"They'd Never Do It Again!" - Think AGAIN!

The problem with too many Americans, as I've often observed, is that they are unpracticed and untutored in deep politics (which is why so many adhere to the "middle") and they have the political memory of gnats. This is why politicos can play them over and over again, and they never advance their insights as to what is happening to them and why. It is also why author Gore Vidal once referred to our nation as the "United States of Amnesia".

Yes, yes, when one tuned onto the nightly news one beheld the usual procession of interviewed 'Muricans, as in Milwaukee last night (on NBC nightly news) professing how disgruntled they are with "those politicians" in D.C.  Who? WHICH politicians? The sentiment of most of these Beer City Burghers is that they are "all" to blame and "they need to learn to compromise".  HUH?  Don't any of you have any clue at all as to who the perps were in this fiasco?

Can you say T-E-A    B-A-G-G-E-R-S?

Such nonsense responses by Milwaukeeans caused me to despair that the rank and file of Americans, voting Americans even, will ever get it. Their consistent inability to separate the political wheat from the chaff and pin the tail on "all of 'em" - as opposed to being able to discriminate, is disheartening. Why? What is the problem? Are they so overworked in their jobs they can't access basic facts? Or is it because too many are brainwashed by watching FOX News? Well, that is sad.

Any normal functioning brain, of even normal IQ,  exposed to the facts of the past three weeks ought to have processed that a bellicose clique in ONE PARTY nearly succeeded in bringing the U.S. government to default, which would have been catastrophic. Why was this so hard to grasp by those interviewed Milwaukeeans, and why did the idiotic term "compromise" even enter? Compromise over WHAT?

As Rachel Maddow accurately (and assertively!) pointed out last night, there is NO THIRD WAY! You don't get to fucking threaten to shut the government down because you want to impose  your will to stop Obamacare! If you lost in the forum of a 2012  general election and the Supreme Court also ruled against you, then you need to pack up your little toys and go home and cry alone. You don't get to extort concessions you couldn't get honestly in the other two venues. In other words,

YOU LOSE!

Go back, regroup, get set for another general election, where you can take the Presidency, and oh - also the Senate, THEN try again! If them apples don't suit your sorry little ass or fancy, then try for another Supreme Court ruling to overturn the Roberts one. But don't threaten government shutdown by pressuring your House reps with being "primaried" if you didn't get your way in legitimate democratic forums. And don't hand anyone the unmitigated,  proto-Confederate codswallop that you are entitled to do it because "this ain't a democracy, it's a Republic!" Uh, no Jethroe! It may be a Republic but it still operates on democratic principles!  As in majority votes win elections (except in 2001, but Gore would have taken the electoral as well if 170,000 African-Americans in Florida hadn't been put on felon rolls by Choicepoint.)

So the question becomes: What are the chances we all have to go through this bull shit again in three months? Many talking heads this morning, including several on 'Morning Joe' and also  Sen. Chuck Schumer,  think it's out of the question. Given the Repukes' political damage (they suffered a lot more than the Dems and Obama as they SHOULD have!) the argument is that they'd not do it again in a million years: hold the gov't hostage to nix Obamacare.

But the people that make such assertions have no remote idea of the morons they're dealing with. They also don't seem to grasp these people hail from extremist, backward districts with backward, ignorant and extremist people - many who pine for era of the old Confederacy. They detest that a black man holds the highest office in the land, and with every fiber of their being. Given they are at least semi-clever they realize they'd be seen for the knuckle draggers they are if they espoused outright racism - they use the subterfuge of attacking his signature law instead.

They are also enraged they've been losers in the last general election and haven't been able to swallow it since. So, no, they aren't going to go gently into that good night - they're going to return in ways that'd make "Freddy Krueger' proud.

Last night, Chris Hayes asked one of the Georgia tea bagger reps what he and his clique gained over the past 16 days.  As Chris put it, "the CR (continuing resolution) could have been passed over two weeks ago without all the damage." The guy looked Chris in the eye with a weasel's grin and actually said:

"Well, we showed our beliefs and our BRAND. We demonstrated our principles to the country"

Your brand?! Your principles? At the expense of the principles of the country?  He also implied this could go on again, and another Dem rep later interviewed by Chris agreed. According to that Dem, "they will do this every few months, leading up to the 2014 general elections, and they will pay dearly".

