Debt Ceiling Update

34 Comments
So it looks like Boehner, et al are working on a "framework" that is to be announced sometime before the Asian markets open this afternoon. First, the best summary of Where We Are Now comes from British Business Secretary Vance Cable:
"The irony of the situation at the moment, with markets opening tomorrow morning, is that the biggest threat to the world financial system comes from a few right-wing nutters in the American congress rather than the eurozone."

What the Books Look Like If We Reach our Debt Limit

2 Comments
One of the astonishing things about the teajadi ambivalence over raising the debt limit is their contention that *not* raising the debt limit is not that big of a deal. Especially from the *personal responsibility* crowd who would be quick to condemn the kind of folks who overextend themselves and then decide to not pay their bills. But it shouldn't be much of a surprise that the Welfare Queen DNA is sourced in today's GOP.

The Running of the Hypocrites

8 Comments
Which is really the only name you can give the Federal government's budget season opened by the release of President Obama's budget blueprint last Tuesday. The plan calls for letting the BushCo tax cuts expire (except for people making less than $250K), eliminating the tax subsidies for the oil and gas industry, raising taxes on hedge fund managers; and it calls for investments in public education and college, domestic energy production, the beginning of a fund to finance health care for the uninsured. It is a pretty strong plan (I do have some reservations about some of the energy initiatives) that begins to retilt the playing field back towards the middle class.