Weekend Open Thread

Welcome to weekend open thread. I hope you have a fabulous weekend planned. I will be busy getting ready for my vacation and cleaning the house (we’re having company).

Do you get the feeling the financial community is already tired of the posturing over the debt ceiling?

This week, we’re starting to see a third group, which is something a hybrid of the first two. This contingent believes a congressionally-created debt crisis would, in fact, be a disaster, but doesn’t believe the deadline is actually the deadline.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has said if Congress doesn’t raise the $14.294 trillion debt limit by Aug. 2, the federal government won’t be able to pay all its bills, which would have a “catastrophic economic impact.”

But many conservatives, including some GOP freshman who campaigned in 2010 against raising the debt limit, say he is exaggerating the danger. […]

“When you say the drop-dead day is going to be August, I question that,” said Rep. Tom Rooney (R., Fla.). “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

A senior administration official told Politico, “These are the kinds of people who get eaten by bears.”

That’s a good line, but it’s more than just amusing. I can appreciate healthy skepticism as much as the next blogger, but guys like Rooney have to understand they’re playing with fire. When he says, “I’ll believe it when I see it,” when the right-wing congressman may not recognize is a simple truth — if he’s wrong, what he may “see” is 20% unemployment and a global recession.

I’m sick of the continuing hostage crises but I don’t want to see a debt ceiling problem (I’d like to keep my job, thanks). I hope Obama just ignores it and takes the advice of Bruce Bartlett – that there is no such thing as a debt ceiling. We will see.

Is John Boehner breaking the law in regards to the DOMA lawsuit? He signed a contract to defend the law without appropriating the money and no one can say where it’s coming from.

Rep. Michael Honda (D-Calif.) pressed House General Counsel Kerry Kircher on the matter. Although the contract states that “the General Counsel agrees to pay the Contractor for all contractual services,” Kircher said he was told by the House Republican leadership that no funds would come out of the Office of General Counsel’s budget for this purpose.

Dan Strodel, the House’s chief administrative officer, is the man who, according to Honda’s office, would ultimately write the checks to Brancroft PLLC. But at the hearing, he also said he had no knowledge of where the money would come from.

…

Honda believes that Boehner’s agreement could be violating the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits “involving the government in any obligation to pay money before funds have been appropriated for that purpose.” Knowingly violating the law could lead to being fined or imprisoned.

A source familiar with House finances told The Huffington Post that Honda may have a case. The House General Counsel signed the contract and agreed to pay the funds. But since he has admitted that his office doesn’t have the money for this case, House leadership would have to have the funds reprogrammed or transferred from other House accounts. The source said that transfer should have been executed before Kircher signed the contract with Clement and Bancroft.

I love the idea that after all the stink caused by DOMA and Paul Clement leaving the law firm after it backed away from the case that Paul Clement might not get paid after all.