President Obama Must Save the Republic From Enemies, Domestic
I’ve long held the position that Republicans are after nothing other than chaos, and a wrecked economy so that they could claim that the economy failed during a Democratic Presidency. The ACA fight is a pretext. Economist say that most pernicious and long term effects of a default are already being felt in a steep erosion of trust in American bonds as a safe haven. As Delaware Dem has pointed out here, the country is under attack.
Given that reality, President Obama will be forced to do something that he doesn’t want to do.
Andrew Sullivan is (appropriately, I think) upset about this:
…I come back to the analogy of a cold civil war. The reluctance of the South to pay the debts of the nation which led to the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of the national debt. It seems to me that if the House GOP really does intend to destroy the American and global economy, to throw millions out of work, to make our debt problem far worse in a new depression … just to make a point about Obamacare, then at some point, Obama, like Lincoln, must preserve the republic.
But no president should ever want to take that position – because it represents the collapse of the American polity. But we are in collapse. If the House pushes the country into default this week, there is no workable American polity left. The most basic forms of collective responsibility will have been forsaken for almost pathological ideological purism and cultural revolt.
If, the debt limit is not increased by the 17th, All that that means is that the U.S. has hit it’s credit limit. That is all it means. It does not mean it is out of money. It just means it has reached it’s credit limit. Individuals and small and large business have been going through this for the last five or six years. It has been “common place” in the private sector. You just have to find a way to prioritize your expenses. All individuals and all business do this on a regular basis. Municipalities and State governments do this as well. They can’t print money, so they just prioritize expenses when they reach their credit limit. The mayor of our town, who is a republican in a democrat state(who was just re-elected in a landslide) took on a 90 million dollar deficit right after he was elected last time. The national economy was bad, but, he cut expenses, did not raise taxes, did not lay off anyone, and balanced the budget his first year. It can be done. The first thing you have to do is fire Jack Lew. He has already indicated that he will be unwilling to prioritize government spending a.nd payables (What does this guy think he is getting a pay check for). The government may have reached their credit limit, they will just have to prioritize expenses and payables, and make do, like the rest of the world. If, they do this, it will boost their credit rating in the long run. And by the way, when you call your credit card company, and ask them to raise your limit, and they refuse because your debt to income ratio is out of balance, of course you want to blame the credit card company, but really you have to look in the mirror to find who to blame. That is the person or persons who spent too much money. The credit card company, (Or in this case, the republicans) are simply being the adult in the room and saying hey, wait a minute, your debt to income ratio is out of balance, fix that, then we can talk
So you think all would be fine if we just stopped paying Social Security checks?
That is complete bullshit. The Republicans aren’t the credit card company in the situation. The credit card company does not want you to stop paying your bills.
You live in a completely different reality than the rest of us. If the House doesn’t pass whatever Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell give them tomorrow, you can kiss America’s place in the world economy goodbye, and say hello to another deep, deep recession. I’m not ready to go as far as calling it treason, but the analogy of the national debt being exactly like household debt is unbelievably simplified and you know it. And comparing your local economy to the national economy is fucking ridiculous as well.
The House had its’ shot. They went double or nothing on people not liking Obamacare by trying to force Obama to not give it to them, because the chance that they’ll like it will have nullified John Boehner’s entire speakership. It didn’t work. Now’s the time to put country above district, state, and party. If they don’t, it’s not going to be pretty.
If ever there was lingering doubt that Fox News is a blight on society, Dils puts those doubts to rest with the utter stupidity of his comment.
Thankfully, no one is listening to RD’s advice for the clueless — except maybe Mitt Romney who is still waiting to win California.
Eric Idle (yes, that Eric Idle) has a really interesting piece in HuffPo today:
That one observation really seemed to sum it all up, to me. Ruling means keeping the lights on because this is an enterprise worth keeping going. Having differing ideological views is second to keeping the ship going. But the ideological stuff isn’t as important as the task of the shared responsibility of keeping this great place going. And the GOP completely fails on the Exceptional Nation test right here.
This is the time for the Democratic Party, state by state, to mobilize and sharpen our governing belief system and messaging component and get after it. As one who has engaged from the beginning in hand to hand combat with tea party advocates and strategists, I can tell you, those neo-confederates are re-fighting the civil war. It’s leadership is smart and without scruples. They are about white supremacy and low information voters, whom we barely ever reach, lap it up. We should be about advancing our moment in the sun and organizing those moved by our advocacy for them. Our job is not to advance the moderate Republican faction to restore their control of their party. Locally, I do not see a Democratic Party offering any alternative to this assault on our near dead democracy. Nor do I see a party enforcing discipline on our officeholders and candidates. I do not see organizing. I see passive silence. I see the tail, Dem officeholders, wagging the dog.
I agree. If we had a real Democratic party in this country – the events of the past week would be setting off alarms and signal flares in every election precinct in the country. Dems would be sliding down firehouse polls to jump into trucks with mega-phones fixed to the roof.