Sunday Open Thread [7.7.13]
“With an anxious eye toward the coming debt-ceiling negotiations, House Republicans are drafting what members call a ‘menu’ of mandatory spending cuts to offer the White House in exchange for raising the country’s borrowing limit.”
“This menu is more a matrix of politically fraught options for the Obama administration to consider: Go small on cuts and get a short extension of the debt ceiling. Go big – by agreeing to privatize Social Security, for example – and get a deal that will raise the ceiling for the rest of Obama’s term.”
“It’s a strategy meant to show the GOP is ready to deal. But even conservatives admit that this gambit might do little to help them avoid blame should the negotiations reach a crisis stage.”
The country’s improved economy, which brings in more revenue, and the raising of the taxes on the rich, has delayed the moment of reaching the debt limit for most of this year. But eventually, this fall, it will have to be raised again. Hopefully the President sticks to his guns as he has since the 2011 debt ceiling sequester deal, in that he says he will not negotiate on the debt limit. Either Congress raises the limit or it gets the blame for the untold disaster that occurs if it is not raised. I will tell you one thing, the second that Democrats regain control of the House, the first order of business is to do away with this arbitrary debt ceiling one and for all by passing legislation that says the Fed must always pay the nation’s debts.
Otherwise, the internets are pretty quiet with political news this holiday weekend. I hope you all are enjoying yours.
Some interesting reading that derails some of the narrative surrounding the Snowden/NSA mess:
The Atlantic Wire surveys the state of current reporting and finds that the Tale of the Re-Routed Bolivian President’s Plane Is Falling Apart .
How the Government Lies About the NSA
How the FISA Court Has Been Secretly Expanding the Power of the NSA
At this point games with the debt ceiling are all the Republicans have left, all their manufactured “scandals” have dried up and blown away and no one really believes the tax cut game anymore. The media, as ever, will attempt to create a buzz over the debt ceiling but it will fail as it has every time in the past. I have a good feeling about the economy. It’s not going to “come roaring back” as assorted liars have claimed recessions always used to do, but it is getting better and it is noticeable.
This probably wins the internets for the month: An Open Letter To The Idiot Nation.
It is hard to exerpt to provide a taste of this, but suffice to say that this writer isn’t having any of the wingnut email BS used to spin up the usual resentments of the Fox Noise crowd. Go read the whole thing.