Make no mistake they will! Their ignorant, half-educated constituents will demand no less. If their current reps don't comply, a dopier ass right wing nut will be found in some backwoods moonshine joint to primary the original rep....on the right. Recall the original "model" for the primary on the Right tactic was unleashed in Delaware when Mike Castle, a nine-term Republican House Rep  and former governor was "primaried" by a bimbo name Christine O'Donnell (See below).


That success energized the Tea Party morons and made them realize they could threaten any "establishment" Republican with political extermination  - by picking some nitwit to run against him - if he failed to comply with their demands.  That model has since been used with enormous success and there is no sign - not one, the denizens of the Tea Party will cease and desist.

That means that in another few months we will likely face another economic Armageddon and more economic damage, Ironically, these fools who bitch so much about the national debt have-  with their silliness  -  increased it by over $22 billion. They've also slowed growth and ensured we have a deeper hole to dig out of, not to mention world markets' confidence being  undermined by our crisis politics. Do they care? Hell no!


An article on salon.com  ('GOP's Huge Tea Party Mess Has Just Begun') noted this morning:

"Republicans can spin it among themselves as a Democratic concession, but they can’t rightly look back at the ruin of the past month, and the content of the deal, and expect that they can extort unreciprocated concessions from Democrats next time around.The questions on everyone’s mind are, Will they try anyhow? And what will the coming months look like if they don’t?

Republicans didn’t just sacrifice an incredible amount of public cachet in this fight. Their leaders also revealed, for the second time this year, that they’re not willing to actually allow the country to default just to preserve party unity or pressure the president to cave. Unless they’re stricken with a nihilistic sense of bitterness and the feeling that they have nothing left to lose, there’s little reason to think they’re going to approach coming deadlines the same way they approached these past two. Before you object on the grounds that the past month’s events won’t make conservative House hardliners any less bloodthirsty: I agree. They can’t fight their nature, or their incentives, and they don’t even seem to want to.

My suspicion, though, is that the right will have about the same amount of sway in the months ahead as an erratic general who led his soldiers into a massacre, then re-assimilated unnoticed far down the chain of command. He’s still there, he’s still cranky, but other officers can now point to the slaughter and everyone will ignore his guidance."


Well, many other percipient observers, such as on MSNBC last night (interviewed by Chris Hayes) believe Boehner has emerged as more powerful politically for backing down, and also that he may use this leverage in the upcoming battles. So  no, don't look for the Tea Party faithful to "overlook his guidance". If those of us who are suspicious are correct, we will see an even more bitter replay in January - with another shutdown - and in February, with another debt ceiling face off.

We are informed by the pundits the ongoing discussion will now be about cutting "entitlements" but don't believe the ACA won't also factor in. Obama has held strong so far, without folding like a two- bit suit, but we must expect that he will continue to preserve his spine and not become too mesmerized with a "bipartisan deal" with proven hostage takers!

YES! The Tea Baggers Are Nuts Enough to Crash The Government!

Rebel traitor Jefferson Davis, whose visage still appears on many Southern license plates, must be smiling from his grave at how his neo-Confederate ideological descendants have brought the government to the precipice and will now likely toss it over the cliff.

"If you listen to right-wing radio, watch FOX News and read their online media and take it seriously (because they do) then you would know that many on the right don’t want to live in a country that has Social Security, Medicare, Obamacare, the minimum wage, Food Stamps, immigration, public schools, infant nutrition programs and the rest of the things government does to make our lives better. And they don’t want anyone else to live in a country that has those things, either."-  Dave Johnson, 'Misunderestimating Who They Are', smirkingchimp.com


Okay, I admit I was wrong. Way wrong! In my fulsome over optimism (which only occurs a few times a century) I had actually predicted the government shutdown would end after a week and never ever bleed into the debt ceiling deadline. I had somehow expected rationality to eventually prevail so we wouldn't have reached this point. But, alas, I'd underestimated the supreme idiocy and insanity of the Tea Bagger neo-Confederate band of loons holding this country hostage. Many of whom, let's be clear, don't even think a default matters or will have consequences. Thanks to these assholes, all of us will experience real consequences!


