I would like to report that Congress is going raise the debt limit cleanly, but sadly, I cannot. Republicans in the House and Republicans in the Senate are battling to see who has the highest IQ (InsaniTEA Quotient). After Agent Orange insisted that nothing would pass the House, unless it echoed Republicans’ ludicrous cut, cap and amend monstrosity. The Senate refuses to be outdone.
Twenty Republican lawmakers crowded the Senate TV studio last week to issue a threat: Meet their demands, or they will force the United States to default.
The only way to prevent the catastrophe, these Tea Party faithful said, was for the Senate to pass, and the president to sign, their plan to permanently cap spending at levels last seen in 1966, before Medicare made the nation soft.
“We want to make very clear: This is not just the best plan on the table for addressing the debt limit — this is the only plan,” first-term Sen. Mike Lee (Utah) said, vowing that “we’re otherwise going to be blowing past the debt-limit deadline.”
“We have a solution,” said Sen. Jim DeMint (S.C.). “It’s the only one that can be passed before the August 2nd deadline.”
This is the language of gangster films: Do as we say — or the girl gets it.
Yet listening to the 20 House and Senate Republicans recite their demands, it was clear they were deadly serious. And that’s why, even though a large majority of lawmakers want to avoid default, it could still happen… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Washington Post>
I can’t help but wonder where we’d be if Democrats had ever held a true 60 vote supermajority. But as long as Ben Nelson (DINO-NE) and Joe Lieberman (Asshole-CT) were in the caucus, the best we ever had was 58, insufficient to block Republican filibusters of every progressive measure the House passed. Perhaps some would not have been so fast to blame Obama for not going after what he knew he could not get. Perhaps some would have recognized the threat Republicans represent, because, craving for power, they made extremists mainstream. Perhaps some would not have stayed home, causing in the current political imbalance. That’s water under the dam until 2012. For now, all we can do is wait to see what happens. If Republicans push us over the cliff, Obama would have to wait until the crisis begins to raise the debt limit on his own, under a claim of emergency executive powers. I hope he does not wait too long.
Update:
The Senate’s top Democrat rolled out a plan Sunday night to raise the nation’s debt limit – in a way he said even Republicans could not refuse.
Senate Democratic boss Harry Reid proposed slashing $2.7 trillion in spending and raising the debt ceiling through 2012 to avoid a market meltdown.
The offer "meets Republicans’ two major criteria: It will include enough spending cuts to meet or exceed the amount of a debt ceiling raise through the end of 2012, and it will not include revenues," Reid said in a statement… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <NY Daily News>
Without knowing the details I cannot say for sure, nit if the Nevada Leg Hound, Harry Reid, is humping that GOP leg again, about to roll over and play dead, which I strongly suspect he is, this is NOT acceptable.
23 Responses to “Forecast: InsaniTEA”
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I read about his plan on Huff Po – once again, he’s caving to the Repubs. I’m shocked I tell you, just shocked.
PUT ALL YOUR INVESTMENTS IN CASH RIGHT NOW. Even though the dollar will be worthless in a couple of weeks, you don’t risk losing everything. That’s right, the rich will suffer with the poor. Irony at it’s finest. 🙄
Cash is king! I agree! Do you know the name of that ETF, Cantor put some money in? I’d like like to make a “hedge” bet! 😈
ProShares Trust Ultrashort 20+ Year Treasury EFT:
Thank you, SoINeedAName! I’m heading to the broker! (or becoming broker) ❗
It was right here too. I did an article on this a while back.
Thanks Nameless.
Most Ironic indeed.
The Reid plan relies heavily on projected savings from the winding down of the Iraq and Afghan wars. In any case, all these plans apply to a ten-year period, and any cuts scheduled for more than a couple of years out are essentially meaningless since future Congresses aren’t bound by what the current one decides.
Right now the highest priority has to be to get the hostage safely out of the hands of the terrorists. Obama’s probably right that the key point is to insist on a debt-ceiling increase that will last until 2013, rather than a smaller one which would just bring us back to the same mess in a few months.
It’s now obvious that the country will be ungovernable until the teabag contingent of Republicans in the House is reduced enough that it can no longer hold everything hostage to delusional thinking. The earliest that can be done is next years election. In the meantime, the Democrats have to avoid anything that would blur the clarity of where the blame for the crisis lies, to improve the odds of taking the House back.
When the current extension on the Bush tax cuts runs out, if Congress simply does nothing and does not pass another extension (or Obama vetoes it), the expiration of the tax cuts will increase revenues more than could realistically be done by any deal reached under the current conditions.
I completely agree with you, Infidel. They do need to let the Bush tax cuts run out. This childish nonsense that the t-party bastards are perpetrating has got to stop! ❗
Infidel , you put it exactly right- Nothing I could add to your good sense– Something sadly lacking by the tea baggers –
A very nice summary. While Repubicans were claiming two necessities [1] That any increase in the debt ceiling must be met with matching-dollar spending cuts, and [2] That no revenue increases could be a part of the deal – Reid looks like he pulled a pretty neat end-around by agreeing. Plus Reid’s plan doesn’t take revenue increases off the table, because it doesn’t mention anything about the expiring Bush tax cuts.
Of course what the Repubicans were REALLY wanting is to end Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
As you say, the critical thing will be to get this past the 2012 elections. Right now it’s looking like a pretty good plan, all things considered.
Boehnhead has already tweeted (twoten? twat? not sure how to inflect that) that the plan is “indefensible”. So the Reid offer has shown that, as Obama suggested, there is nothing the Republicans can say yes to.
They are desperate to escape the onus of the hugely-unpopular Ryan plan for the next election. To do that, they want to get something that wrecks Medicare and Social Security and has Democratic fingerprints on it, to spread the opprobrium around.
At this point it seems the only options are the McConnell plan giving Obama unilateral debt-ceiling authority in exchange for letting Republicans posture against it every few months, or else — if Obama has the guts — a Fourteenth Amendment solution.
Exactly
After seeing the details, it’s not so bad. Reid has so many priors I was worried. It’s still a cave in, but I could live with it.
If they want to cap spending at 1966 levels, then let’s set taxes at 1966 levels also. Seems like a good compromise to me, and will certainly solve the deficit problem.
Seems fair to me too. The only problem is to get businesses to actually pay their taxes.
An excellent Idea!
They are hell bent on destroying the USA!
Agreed!
The Democrats HAD and still have a super majority in the Senate, 51!
They could have eliminated the filibuster any time they wanted with a simple 51 majority vote. But they didn’t because many of them are DINOs who do not want to see progressive legislation passed.
A rules change to eliminate the filibuster by a simple majority can only be enacted at the beginning of each session — once a year, basically (TomCat has posted about this before and knows more of the details).
Nevertheless, they should have done it when those opportunities came round.
You’re both right. By the time they determined it was necessary we had lost enough seats that Republicans + DINOs = 51. That’s why Reid backed down.
The Teapublicans are getting ready to make a fatal blunder, and they will pay dearly for their mistake!
From your mouth to God’s ear.