Debt Ceiling

From An Economic Crisis To A Constitutional Crisis: The Insanity Of Tea Party Conservative Republicans In The House Of Representatives!

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With Tea Party and conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives holding firmly against any raising of the debt ceiling by raising revenue through tax reform and the ending of tax loopholes, it seems more likely that we may reach a situation where the good faith and credit of the United States could be lost by August 2, leading to a worldwide economic collapse that would put our nation into another Great Depression!

What could be done to prevent this scenario if no agreement is reached between the White House and Congressional Republicans?

As Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner had suggested in May, the 14th Amendment, Section 4, would be a solution, as it guarantees all government debts must be paid, so the debt ceiling would automatically go up without a congressional vote under such a situation.

But now, there are threats of impeachment of the President, first suggested by black Republican conservative Congressman Tim Scott of South Carolina, a member just as looney as Congressman Allen West of Florida in his irrationality!

Of course, there have been threats of impeachment before over ending support of the Defense of Marriage Act; illegal immigration policy; and the “Birther” controversy by other nutty Republicans, and Obama will not let such threats deter him from doing the responsible thing!

But it means we may be moving soon from an economic crisis to a constitutional crisis, and if that is the case, bring it on, as there is no way that Obama would ever be removed from office by a two thirds vote of the US Senate!

The economic survival of the nation is more important than the fruitless move to impeach another President, bringing back memories of the abuse of impeachment by the Republicans against President Bill Clinton in 1998-1999!

The Meaning Of Our 235th Anniversary Of Independence

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The author of this blog can well remember the bicentennial of the Declaration of Independence in 1976, when Gerald Ford was President, and we had just recently come out from under the dual burdens of the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam War.

There was great optimism at the time about the future of the world’s greatest democracy. Unfortunately, that optimism no longer exists.

Instead, we have great pessimism and negativism and partisanship, and we now face the threat of a bankruptcy and default of our government’s finances if the two major political parties cannot overcome their differences and do what is necessary for the national good.

We have tremendous ignorance in this country about the Fourth of July, whereby only 58 percent know its significance as the day we declared our independence to the world wide community of nations.

And we have tremendous propaganda about the Founding Fathers, who gave us the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, making them out to be god like, and also to have the views of right wing Republican conservatives, which all of them would have been horrified to imagine was the image being taught and propagated about them.

The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, despite what the right wing conservative Republicans claim, believed in a “United States”, not thirteen independent states going their own way, and the experiment with the Articles of Confederation proved how inept a government was that promoted so called “states rights”!

The concept that the Tea Party Movement promotes that they represent the true meaning of the Declaration and the Constitution is preposterous, as the Founding Fathers promoted the idea of a government of the people, not the states, and wanted the authority to promote effective and responsive government to secure life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness!

That required a national government to promote the general welfare, justice, common defense, and the blessings of liberty. States rights were not primary, whether in 1787 or at the end of the Civil War in 1865!

The ultimate conclusion is that the Declaration of Independence was not condemning government or taxes. It was not promoting anarchy or reckless behavior, but rather responsible government that dealt with reality for the common good!

The Shutdown Of Minnesota Government: Is It A Microcosm Of What Will Happen With The US Government?

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Minnesota certainly is the center of controversy recently, what with the contested Senate race between Senator Al Franken and former Senator Norm Coleman in 2008-09; the decision of former Governor Tim Pawlenty to run for President after having presided over a $5 billion dollar state budget deficit; and Congresswoman Michele Bachmann embracing the Tea Party Movement and suddenly emerging as a serious Presidential candidate for the Republican Party.

But now, Minnesota may be a microcosm of what will happen nationally, as the Democratic Governor Mark Dayton, faced with a Republican state legislative majority in both houses, has become engaged in a battle over the budget, forcing the shutting down of much of the Minnesota state government and many of its functions!

Dayton insists that those citizens with more than $1 million income, three one hundreds of one percent of the population, about 7,700 individuals, pay higher taxes, so that budget cuts on education, health care and other essential programs, be limited.

But the Republican legislature, just as on the national level, refuses to consider ANY tax increases, so Dayton is playing it tough, showing courage and conviction!

In a way, it is a microcosm of President Bill Clinton fighting the Republican Congress in 1995, and winning the struggle over Speaker Newt Gingrich and Majority Leader Bob Dole, after a shutdown lasting a couple of weeks.

The Minnesota debacle may go on for a long time, but Dayton is becoming a model for President Obama, who needs to stand up to the Republicans over the debt limit crisis.

Since constitutionally, the 14th Amendment, Section 4, allows the government to pay its debts no matter whether or not the Congress formally raises the debt ceiling, Obama should declare he will use that constitutional method and wait for the GOP to bend, as they must, or else we have reached a reality level that we are a plutocracy, where the rich dominate and dictate to the rest of us, and that CANNOT be allowed!

