they refer to as the debt ceiling crisis. There is no debt ceiling crisis if Republicans vote to elevate the ceiling to honor our nation's debts and obligations. The Tea Party will not permit that to happen. Therefore, the Republicans have created a crisis out of thin air which they are not capable or resolving due to the Tea Party holding the debt ceiling hostage for Democrat support of their conservative agenda. The crisis is of the Republican's making.
To obfuscate this most obvious fact, the Tea Party attempted to create a dependency between the debt ceiling, honoring past debts incurred, and future budgets and the deficits and debt which attend future budgets. But, these are entirely separate issues. There is no logical or rational reason why addressing deficits and debts in future budgets cannot follow elevating the debt ceiling to honor legally incurred past obligations. And that makes the Tea and Republican Party's efforts in this regard, both illogical and irrational.
Republicans have created a crisis, and now are attempting to convince the public that the Democrats are responsible for this crisis. That was the gist of Rep. Boehner's news conference this afternoon, that it is the Democrats who are preventing the debt ceiling from being raised by refusing to accept Republican terms for hostage negotiation. This is pure sophistry.
Rep. Boehner continues to refer to "the debt ceiling crisis", which he and his party created out of thin air for political advantage. (You Tube Video) Voters should reject the notion that the debt ceiling is a crisis. It is in fact, a political invention by the GOP. And voters should hold Republicans responsible for creating this false crisis in the first place.
Democrats have stupidly fallen for the Republican bait, and have become hooked into equating the debt ceiling with future fiscal management. Even President Obama fell for that bait, allowing himself to be reeled into the Republican artificial debt ceiling crisis of Republican making.
The simple reality is, if Democrats decouple the debt ceiling from future fiscal management, insisting on a clean unadulterated bill to elevate the debt ceiling, the Republicans will refuse to vote for that bill, and make themselves the cause of the very REAL negative economic consequences that will follow. Democrats still fear the GOP propaganda machine, and it has muddied and corrupted their ability to objectively assess the political situation. Democrats have now involved themselves in the responsibility for failure to raise the debt ceiling, as Republicans hoped they would.
Now, the politics of the situation have created an economic crisis, out of an issue which never needed to be a crisis at all, honoring American federal obligations previously and lawfully, incurred. It is not too late for Pres. Obama to re-assume his original position of demanding a clean debt ceiling raise bill, or let the consequences fall upon those who refuse his demand. In my opinion, this is the greatest failing of Pres. Obama as president, to date.
Months of valuable time to address a host of other American issues facing the nation, have been put on the back burner, and all because of this false crisis which never should have, nor needed to, become a crisis. While our politicians wrestle over crises of their own making, millions of Americans remain unemployed and millions more fear for the jobs they still have. That is the real crisis our politicians should have been addressing all this time, but, haven't.
American voters have not been presented with a clearer case for voting out incumbents in 2012 since the invasion under false pretenses of Iraq. But, are voters logical and rational enough to exercise their constitutional obligation of responsibility to vote out politicians who mismanage the people's government? We shall see.
Comments Section
6 Comments
Agree, David. The worst thing about this ‘crisis’ is that ‘the vote’ took over Bill O’Riley’s ragalar show this PM. Indeed, the Corpocracy is promoting partisan debates and the folks are eating it up.
I am thinking they will pay essentially nothing down on the debt, thereby maximizing the debt the taxpayer/voter will be stuck with. Paying off the debt at 5% interest rate would cost $40B/mo for 180 some years.
It is noteworthy that there hasn’t been any ‘pork’ placed in these debate bills, which would never have happened without Jeff Flake (Az) beating on this issues for a number of years. And, we don’t know that pork isn’t going on behind closed doors.
The proposal for a balanced budget amendment (BBA) gives us an opportunity to get the long denied Constitutional right, Article V Convention (AVC) before readers. Some representative was suggesting that a BBA was out of the question now as it would take years to get 2/3 legislatures to sign off on a BBA. Apparently the rep is not well versed on AVC. Here is the first topic/article on the http://www.foavc.org AVC website:
//What is Happening to Our Country?
Are you aware that We The People are being denied our constitutional right to an Article V Convention to propose amendments, despite a whopping 400+ (or more) Article V applications from the state legislatures of 49 of all 50 states? Only 34 (i.e. two thirds) are required. So why has Congress ignored the Constitution? We need your help. If you want to help reclaim our constitutional rights, then you have come to the right place.//
And, it’s good to hear you beating the drum for ‘voting incumbents from office in great numbers’. Also, great to see the Tea Party reps stand their ground on the deficit. We’ll see if they are still poking a stick in the GOP eyes when they have to stand for election and start looking for campaign funds. You would think the public will be willing to vote some from office because of the failure to compromise on the deficit.
