Posted on 09/28/2013 1:14:54 PM PDT by SatinDoll
You know me too, Frank -- we met at McStain's campaign shindig at the University Club in Washington DC in the summer of 2008. I recall that you and Governor Ridge both refused to take a stand on all the frauds in the mortgage market -- the very frauds that just a couple of months later led to the failure of Lehman, the market crash in general and the ensuing disaster.
It figures that you're now the President and chief executive of the American Bankers Association [ABA]. It must be really, really awesome to have your candidate suspend his campaign in order to bail out a bunch of jackasses and then get rewarded for that with the left seat.
So it is with much disdain that I am about to skull**** you for this piece of crap -- or shall we just call it a wholesale lie -- you got published in the Washington Post:
In this country, our word is our bond. The respect and admiration that the United States and its institutions inspire around the world are based on the certainty that when our nation makes a promise, we keep it.
Unfortunately, Congress seems poised to undermine U.S. credibility at home and abroad by taking the extraordinary step of reneging on bills that our nation has racked up. Ordinary Americans will bear the brunt of the damage if our leaders don’t prevent the United States from defaulting on its debt for the first time in history.
That's a bald-faced, knowing lie.
A refusal to raise the debt ceiling is not a default.
A default would be the refusal to pay the interest and principal (or roll over the latter) when it came due. Refusing to borrow more money is not a default any more than your refusal to ask for an increased credit line on your VISA card when you reach that limit, or a refusal to take out a HELOC against your house so you can spend even more than you make, is a default.
But more to the point there are two sorts of defaults -- voluntary (where you simply erect the middle finger toward your creditor) and involuntary (where you can't make the payments on a cash-flow basis.)
The day our interest cost and "mandatory" spending that we have given priority by law exceeds tax revenues our default has become involuntary.
That day is in fact here because we continue to pile up debt at a rate that exceeds the income of the nation from which those payments must come.
A decision to stop that, which is what a refusal to raise the debt ceiling constitutes, is a good and fiscally-responsible act. It will force on an immediate basis a balanced budget where Congress and the Executive can spend only that which it is able to tax. That in turn will force a reduction in both mandatory and discretionary spending to a level where that, plus interest payments, are covered by tax receipts.
But there's even more crap that Keating spewed than his first lie in this piece, and the worst of it is here:
Beyond the enormous cost to taxpayers, even the slightest uptick in Treasury interest rates would cascade through the economy.
That change is coming whether you like it or not. It is simple arithmetic -- nobody intentionally lends at a loss, and the steady downward path for interest rates, a 30 year cycle, is coming to an end irrespective of whether you or anyone else approves of same because the purchasing power destruction that occurs in a fiat currency world when you increase the denominator (supply of currency and credit) cannot continue on a permanent basis without lenders coming to their senses and ceasing to allow you to borrow at a net negative rate of interest.
Using the debt ceiling as leverage in the deficit debate is unwise and dangerous. Citizens nationwide are frustrated with the political stalemate in Washington. But our nation’s financial integrity should not be used as a bargaining chip.
It is not a "bargaining chip" -- it is a statement that we, the people of this nation, demand that the government of this country spend only what it is able to tax and pay down the debt already accumulated.
Since neither political party will do this "voluntarily" one of them, the Republicans, have taken to forcing the issue by refusing to increase the borrowing capacity of the government in an effort to begin the process of rationalizing the cash flow statement and balance sheet of this nation's government.
This is a good thing, it should be allowed to stand, and the government should be forced to live within its ability to tax.
Confidence in the ability of our nation to pay its debts on time is not "lost" by refusing to borrow more money.
Quite to the contrary -- confidence in the ability of our nation's ability to pay its debts will be permanently and irrevocably lost at the point where mandatory (entitlement) spending + military spending exceeds tax revenues.
Well you might want to look at the numbers Mr. Keating, because Pensions, Health Care and Defense total to about $2.7 trillion for FY13.
Income and Social Insurance taxes total approximately..... $2.7 trillion.
How much does that leave for interest payments?
What was that you were saying about default again?
Read it. The message is as clear as it is angry. And Karl has been angry a lot lately.
Really. I do not see Republicans making any effort to halt it.
I see Conservatives such as Cruz and others attempting to do so, and the Tea Party growing and demanding that more representatives of the people abide by the oaths they swore to uphold. Would that more of our political perfumed pelosis attempted to do the same.
“political perfumed pelosis”
May I suggest pickled political Pelosi?
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