Talking tough at his press conference, and comparing the procrastination of the opposition party to his daughters doing their homework ahead of time, Obama angered the Republicans, who did not appreciate being compared to children, but that is exactly what they are doing–acting childish, and not doing their job, and having the gall to suggest that Obama should not do anything other than deal with the fiscal crisis, while in fact, he has to deal with multitudes of issues all of the time, unlike them, who take many holiday breaks and vacations!

Obama has taken fewer vacations or holiday breaks than George W. Bush or Ronald Reagan, both infamous for constant vacations and holiday breaks, sometimes leaving the impression that they were away from their responsibilities more than they were on the job!

Mr. President, use Governor Dayton of Minnesota as a model, and give the Republicans “hell” as Harry Truman used to do, and you will win the battle of public opinion as Bill Clinton did in 1995!

Grover Norquist: The Biggest Enemy Of A Stable Economic Future!

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Grover Norquist is a name that most people will not know, but he is, at this point of time, the most dangerous man in America, as the biggest enemy of a stable economic future!

Norquist heads the Americans For Tax Reform lobbying group, the most powerful organization aggressively pursuing denial of ANY tax increases in any form for ANY reason. He does not care anything at all about the debt crisis and the urgency of dealing with the extension of the debt ceiling by August 2, which if not accomplished will cause a massive collapse of the American and world wide economy!

To Norquist, the goal is always to cut taxes to the bone, to “starve the beast”! Whether it is defense, social security, medicare, medicaid, the environment, education, health care, government agencies, or whatever, Norquist insists that government must live on less, despite the reality of the world we live in!

All government would have to cut spending by up to 40 percent immediately were we to follow the advice of Norquist, a totally irresponsible and reckless action! Unfortunately, the Republicans in both houses of Congress seem enslaved by his lobbying activities, and are committed to refuse to consider ANY tax adjustments, and so the die is cast, and we will be facing a far greater economic collapse now than in 2008, if there is not some bending on the part of Republicans!

As Barack Obama stated today in his press conference, both the Democrats and Republicans have to be willing to sacrifice some of their “sacred cows”, in order to come up with a solution. Some spending must be cut, but some tax increases and adjustments are also unavoidable!

Paul Krugman And Robert Reich Challenge Obama: Stop Giving In To Opposition Republicans!

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Leading liberal, progressive voices such as NY Times columnist Paul Krugman, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics and Professor of Economics at Princeton University, and Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary under Bill Clinton, and Professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, have called upon President Obama to stop giving in to Republicans, as they claim he did in December’s and this month’s budget deals.

They call upon the President to work against the temptation to copy the Republicans on the budget issue, and instead call for tax increases on the top two percent, and support the Medicare and Social Security system by recognizing that we must all have shared sacrifice and expect the closing of tax loopholes and the raising of taxes on the middle class, which should have gone up during the Bush administration to cover the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the prescription plan for seniors, all of which was paid for with borrowed money.

This is a bold statement by both, and one awaits Barack Obama’s reaction to the Paul Ryan plan to change Medicare to a voucher system and avoid any new taxes.

The Obama speech will be made public today, and it may have a great effect on united backing of Obama within his party for the 2012 election, and certainly will frame the debate over the budget and the raising of the debt ceiling, challenges the country faces before the year ends!

The Next Doomsday: May 16! Debt Ceiling Extension Crisis!

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Now that the government shutdown was averted at the last minute this past Friday, April 8, a much more dangerous deadline is looming: May 16.

Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner has declared that by that date it is essential that the Congress extend the borrowing limit, the federal debt ceiling, beyond the present $14.25 trillion limit, or face the inability of the government to pay its bonds and debts on time, an action which could trigger world wide economic repercussions, and make it impossible for the US government to borrow money, because of a technical state of bankruptcy!

Geithner has informed Congress that if federal accounts were moved around, the doomsday scenario could be delayed to July 8 at the latest!

For the government to fall into default would be extremely damaging, both short term and long term, and yet there are the Tea Party radicals in the House of Representatives, and lunatics in the Senate such as Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida who are, seemingly, willing to risk the nation’s future in their ideological struggle against the federal government!

With the ability of the Republicans to filibuster in the Senate, and the Tea Party members of the House unwilling to bend, the battle over extension of the debt limit will center around the Obama Health Care plan, the environment, abortion rights, and other GOP demands that the Democrats have been able to avert in the most recent battle over shutting down the government.

So the likelihood of the economic revival going on smoothly seems less likely over the rest of this year, and then the 2012 budget plan presents the next crisis, if we ever resolve the debt limit crisis now facing us in the next month to three months!