Otherwise - - -
Roy, very perceptive. The attempt to conflate spending reductions with elevating the debt ceiling, has backfired on Tea Partyers. Had they worked with Obama and Democrats, they could have gotten almost 4 trillion in spending cuts over the next 10 years. What they will get now, if anything at all, is less than 1 trillion. Freshman and naive are words that fit this new batch of Tea Partyers in the House. They didn't recognize a good deal when they had it in the offing.
The one hope remains, that a clean debt ceiling increase will occur, and the deficits reduction, spending and revenue adjustments will follow in a separate legislation that will, in fact, make a meaningful and constructive, (for the current and future economy) contribution to reducing deficits and moving us toward the day when we can actually begin to buy down the debt.
If the Reid Bill passes, a bit more likely today than last night [though still a remote possibility], in lieu of Tea Partyer's failing to pass Boehner's bill, a only about a trillion will be cut from deficits in this package over the next 10 years. Which is probably what most Democrats and Republicans really want, since they won't have to alienate constituents with burdensome spending cuts. Looking more and more like a sham and charade by both parties to do anything meaningful, in the short term, regarding deficits.
Agree, David. Maybe we should start with Dodd and Frank. Seems their Restoring America’s Financial Stability Act has proved to be another charade.
According to this website no Wall Streeter’s have gone to jail. A few have been harassed by Justice. The Raj fellow was being investigated before the crash, so he doesn’t count.
We could include the rep’s and senator’s for their poor performance going back 30 years or so. Most recent relative to the deficit debates. And, these guys have been running this huge patronage system covering every segment of the economic system. Tax breaks for you, farm subsidies for me and so on. . . hundreds upon hundreds of tax revenue giveaway programs for the main purpose of securing patronage/votes. Something for everyone in this list. And the congress seems to be unable/unwilling to whack or diminish funding for any one of them.
Otherwise - - -
First David great subject and article, so very true this "false debt ceiling crisis" title. 75 times or so and now it is a crisis, go figure. The problem is other than your post here it seems most of the pundits and opinion makers has overlooked the obvious answer to this problem.
I think the dems not only fear the propaganda machine of the conservatives, they also fall for the misinformation, half truths and outright lies almost as much as the conservative movement followers themselves. That being said the dems are still their own worst enemy, IMHO. First of all there isn't but a nickel's difference between the two parties despite the posturing. The dems have conceded much ground on many issues over the years as well as embracing many repub issues as there own. Second the dems are to weak to really fight the conservative's on the issues many times, as they are much more divided than the repubs, let alone the conservative propaganda machine. But mostly the dems are just muddled without the help of the repubs, the conservatives, or the propaganda machine. They do it to themselves IMHO.
J2T2,
Yep, have to agree. I think I know the reason why, too. Absence of education. Our representatives, Dem and Rep., are, as a majority, uneducated in finance and economics. The major issues facing our nation are economic and financial in nature. These representatives are not trained to distinguish fact from fiction, and reality from ideology, in these areas. Yet, they are the elected ones who have to both draft and vote yea or nay on these economic and financial matters.
Yes, they have the CBO and OMB to advise them, but, what the CBO and OMB have to advise, often stands in contradiction to what their constituents and local media are presenting as the issues and fact set. Given the choice, politicians will side with their constituents, all other things being equal, and sometimes even when unequal. Every analysis of what's wrong with our government comes back, for me, to the political system being fundamentally flawed in structure.
The politicians are in charge of governing the political structure. No where else in our society do we allow vested interests to oversee and regulate their excesses in this manner. And there is the source of the failure of our government and the political system that underwrites it. The end result is obvious. Those with the money and connections to politicians through a host of agent interlopers, control the system by and large, leaving the nation as a whole and the majority of the citizenry in a slowly sinking ship of state.
That's my take anyway.
Roy, you are spot on regarding the failure of Justice to dealing with the central actors that brought our economy down.
There's one law for the rich and powerful, and another for the rest of us. For the middle class, bankruptcy is devastating. For the rich and powerful banks facing bankruptcy, there was bailouts using the credit card of the entire tax paying public.
Don't get me wrong, I still know that bailing out the banks was the right thing to do for the best interest of working Americans depending upon a functioning economy for their jobs. But, to bail them out without holding them responsible, was the straw that broke millions of camel's backs.
News has it, a framework has been agreed to by party heads to elevate the debt ceiling. My response is, the devil is in the details, and I won't believe a deal has been struck until something concrete as legislation has been signed by the President in this regard. And if it isn't struck, it is the GOP that rightfully owns the negative consequences for failure to raise the debt ceiling, which never should have been tied to future budgeting in anyway.
Public polling approval of Congress now sits at 16%. The anti-incumbent mood of the country is growing, not waning if those poll numbers have any meaning at all. The people are wanting to hold someone responsible. Will they hold their own representatives responsible? We shall see. I won't hold my breath, but, I will work, to make it a reality.