Ol' Jeff Davis must be smiling from his grave, to see his ideological and other economic descendants (in the Tea Party especially) are on the verge of crashing the federal government into what many financial analysts have called "Armageddon" if the debt ceiling isn't raised by midnight tonight.

Already credit rating service Fitch has put the U.S. on a watch list for credit downgrade, below its current AAA bond rating. If that happens, and if no solution is reached by midnight, then we are headed to default. The U.S. Treasury will be able to borrow no more money, and risks not being able to pay Social Security, Military Vets benefits, or bond interest. In this case, which could transpire by Oct. 31- Nov. 1 (as Steve Rattner noted on Chris Hayes' All In on Monday) then people will see pain across the board. Start with your student loans, home loans and car loans all going up. As Rattner noted, every 1% increase in interest means $20b not available for purchase of goods and services. One financial analyst firm already estimates the shutdown has cost this fragile economy $22b.

Meanwhile, this morning, John Chambers -   Chair of the Sovereign Ratings Committee at Standard and Poor's -  has noted that each week of shutdown has cut 0.3% of GDP from the 4th quarter output This alone is parlous, given the GDP in any given year remains unbelievably low at 2-2.2%.  Chambers noted that if we go past the point the government can't borrow any more, "one of two things can happen": 1) You'd have to cut government spending (other than debt service) by over a quarter of gov't spending, which would put the economy in recession, OR  2) refuse to pay bond interest coming due  -leading to absolute default. In this case, the outcome would be "much worse than Lehman in 2008". For those who don't recall, Lehman paved the way for the massive stock market crash (and credit meltdown) that year,  with most 401ks losing up to 40% of their value - from which many ordinary citizens have just started to emerge.

Chambers also dispelled a long standing myth among the ignorant Tea Bagger crowd, i.e. that the debt ceiling being raised allows spending.  In fact, as Chambers pointed out, "the spending has already been approved as per acts of congress, but now elected officials are balking at funding that spending."

And let's get it straight WHO these assholes are: they are entirely the Tea Bagger nutsos who have threatened Goopr  weak sister John Boehner with his Speakership unless he conforms to their idiotic, insane agenda - defunding the Affordable Care Act.  This is why Boehner, wussie that he is, turned down the reasonable bipartisan solution worked out in the Senate yesterday- which was really the last best chance to conclude a deal.  That deal would have re-opened the government at least until January, and raised the debt ceiling without any major strings attached, until February. So anyone prepared to blame the inability to go to military monuments (including Vietnam War Memorial) in D.C. on Dems or Obama needs to get their heads on straight about who the real culprits are here. (Oh, and stop watching FAUX News!)


Because as soon as the rational re-opening solution was sent to the House, Boehner's rebellious crew warned him it was a no -go. No way would they vote for it, because "it didn't go far enough". Now note- this was after GOP Senate stalwarts like Mitch McConnell, had already backed it. So WHO are the crazy whackjobs here? WHO are the ones responsible for this bullshit? They comprise a kernel of about 44 -odd,  recycled proto-Jeff Davis backers in the House - about 1/30 of the whole gov't holding the rest hostage.

Chris Hayes had a feature segment on 'Who Is Shutting the Government Down?'

At the top of the list, Rep. Paul Broun of Georgia's 10th district, about whom Chris played several clips, including showing this asshole stating:

- The South was victimized by "Yankee Aggression" in the Civil War

- Climate change is the "biggest hoax of the century"

- " Evolution, the Big Bang Theory and Embryology are ALL lies from the Pit of Hell".

Get this, this delusional psychotic jackass sits on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology! You want to know why your government is shut down, look no further than under -educated Tea Party pawns  like this. Though he claims to have an "M.D." degree, it could only have been awarded by Smokehouse Online Bible College since he professes the Bible governs and dictates science. And no real scientist would ever make a statement (following his fulminations against evolution, etc.)  like:  "It's these lies that try to keep me and all the folks who are taught from understanding that they need a savior".

