Joe Biden’s Gang of Six has reconstituted itself and resumed negotiations. Yesterday outlines of a compromise agreement were made public; Ezra Klein comments. Among other things, Ezra says “The plan also appears to build the expiration of the Bush tax cuts for income over $250,000 into the baseline.” We don’t know details, however.
Steve M says the plan is DOA in Grover Norquist’s House. See also Steve Benen, “When the Gang of Six Meets the Gang of 435.” It’s way doubtful any form of this plan will pass before the August 2 deadline.
Some news stories say that President Obama praised the current Gang of Six proposal, but Steve Benen says that’s not exactly what happened. Instead, the President praised the G6 for making progress, then added,
“So here’s where we stand. We have a Democratic President and administration that is prepared to sign a tough package that includes both spending cuts, modifications to Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare that would strengthen those systems and allow them to move forward, and would include a revenue component. We now have a bipartisan group of senators who agree with that balanced approach. And we’ve got the American people who agree with that balanced approach.â€
This sounds like a message to House Repubicans to stop standing in the way. But I doubt they’ll listen.
So where does that leave us? Earlier this week Bill Clinton said that if it were up to him, he’d evoke the 14th Amendment and raise the debt ceiling himself. I’m not sure how constitutional scholars feel about that, though. And I take it the White House really doesn’t want to go there.
A lot of editorialists are still assuring us that of course the debt ceiling will be raised, but I’m having doubts.
See also:
“Corporate America’s Sunshine Patriots.” “… as of last week, as per the website Zero Hedge and data analysts Capital IQ, 29 public companies — including Bank of America, JP Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, GE and Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway — each have more cash on hand than the U.S. Treasury.”
I saw Kent Conrad interviewed on Lawrence O’Donnell’s show last night. I found it interesting that, as usual for politicians, Conrad didn’t say what cuts were to be made in spending. Departments were supposed to submit a plan of how they were going to meet their spending cut targets; if a department didn’t, a “bipartisan” group of 5 Democrats and 5 Republicans would decide what to cut. That’s going to work out really well!
Yeah, won’t it, though?
Washington will remain dysfunctional until teabaggerism is shrunk small enough to drown in a bathtub.
Back when we were jumping up and down complaining about the bad strategy of agreeing to extend the Bush tax cuts for the rich, we kept saying “They will hold the debt ceiling hostage.”
And all the pundits and Serious People said, “Oh, no. That won’t happen. Everyone agrees about how important Full Faith and Credit is, and won’t risk it, and the fix is in, don’t worry your pretty little heads about the debt ceiling, it’ll happen with no problem.”
And now I keep hearing people trying to convince me that, really, it’s all going to work out, and how there’s no way the GOP intransigents will actually plunge us into default just out of political whim.
If you know anyone who depends of getting a Social Security payment or other government check on August 3, you should now be making plans to get them some help financially for a while. And arrange your finances to minimize your vulnerability to wild fluctuations in the market and interest rates.
(Yes, it would be profoundly, historically, stupid for them to fail to raise the debt ceiling. We still have troops in Iraq, too.)
Now that the Conservatives in the House have had their fun and passed “The Hack, Mutilate, and Bury America Act,” where they balance the budget on the backs of everyone except “The Job Creators” (the artists formally known as ‘the rich’), they are back to where they started, which is nowhere.
Here are the options as I see them.
First, there can be a few moments of sanity where they take a minute and write, “Pay the f*cking debt and raise the ceiling. We don’t want to be known as a ‘Deadbeat Nation.'” But that’s as likely to happen as Grover Norquisling marrying Nancy Pelosi and saying no to any tax exemptions for their children.
Second, Obama can use the 14th Amendment, which will instantly turn him into the greatest threat to the Constitution since Islamofascism and the Sharia Laws that the Democrats look to base laws on instead of the 10 Commandments. This will also turn Obama into the greatest traitor of all time, making Benedict Arnold seem like a Founding Father.
But, it’s at least an option.
“The Gang of Six” is months too late. Can their bare-bone suggestions be written as a law and debated by the posturing, preening, and verbally flatulent prima donna’s and passed and in both houses in less than 2 weeks? Can Karl Rove’s fat ass pass through the eye of a needle? Even one bigger than “The Space Needle?”
Maybe it’s possible. But if I was a betting man, I’d bet against.
The McConnell-Reid – “Pass the Buck to Obama” bill, is the most likely solution. The Democrats get what they want – which is a still alive and, if barely, still funtioning America.
And, with McConnell on board, and if Pelose gets behind it, and Boner can grab the few remaining members of his caucus who aren’t currently being measured for straight jackets by ‘Norquiststroms of DC,’ then maybe they can scratch up enough votes to get it past the House, the Republicans can get what they want. And that’s to put Obama in the bullseye of the target, and use the debt as a cudgel to beat the Democrats with in the hopes that the American people remain pig-ignorant and angry until at least November of 2012 – now that’s a bet I’d take!
This also gives idiots in both parties in both houses time to go back to plotting how best to provide cover as they steal money from the old, the sick, the poor, the disabled, and women and children, and give it to people who don’t need it at all – you know, the aforementioned “Job Ceators” (the artist’s formerly known as “the rich)!
