Today are the debt ceiling and budget talks between President Obama and Congressional leaders but I don't think anything will come of it yet. The Republicans seem to be itching to take the country over the proverbial cliff just to prove Obama is a lousy president and make sure he doesn't get re-elected. They don't seem to mind the prospect of taking the rest of the world's economy along down for the ride.
What I don't understand is why we don't see more in any mass media about a constitutional answer to the debt ceiling game of chicken they seem to be playing. The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution states “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.” Many leading economists, the Treasury Secretary, and even a few Republican Senators think this gives the President the authority to do anything necessary to ensure the nation's debts are paid. Basically he could say the Congress won’t pay the bills so I will, yet we don't hear a thing about it in any of the major media outlets.
This might not sound good, and I'm sorry if it pisses anybody off, but one thing I'm totally tired of is seeing and hearing rich white men with perfect teeth and tans tell us that we all have to sacrifice while they hand the richest Americans bigger and bigger tax cuts. I saw last night that some schools will be going to 4 day school weeks this year because they can't afford to keep the schools open for 5 days a week and yet we hand billions and billions to oil companies, corporate farms, and banks.
Honestly I don't know why some people just can't wake up and see what is happening before we end up a third world country taking handouts wherever we can. Below is a kind of CliffNote of The Rachel Maddow Show from June 27th that for me says it best.
"In 2005, four Republican senators decided to bring back something called PAYGO, basically a rule that says if the government spends something, it has to compensate for that somewhere else in the budget....
And even though four Republican senators, including John McCain, had supported legislation to do that in the past, when President Obama said, “OK, I will do this thing that you want,” those same Republicans decided that they did not want PAYGO anymore....
The idea of Congress setting up a bipartisan blue ribbon panel to work on bringing down the deficit was an idea Republicans had signed on for. Seven Republican senators co-sponsored legislation to establish that sort of commission last year....
And then when President Obama said "I like this idea of yours, let‘s go forward with this" those same seven Republicans decided they were against it....
Same thing on cap and trade. Democrats wanted to just ban certain levels of pollution in the air, but Republicans said, no, no, no, we have to use the market, Cap and trade was the Republican idea. Republicans were for it. Then, so was President Obama. So, now, Republicans are against it....
Democrats wanted to require that businesses cover all of their employees. Republicans said, no, no, we Republicans, we like bumper stickers about individual responsibility.
So, their counterproposal, the Republican idea on health reform was that business would be required to cover all their employees, but individuals, individual responsible, individuals would be required to get insurance.
The individuals mandate, Republicans were for it. Then so was President Obama. So, now, Republicans are against it....
Republicans were for terrorism trials in the United States when George W. Bush was president. Then so was President Obama, so now Republicans are against it.....
During the Bush presidency, the current Republican leaders in Congress voted 19 times to increase the debt ceiling by a total of $4 trillion. But now, they have discovered a desire to take a stand on this issue....
The kind way to understand this is shameless, craven, unprincipled partisan hackery."
She finished with, "Given the choice between thinking of them as that evil and thinking of them as just disgusting, I would rather think of them as just disgusting."
Patriotism has become the bastard offspring of our political parties. I just spent a vacation with a very conservative pair of in-laws. They don't get it. They don't see things this way, they feel it's all socialism and feed off of Glen Beck and Sean Hannity who spoon feed paranoia.
ReplyDeleteIt is a sad sad day when our leaders value 'winning' political races more than actually leading the country. The Euro's must be laughing at us for our childish behavior.
I never liked George W. at all but I wanted him to do 4 years and leave. I never ever said that the Dems should do everything they can to get him out of office, it feels wrong. However, Republicans have totally adopted the 'It's Ok if you're a Republican' line and overtly want Obama to fail. They even vote against self interest so he can never have a positive moment. Seriously, even getting Osama Bin Laden could barely, BARELY get kudos from the right. They had to fall all over themselves to go suck on W's dick some more and give him credit for it.
The political scene feels like a 6th grade exercise of student body voting. Smart people are now 'bad' for the country. The hypocrites run around with the constitution but refuse to read it - they say one thing, constitution says otherwise and they get a confused look like - huh - that can't be right. Somehow the truth is the victim and nobody gives a rip.
wow. just wow....
ReplyDeleteI have nothing to add but well said and I hope you enjoyed your vacation anyway!