President Obama and Speaker John Boehner went on television and cable this evening, with only eight days to go before default, and the danger of America’s credit being downgraded even before August 2, if it seems as if no agreement can be reached.
Obama made it clear that compromise was essential, and that the Tea Party Movement could not be allowed to hold America hostage, and therefore called for an extension of the debt limit to 2013, along with substantial budget cuts, but with some revenue increases.
Speaker John Boehner, on the other hand, showed no willingness to compromise, and seemed literally held hostage by the Tea Party radicals despite having earlier been involved in negotiations with the President, which he ultimately walked out on, similar to what House Majority Whip Eric Cantor also did.
Obama said an agreement MUST be reached within two to three days, and it is clear that the President MUST take action as soon as possible, no matter what the Republicans in the House do.
So, as stated in earlier entries, the President MUST assert himself and save the country from economic collapse, and the only way may very well be what some scholars and former President Bill Clinton have now said can be done–invoke the 14th Amendment, Section 4–which requires payment of all government debts.
Such an action, as made clear earlier, will cause a firestorm of protest, and likely might lead to moves to impeach the President–a sad, tragic event, but one that many in the radicalized House of Representatives have been itching for!
So let them go ahead and do it, with the certainty that the Senate would not convict him, and it would only make the GOP look even worse, and undermine their chances to keep control of the House of Representatives, gain the majority in the Senate, and win the White House.
Barack Obama would be put through Hell symbolically, but then he really has been already for the past two and a half years. It is time for him to show guts and courage like Harry Truman and Franklin D. Roosevelt in attacking the opposition in their times, and it is certain that the American people at large would come to the support of the President if he took action, and were he to face impeachment.
There is no time for delay, as the country’s economic future is at stake.
I have no idea how this is going to play out… but it’s starting to look bad.
The president could use his authority under the constitution to make sure that the US pays its debts. The danger with that it is that all the Glenn Becks and other scaremongering clowns on talk radio could point to that and say, “see! I told ya! Hitler!” I’m not sure how that would end up. It could drive a significant chunk of the Republican Party so far to the right that that group would effectively opt out, voluntarily, from American politics for a generation. Which would be ***fine***. But it could swing the other way too, possibly giving the Republicans a shot at taking back the center of American politics, which is what they need to do to get back into power. In either case it might provoke a constitutional crisis between the legislative and executive branches…. I don’t think that’s how the president will play this though. He’s a cautious, centrist, pragmatist politician, like Kennedy. Radical moves like that aren’t his MO.
Or maybe the congress will get its business together and do the right thing… I don’t know though… there are alot of inexperienced, blow hard, and frankly ignorant junior represenatives in the House. They probably really will lose their job next election if they compromise with the president, because alot of them got where they are by attacking from the right, so they don’t want to let anyone get to the right of them. They have a pretty powerful motivation to not compromise, and not much to lose (anymore than all of us have to lose, that is) by forcing a default. I like to think there will be a face saving compromise at the last minute but who knows… maybe these clowns really are serious.
Mitch McConnell’s idea is starting to look like it might not be so bad, actually. I mean it’s weird and sad but it lets the President do what needs to be done and it lets the Republicans not do what needs to be done, which is what everybody wants I guess.
I really hope these guys know what they’re doing. This is starting to get frightening. I really think Boehner is a pragamatist, like Obama, but he can’t get on TV and say “I couldn’t do the deal I wanted because my own guys wouldn’t let me.” That will never happen. He has to close ranks with these tea party guys on TV regardless of what he’s saying to them in private… which is probably something like “What the hell are you guys doing?!!??!?!!”
Watching attentively…
What is being overlooked is that the real objective of the Republican party is to do whatever is needed to push us into a second recession and then use the 2012 campaign period to blame Obama. The main objective of Republicans is to make the rich richer at the expense of all the rest of the people.
I was watching the Ed Show today, where Ed mentioned Harry Truman and the 14th amendment (Googled “Harry Truman 14th Amendment) and found your site. I think Obama is playing it playing smart by “appearing” to not want to invoke the 14th Amendment. But behind close doors, I think he has some comfort that he can use it. The only question that I’d like you to answer is this: When should/can he invoke it? Some people were arguing that he only can invoke AFTER we are in some crisis, because if he does it BEFORE it would be deemed as illegal.Any thoughts?
My thought is that he should do it IMMEDIATELY so as to prevent a crisis, and the illegality of it will not matter,although it could lead to impeachment, but he would survive an impeachment trial and it would help him win reelection,as the people would see him on their side, and the Republicans would be seen as evil by sane Americans!