“The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of ‘liberalism’ they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.”

Socialist Party presidential candidate Norman Thomas


Monday, May 16, 2011

The day of reckoning is near


We hit the debt ceiling today. What's congress going to do about it?

From WSJ.online -- The U.S. government is expected to hit the $14.294 trillion debt ceiling Monday, setting in motion an uncertain, 11-week political scramble to avoid a default.

The Treasury Department plans to announce Monday it will stop issuing and reinvesting government securities in certain government pension plans, part of a series of steps designed to delay a default until Aug. 2.

The Treasury's moves buy time for the White House and congressional leaders to reach a deficit-reduction agreement that could clear the way for enough lawmakers to vote to raise the amount of money Congress allows the nation to borrow.

President Obama and speaker Boehner are playing a dangerous game of chicken here. I have a feeling Boehner will blink first. The media and all Americans receiving handouts will blame the republicans no matter what causes a default. Obama knows this and it'll give him the backbone to stand his ground.

If it comes to republicans caving in to Obama and voting to raise the debt ceiling in exchange for winking democrats' promises to dramatically cut spending, then any republican who voted to raise it should be kicked out of office in 2012. I don't care if it's their first or tenth term, if they vote to increase debt without concrete, ironclad spending cuts, they don't deserve the seats they hold, and we'll find somebody who does. Besides, I think Obama is going to win in 2012 anyway so we may as well have a pure group of conservatives with whom to do battle.

8 comments:

Bill said...

Pre-emptive pessimism? I think Boehner has laid down pretty strong markers that "we're talking trillions" to the extent a cave would be a disaster for him and the party.

Obama is not going to win in 2012. You can't pull that crap twice and get away with it - not with this economy and energized electorate.

ed said...

Its in the tea leaves, Bill. Read Walter Williams' latest article.

Bill said...

That has been shown to be an internet hoax. Not Williams. I disagreed with it even when I thought it was him.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/nomatterwhat.asp

ed said...

Interesting....I did not Snopes that. Still, it's basically true. He'll line up the Hispanics. He's already got the blacks to the tune of 98%. He'll threaten SS and Medicare so the old people will vote for him out of fear. The poor people(defined for this purpose as anybody who gets some sort of handout) will vote for him because they like the easy life of idle leasure while others support them.

Who that voted for Obama in 08 will not vote for him in 2012? He might lose some young people to disinterest and apathy because lightening doesn't strike twice, but those will be replaced by the millions of government workers whose jobs got created under The One and who want to keep the gravy train going.

Plus, whose going to energize 51% of Americans on the right? Newt, Romney, Pawlenty, Daniels, Paul? Maybe Christie if he gets in.

Bill said...

So the hoax, probably put out by an "Organizing for America" staffer to demoralize us, is nevertheless true?

Can't buy into the pessimism, Ed. Obama is clearly beatable. Don't ask me. Brit Hume and Rush Limbaugh are two of the most savvy observers of the political scene. Both say it.

You think he's going to carry VA again? NC? FL? Not I.

Ed said...

I just think the media have too much personally invested in the "success" of Obama, to allow the GOP nominee to beat him. The attacks will be more vicious than they've ever been on any candidate. Plus, between now and then, he'll pander to every minority group whose votes he needs to win. The mistake conservatives might make is in assuming he's going to lose and not bother to go vote.

Ed said...

I hope you are right Bill, and I'll certainly be fighting for tea-party conservatives in Alabama. I just haven't seen anybody who'll energize the base enough nationally to beat Obama. So far they're all tepid at best. But I guess things can change during the general when everybody has to pick one side or the other.

Bill said...

The election will be about Obama. The Republican just needs to be plausible. Pawlenty, Daniels, Christie, Ryan, someone like that. Gasoline over $3.50, unemployment over 8% or even over 9%, $1 trillion+ deficits are hardly re-elect numbers.

Heck, if we depended on the old media, Reagan was never president, Dukakis, Gore and Kerry all won. 2010 never happened.

Bet you a virtual cookie.