Again, HOW the fuck can this fool be a member of any Science and Technology committee? Shit, how the hell could he even be a member of congress? The only explanation is half wit goobers in his district no more educated or informed than he is, electing his sorry ass!  And it is because of 44 such districts across these United States (mostly in the South), with hundreds of thousands of such halfwits (many pining for the glorious days of Jeff Davis and his lot) that we have 44 Tea Bagger traitors in the House ready to turn this country upside down to try and get their way. Are we now into appointing blithering imbeciles? Well,  figure it out for yourself when you next consider another Tea Pea moron backing the shutdown and default: Doug Lamborn.

Lamborn hails from El Paso County, Colorado, where he's been re-elected by the goober hyper military nuts ensconced here. Though these goobers piss and moan about "welfare" (Medicaid) for a pregnant mom working at Walmart unable to make ends meet from a piddling wage, they are quite happy to snatch military welfare benefits.  This includes defense contractor benefits such as Lamborn has proposed to construct a $1 billion 'combat air brigade" here in the Springs, defended as "necessary for training support in Afghanistan" - despite the fact the U.S. is supposed to be leaving next year.

In other words, $1 b down the drain, and that's not even figuring in the tens of millions wasted each year in fuel costs with 122 choppers flying hither, thither and yon.

Lamborn has also gone on record to defund any health care act, especially the ACA, which allows birth control. He also is against contraception, period, and demands a "personhood" amendment to "protect the unborn citizen".  Thus, he advocates passage of a new personhood amendment currently on offer, which penalizes any pregnant woman with up to 5 years behind bars if she is caught riding on a motorcycle, skiing, or drinking alcohol - which would be "voluntary manslaughter of the unborn citizen."

Now you know the basic psychological profile of the Tea Bagger assholes shutting the government down, and holding a gun to our collective heads as we near the 11th hour. Don't fucking blame Obama for any of this! He's finally standing his god damned ground as he should have the first time these fucks tried to extort concessions in 2011. Blame the Jefferson Davis, neo-Confederate dickheads who are hell bent to avenge the South's surrender to "Yankee aggression",  by taking down the current federal gov't led by the first African-American President.

To read more about the issue under discussion, see:

http://www.salon.com/2013/10/07/shutdown_shows_the_civil_war_never_ended_partner/

http://www.salon.com/2013/10/13/the_south_is_holding_america_hostage/

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/joshua-holland/52150/tea-partys-war-memorial-rally-was-another-let-him-die-moment

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/jack-lessenberry/52151/meet-the-gop-Taliban

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/dave-johnson/52148/misunderestimating-who-they-are

Why Boehner is a Liar, Weasel, Punk and Traitor

"They wanted to defund Obamacare, and they lost, and they know it. Now, thanks to the fact that they are frightening everyone, they want the prize they've been seeking since the days of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

For the record: if the Obama administration, in its bottomless desire to Do Something Really Big And Bi-Partisan, actually goes and takes this bait, they should be brought up on three hundred million counts of negligent homicide, because they will have killed the country for all time.-  William Rivers Pitt,  'Boehner, Obama and the Triple Dog Dare', smirkingchimp.com


So this whole freaking shebang shutdown has been all for show, to show the Obama administration, the country and the world that the old South is ascendant again and will call the shots (using 'hostage politics')  whenever the hell it wants. Tea Bagger nation, make no mistake, is the reincarnation of the Confederate traitors in modern form with John Boehner as Chief Enabler.

We now learn, as per the analysis of Chris Hayes last night on MSNBC, the GOP always felt the repeal or defunding of 'Obamacare' wasn't feasible and what they wanted all along was a ransom to extract "entitlement" cuts without having to raise taxes. Who'da thought? Well, we should have realized it was all an act.

As per a recent article in TIME ('Loss Leaders'. p. 24) Boehner never believed that challenging Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act) was a viable option since two days after Obama's re-election. According to the article:

"Two days after Obama's victory, Boehner was asked whether Republicans would continue to pursue a repeal of health care reform.

'I think the election changes that', he said, 'Obamacare is the law of the land'.

He flatly rejected the idea of tying funding for the bill to the larger fiscal battle.

'Trying to put Obamacare on a budget resolution risks shutting down the government."

