These meetings where the vice-grips are applied must be wonderful moments to behold in Congress.
There is one bill that must always be passed in Washington.
Always!
That bill is the increase in the debt ceiling.
There is no way around it. Everyone knows it. Every intelligent person, that is, knows it.
Therefore after weeks….months….of nonesesne from the Tea Party comes this story.
It will be fun to see the teabaggers on their knees and forced to vote.
Republican leaders in the House have begun to prepare their troops for
politically painful votes to raise the nation’s debt limit, offering warnings
and concessions to move the hard-line majority toward a compromise that would
avert a federal default.
For weeks, GOP conservatives, particularly in the House, have issued demands about what they would require in exchange for their votes to increase the debt limit. In negotiations with the White House, Republican leaders have found those demands were unattainable. Unwilling to risk the economic and political consequences of a federal default, which could come as early as Aug. 2, they have started the difficult process of standing down.
At a closed-door meeting Friday morning, GOP leaders turned to their most
trusted budget expert, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, to explain to rank-and-file members what many others have come to understand: A fiscal meltdown could occur if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling.
CAFFEINATED POLITICS 
Why is it nonsense to be deeply troubled–as tea party members are–that the government is taking in 172bl while spending 302bl each month? And then, to raise the “debt ceiling” ever higher?
As a “breeder” I’m concerned that my children will be crushed under the weight of this debt. $125,000 per family? Are you sick?
I agree that they need to raise the debt ceiling, but we need to make drastic spending cuts as well. Simply taxing the “rich” Millionaires and Billionaires at 100% will not make up for the difference.
Evidence is pretty clear that Obama is a giant failure as a president.
Patrick,
Here is why I posted the way I did on this matter.
There is one bill in WI that must pass….and only one that must pass…that is the state budget.
The only…only bill…that must pass in Washington, D.C. is the debt limit when it passes….budget bills can go from one session to another and be govt. operating on a continued resolution.
All along there has a been a really sad development with the election of the crowd from the Tea Party. First, they thought the rules did not apply to them and second, that no flexibility was to be granted on any issue.
That government only works, and has only ever worked, with compromises. The back-and-forth is lost on these newbies. They also seem not to have any grasp of the levers of govt, and how they must be operated.
To throw the good credit and soundness of the US economy under the wheels for the pure politics of the teabaggers is one of the most harmful and overly politicized events I have ever seen.
As a Democrat I was ready to throw means-testing into the large basket of entitlements to get a package. There were other spenidng cuts in the trillions that would have been added as well. Some in areas I really would hate to see happen. But many on my side were ready to do what was required.
What the GOP needed to add then from their side was some revenue in the form of taxes and cutting loopholes. That this group of malfunctioning politicians could not understand the role they play in Congress, or the national good is most alarming. I am sure you use your corporate jet tax cut every day……
You might want to fault the President, but I think you need to look very hard at those who have no understanding of government and live on your side of the aisle. The President had a pile of cuts, some that would have riled the left. The GOP failed to bargain in good faith.
I repeat what has been stated here often. One should not get up in morning and run for Congress when having no background or past interest or policy background. When that happens you get people who have never even before heard of the debt ceiling, and have no idea what in hell it even means. That is clear by the statements that have been made over the months.
That is one reason that the debt limit has been a continuing item on CP. It underscores the lack of preparedness that the Tea Party has for the real work of governing.
Patrick, it’s been shown Republicans are great at winning elections but inept at governing and Teabaggers, as an offshoot of the Republican Party, are just in this to win. Let’s assume for a moment that they get what they want. Would your life be any better? My life could certainly get worse, I suppose but better? Hardly. And as a non-breeder concerned about your descendants fiscal responsibilities, frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.
Patrick- As a “breeder” all you have to do is keep voting republican and your children will never have to pay taxes. The republican stance is that we can cut all social services and balance the budget while cutting taxes on millionaires-you are a millionaire, right?
Free ponies for all!! I want a rainbow colored one!
Wake up and look at the state of the nation under tax reduction-we have lowered taxes consistently since 2001, and look at all the jobs that have been created by our overlords, why, we live in a virtual workers paradise ( by virtual I mean imaginary).
patrick, you clearly dont understand how the macro economy works. read bill mitchells blog, warren mosler, mike norman, new economic perspectives, roger mitchells”monetary sovereignty” if obama doesnt start spending he will be “a giant failure” as you say.and so will the rest of us. “the funds to pay taxes and buy government securities come from government spending” warren mosler
Patrick,
This is another clear reason why progressive taxation is the only rational way to go. $125k is frightening for those of us who make $22k or less per year, but it is a tiny drop in the bucket for the upper rich. And is anyone counting corporations in that calcuation of “per family”? Because they have acquired the rights of individuals, and therefore should be counted as bearing their part of the debt! Why is it that the fear retoric spreads the debt flat across the population, when every other financial process is graduated in some way? It’s either clueless or lying, IMO.
Really hard to succeed at anything if to do it requires cooperation,and it isn’t forthcoming. If you and your spouse get a tax refund, and they want to use it for a wild vacation, while you insist paying off the car is better, unless you compromise, the money goes no where, fights ensue, and neither good is accomplished. If you bargain, saying you’ll just use enough to pay off the credit cards, and we can vacation for a week,instead of two, and they call you names or question your authority and refuse to budge, and now insist Hawaii is the only vacation they will consider, and they won’t co-sign the check until you agree. Eventually, you either have to give in,or go it without them on board. The G-NO-P has filibustered every possible aid to job creation, insisted on concession after concession until the legislation is a pale shadow of the original or includes bad law then when the vote comes, decided to not vote for the bill they gutted. The stimulus should have been 2-3 times larger than it was…it only prevented total disaster, it did not stimulate as we needed. So the blame fall on Obama, even though he had promises of votes if he watered down his original proposal.
If my 8 year old refuses to do something, I can usually cope. If it is refusing to get dressed for school,and physically removing clothes as I dress him, we end up late for school. A bribe generally works, and he cooperates. Now,accepting the bribe (maybe a bagel),eating it, and then taking off his clothes is bargaining in bad faith. My son doesn’t. The G-NO-P does. And when their actions are called out, they feign indignation and call the democrats :mean”. If my son lies, or breaks an agreement, and I call him on it, he apologizes. It is truly sad when both my kids act more maturely and honestly than elected officials. It is sad that when presented with a “he said, she said” bare statement of what is happening in DC [as colorless and no mention of the parties or names as I can manage], my 11 year old is almost always appalled by what the right wing is doing. He often says, “why don’t they just compromise and get it done?” I can never answer. The sad thing is the folks who bash Obama for doing “nothing”, despite the most productive first two years of any presidency,and ignore any complicity in the “doing nothing” from the republicans.
Patrick,
I can not agree with Dave any more. He hit the nail right on the head. Our entire debate about the debt ceiling and how our economy works is fatally flawed. Our government can not go broke as it issues currency and is the only entity that may do so. I can not recommend highly enough “The 7 Deadly Innocent Frauds” by Warren Mosler. Read it and you will truly see that this whole debt debate is a rouse and nothing other than an excuse for the elite to use to justify their oppression.
The fact that people like this blogger continue to hurl slurs like Teabagger at folks shows you really what is at the core of their inane arguments. Its really not about what is best for the masses but rather it is what I say it is and do what I say, not as a I do. These same types of bloggers would be up in arms if someone called a member of their ilk a tasteless, inappropriate sang term like this that better describes their moral fiber than it does the people the writer is I guess making fun of. I think its time people like this writer teabagged themselves…. Seems that is really what is at the core if this……