PS: Why haven’t the Democrats been screaming about the Republicans in Congress being “Deadbeat Dad’s and Mom’s?” and telling people, “Look, don’t park America in your driveway after August 2nd, instead use a neighbors, or park it down the road, otherwise the repo men will come and get it if the ‘Deadbeat Republicans’ don’t raise the debt ceiling by then!”
That right there is language even the morons in ‘What’s the Matter With Kansas, Iowa, South Carolina, MS, MI, MO, etc, etc, etc…’ can understand. What, the Democrats are afraid they’ll side with the repo men if they put it this way?
How difficult is this sh*t to message?
I mean, really…
Read this the other day, “The whole of government consists in the art of being honest,” Thomas Jefferson. A disfunctional government consists in the inartfulness of being dishonest? Fits.
Gulag, I’m usually in total agreement with you but this time I see the debt ceiling mess as primarily a GOP problem. The tea partiers were useful idiots when it came to locking in Republican votes but now that a passel of them have been elected to office they have taken the bit in their teeth and jumped the corral, and the Republican leadership has been hard pressed to rein them in.
The old guard in the GOP knows full well the severe consequences of failure to raise the debt ceiling. So do multinational corporations and the Money Men on Wall Street. And the same goes for the Democratic leadership and President Obama. Way I see it, maybe there’s no point in getting in the way of Republican infighting when you can sit back and enjoy a ringside seat. At least that’s what I hope is going on.
The president can’t raise the debt limit, only congress has this athority, so if they don’t want to raise the debt limit, then don’t raise it. Tell them to make an amendment, and vote on it. I guaranty, they won’t have the votes.
Jughead – President Clinton thinks the president DOES have the authority to raise the debt ceiling.
The 14th seems to prohibit what the House is doing. I say ‘seems’ because based on the intent when it was written, Section 4 was intended to prohibit exactly what the Tea Party is doing. At the time the 14th was written, the idea was to prevent the South after the Civil War from economic terrorism against the federal government. That particular section of the Constitution has never been ruled on by the USSC. It’s time there was a ruling because I so not want ANY faction of the left or the right to what the Tea Party is doing.
Unfortunately, Doug, we don’t have a USSC that is worth it’s weight in air. They are only around now to prove the rightwingers right. Another waste of tax-payers dollars, the salaries of Clarence Thomas, Scalia, Alito, etc.
Bonnie – I am not sure it would ever play in the USSC. The Tea Party would oppose this by attempting impeachment, which would fail in the Senate. Hypothetically…
SUPPOSE the president frames the excutive order around the failure of the House to fulfill its Constitutional mandate, SUPPOSE there is a suit to reverse or nullify the Executive Order. The decision by the USSC forces two questions in the open. (Keep in mind, a USSC decision against the president has the potential to throw the country inti a deptession.)
First, was there a Constitutional failure by the House? If yes, then…
Second, in the light of that failure, was the president justified in taking extraordinarily action to preserve and protect the economic integrity of the country?
As I read it, the Chamber of Commerce is displeased with republicans for letting this ‘bluff’ go too far. That’s why Bohner & McConell are proposing deals (now under the umbrella of the 6-pack) that the House will NOT pass. A conservative SCOTUS will ‘ seriously consider’ the view of Wall Street, who doesn’t want a default, in a friend of the court brief regardless of who officially authors it.
Extending my remarks…
The Tea Party would love to impeachment Obama, even if it’s doomed to failure in the Senate because a) they hate Obama’s guts and b) they hope to tarnished his image in the middle of reelection.
President Obama should force the issue before the Supreme Court even if he has to ask democratic allies to bring suit against the administration because this way, the administration can ‘impeach’ the Teabaggers in the House in the same time frame (pre- election) as the Senate clears him.
Not that anyone but Barbara reads my bat-shut crazy remarks..
(And I’m not certain she does)
At some point between now and the GOP nomination, the powers-that-be in the establishment wing of the GOP will have to decide if the Tea Party has become too dangerous. It was believed (I think) by Wall Street types that the potential mob was under the control of pragmatic conservatives. Perhaps for the first time, the ‘establishment’ conservatives are discerning that the mob is under the control of ideologies comfortable with the ruin of the establishment.
If I am right, this will play out much more dramatically than the tug-of-war over the nominee (Mittens vs the Teabaggers)
Again, I’m very late to post. Hope somebody reads this.
First off, CundGulag, your post today was brilliant. You are in good form.
Second, Maha, great link to article “Corporate America’s Sunshine Patriots.” Should be required reading.
Third, I’m think that there’s about a 50% chance that the USA really will hit default on August 3. To give them their due, the Tea Partiers have proven to be more tenacious than their corporate sponsors ever expected. Reminds me of a redneck who decides to raise a cute little pit bull puppy, only to have the thing grow up and take a big bite out of his ass.
I’m watching the price of gold and silver, currently setting records. Those survivalists in their caves with gold, guns, ammo and canned goods could be on to something.
Gold is for optimists. I’m diversifying into canned goods.
– blogger on Felix Salmon’s Market Movers
Why, this is very midsummer madness.
– William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, 3.4.55
My greatest fear is that Obama buckles…And my greatest hope is that he doesn’t.
A default isn’t going to happen. The Repugs are just playing on fears. So enjoy the antics until the anti-climatic moment.