So why in the hell did Weepy Johnno turn around and do just that? As TIME notes it was because his Tea Party Caucus wanted nothing less than Obamacare defunded. Since all those reprobates are invincible in their districts - never having to worry about being 'primaried' on the Right, so long as they adhere to the Teapee line-  it didn't matter to them. It did to the weasel punk  Boehner, who stood to lose his Speakership if he refused to cooperate. So despite his earlier refusal to put the ACA on a budget resolution, the little traitor did just that:  placing his Speakership above the national welfare, to appease his proto-Confederate minions.

Hence, pushed by his whiny punk zealot TPs, here we stand at the precipice of a possible credit default. And a never before event: The nation failing to honor its bond responsibilities for the first time in American history.  Is this "harsh language"? You're damned straight because harsh language to call these cretins out is what's required. Being "civil" is exactly what they don't grasp, and what they interpret as weakness. This is a point Obama needs to comprehend as I noted yesterday.

But lo and behold the demands have now changed. No longer does the GOP- at least its saner elements-  demand defunding Obamacare, , but  rather the full scale slicing and dicing of Social Security and Medicare - with no tax strings attached. Only then will they allow the debt ceiling to be raised and national economic catastrophe to be averted.

Of course, Obama can't give in to this new variant of extortion any more than the old. As blogger William Rivers Pitt has aptly put it ('Boehner, Obama and the Triple Dog Dare', www.smirkingchimp.com):

"President Obama's most significant achievement, his legacy for all time, will be facing down these cretins, holding the line against any and all concessions on elemental pieces of legislation like the budget and the debt limit, and ending the vile and vicious cycle of hostage politics that has done so much damage already.

If he doesn't, well...that's a legacy, too."


To which I totally agree. For Obama to even remotely consider doing a "grand bargain" that includes cutting Social Security and Medicare to allow even a temporary increase in the debt ceiling would be an abomination to tarnish his legacy permanently.

Does Obama Understand That He's in a WAR, Not Leading a College Debate Team?

"It does seem like this group of really hardcore Tea Party types may not really be impressed (by a stock crash). They seem to believe that the cause of justice is on their side, and that they are making some sort of glorious last stand or avenging the surrender of the South in 1865 or something. They may not listen."
- Doug Henwood interviewed in salon.com piece, 'Tea Party's Shutdown Lunacy: Avenging the Surrender of the South'

As I write this the news is that, once again, Obama plans to “talk with the GOP”. Does he not grasp that the time for rhetoric and talk is over? Does he not grasp that he is in a war, and not participating in a college debate society face off? Sometimes I wonder.

On the line is the full faith and credit of the U.S. government, and the restriction of payments such as to Social Security ($25b due on Nov. 1st) and for Medicare providers, as well as disability for vets. Already, death benefits have ceased. Meanwhile, the nation’s largest creditors, China and Japan (to the tune of over $2.14 trillion) have warned of the consequences of a default, or failure to raise the debt ceiling. Meanwhile, asshole Tea Baggers compare the ACA to the “Fugitive Slave Act” of 1850 and some of these nincompoops even profess that a default won’t be any biggie!

How much more of this bullshit is Obama going to take? How long will he yap with these Teabag Confederates before he understands they are just game- playing him? Already, a new AP poll shows his approval rating is in the tank, at 37 percent, barely 2 points above Bush Junior’s before the 9/11 maneuver to jack it back up .

But all I hear is rhetoric and blather. Why is it the man refuses to boldly act as a leader against these traitors? By that I mean doing one of two things: 1) minting a trillion dollar platinum coin and depositing it in the Treasury, de facto raising the debt limit in one fell swoop on his own, OR 2) invoking Section 4 of the XIV Amendment via Executive Order to do the same. Obviously, neither can be termed 'prosaic', but letting us become a deadbeat nation and allowing a stock market crash, not to mention credit default ….merits extraordinary action…..to my way of thinking. Which is preferable under the circumstances: a constitutional crisis (acknowledging the Civil War is active once more), or a worldwide recession? I will take the former any day of the week, twice on Sunday!

As the great former Barbadian Prime Minister J.M.G.M. 'Tom' Adams once noted, after one of his several constitutional debates in 1972:

“When ordinary means are insufficient to change those who would seek to undermine our polity, then the true leader must use extraordinary means to re-establish it.”

Is Obama a true leader, like John Michael Geoffrey Manningham ‘Tom” Adams? (Who used fiery street oratory as he traveled round the Barbadian nation to mobilize public opinion against a plan to change the Barbadian Constitution). I don’t know, but so far the indications are he is not. He fears conflict and “unintended consequences” which is exactly what a real leader must not fear. And despite avoiding what he might assess as “precipitate actions” (in minting a $1T coin, or invoking the 14th) his approval polls keep falling like a lead weight.

Nor does he see his opposition for what they really are: rabid, proto-Confederate rebels who’d rather trash the nation than see his signature law gain traction. Instead, he continues to labor under the delusion that he’s dealing with reasonable and rational men. Hence, the endless rounds of confabs …never amounting to squat. It almost makes one believe the narrative that Obama is a consummate campaigner but a leader…..not so much.

As a recent salon.com article already pointedly noted, this standoff on the debt isn’t about fiscal issues or debt at all, it’s about the Old South (via the old Confederacy) attempting to “avenge the surrender of the South”. See e.g.

http://www.salon.com/2013/10/09/tea_partys_shutdown_lunacy_avenging_the_surrender_of_the_south/

In an earlier, similar piece on the Tea Party's Southern heritage it was observed that the Civil War never really ended. A "truce" or armistice was merely signed, similar to the one halting the Korean War. What we now see, is the Civil War re-activated via the Tea Party's government shutdown and soon enough, refusing to raise the debt limit.

In their terrific book, Banana Republicans, Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber observed that the reason Republicans usually emerge victorious in political battles is because they treat them as "warfare", while Dems typically treat them as "college debate society meets". Hence, adopting a milder modus operandi etc. they consistently get their asses beat. It's time for this shit to cease, especially now with our financial future at risk.

The sooner Obama grasps the dynamic here, the sooner he will also grasp that talking with unreasonable, ideological puppets is useless, so is rhetoric via presidential speechifying. The time for timidity is over. Either mint that damn coin, sir, or invoke the 14th. Don’t dismiss them if you don’t want the nation taken to perdition by these latter day Johnny Rebs! ACT!

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Addendum Note: From Bernie Sanders

“Yesterday, the Republicans were using the Affordable Care Act as the reason why they had to shut down the government and not pay our bills. Today, it’s ‘reforming’ Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. What will it be tomorrow?

“Social Security, which is independently funded through the payroll tax, has nothing to do with the deficit.  The deficit -- which has been cut in half since 2009 -- was significantly caused by the Bush wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy and the Wall Street-induced recession, which led to a significant decline in federal revenue.

“The Republican Party and Paul Ryan cannot be allowed to get their way by threatening the American people with a continued government shutdown and a default unless Congress cuts Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.  That is not what the American people want.  Rather, we should be passing legislation which rebuilds our infrastructure and creates millions of new jobs, address the crisis of low wage employment by raising the minimum wage, make college affordable and fight for equal pay for equal work."

Below is a recent interview that Bernie did on CNN with Wolf Blitzer which discusses these issues.

IMF Warns of "Debt Catastrophe" if Debt Ceiling Isn't Raised - As Obama Takes the 14th Off the Table

Depiction of Obama from two years ago when he basically allowed the country to be extorted by the Reepo Economic Terrorists. This time he needs to approve the debt ceiling limit increase under Executive order- under the 14th amendment - even if brings on a constitutional crisis. The nation's interest must trump political interests and elections next year!

Incredibly, it appears that - despite strong advice from former Clinton aides- Obama does not have any intention of using the 14th amendment to raise the debt ceiling limit unilaterally, if the Tea Bagger driven Reepos continue their shutdown foolishness into the debt ceiling deadline of October 17th.  This despite the fact that according to a Financial Times article yesterday, the IMF has warned of a "debt catastrophe" if the U.S. doesn't pay its bills.

Let's be clear of the impact if the debt ceiling isn't raised by the due date. First, we may have about two weeks 'grace period' but then on Nov. 1st the Treasury must make a $25 billion payment to Social Security. This cannot be made if the ceiling isn't raised and that means that Social Security payments likely will be seriously delayed or not go out at all. Next, the Treasury must make a bond interest payment (on Treasury securities) of $30 billion by November 15th.  This payment assures creditors that the U.S. claim that bonds are "protected by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government" is honored. If it is not, and it won't be if the money isn't available via debt ceiling being raised, the markets will freak out. That includes the bond markets and the stock market. Two years ago, the latter dropped 17% as a result of GOP terrorism. What will it be like this time? Who knows?

Meanwhile, The Treasury Department has stated in a report:  "A default would be unprecedented and has the potential to be catastrophic. The negative spillovers could reverberate around the world, and there might be a financial crisis and recession that could echo the events of 2008 or worse."

As I noted in a previous blog (last month) The Constitution (Amendment XIV, Section 4),  is clear on the U.S. debt responsibilities:

The validity of the Public Debt of the United States, authorized by law, includes debts incurred for payment of pensions ....and shall not be questioned.

It is clear to me that if the Republican Congress refuses to act to raise the debt ceiling (and thereby honor the validity of paying the Public Debt) then President Obama can certainly issue an Executive Order to override a putatively derelict Congress and invoke Article 4 of Amendment XIV to raise the debt ceiling himself. 

But according to a UK Guardian article, Obama has no intention of doing so, thereby taking his most potent 'weapon' off the table. According to the Guardian:

" 'Using the 14th would show the Republicans he means business,' one former aide to Bill Clinton told the Guardian last week.

But the White House ruled out the option on Thursday, ending days of Washington debate about whether this obscure legal authority might provide a way out for Obama – at least from one half of Republicans' fiscal pincer movement.

 'The administration does not believe the 14th amendment gives power to the president to ignore the debt ceiling,' said spokesman Jay Carney.

'The fact that there is significant controversy around the president's authority to act unilaterally means that it would not be a credible alternative to Congress raising the debt ceiling and would not be taken seriously by the market.' "


But this is nonsense, and Carney's blather doesn't even pass a basic laugh test. Is Carney serious?  First, the President would not be "ignoring the debt ceiling"  - but rather respecting it given that a dysfunctional element in congress has obstructed its being raised!  Second, Carney's excuse that, 'There is significant controversy around the president's authority to act unilaterally'  is codswallop given  this is a prez who regularly (and unilaterally) orders drone strikes on targets from Yemen to Pakistan to Afghanistan - without any "approval" from congress.

While his drone strikes putatively address American security compromised by terrorists, clearly invoking the 14th would address Americans' domestic financial security compromised by the GOP and the incipient threat to the economic stability of the nation. Certainly, if Yemen merits a drone strike owing to incipient terrorist threats, the Repuke congress merits the 14th landing on their asses, given the Constitution clearly states. debts incurred for payment of pensions ....and shall not be questioned

So is Obama not obliged to uphold the Constitution, and in WHATEVER manner is required? I believe he is, given that the refusal to honor the nation's debts is a basis for intervention by an adult - and making specious arguments to avoid taking that responsibility  (to probably avoid political repercussions in the mid-terms next year) does not cut it. Not one bit!

Those who encourage Obama to grow some cojones believe 100% - contrary to Carney's PR blatherskite - that the power to use the 14th does inhere in the Executive if congress forfeits its own responsibilities.  In that case, Obama is obliged as the last adult in gov't to step in and seize the power to use the 14th. So yes, the power to use it  DOES EXIST IF Obama takes it. If he projects authority, and goes on the air to make clear the reasons for this extreme action, he will be as legit as JFK when he faced down U.S. Steel in 1962 and stopped them from raising steel prices.  Many in the corporate world at that time believed he "didn't have the authority to interfere in the markets" - but he did. Because he had balls, and he knew the national interest trumped petty political concerns.

Make no mistake also that the markets, contrary to Carney's nonsense, would definitely take such a move seriously, given what the alternative is!   Does Carney,  or whatever advisor is feeding Obama this foolishness,  really believe the markets would rather see a credit meltdown, default and a drop as big as the one in 2008? Puh---leeze! Do Carney and his clique really believe the markets would rather see a credit downgrade and the country's image damaged irreparably?

Will Obama have the balls to act, or will he allow the Repuke anarchists and terrorists to get the better of him again? We have to wait and see! In the meantime let's hope there are no further smokescreens giving BS reasons not to act, and more intelligent justifications for doing so. To give the Reeps a shot over the bow and show them the WH isn't going to come to a gunfight with a sling shot this time around.