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The Word That Changed the Debt Ceiling Debate ("Default")
Politico ^ | February 11, 2014 | DOUG HATTAWAY and STEVE PIERCE

Posted on 02/12/2014 5:06:51 PM PST by Timber Rattler

When Treasury Secretary Jack Lew recently gave notice that the federal government would once again hit the debt ceiling in February, the response from congressional Republicans—who twice took the nation to the brink of default—was decidedly muted.

The official line? “We believe that defaulting on our debt is the wrong thing,” says House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). “We don’t want to do that.” On Tuesday, the House duly voted to raise the debt limit without conditions, sending the action over to the Senate.

This move represents a 180-degree turn from the previous strategy of trying to extract concessions from Democrats by threatening to send the country into economic chaos.

Why such a stark softening of the party line? Republicans’ retreat from the debt-limit battlefield, which they entered so boldly in the spring of 2011 and again last year, began with a shift in the Democrats’ rhetorical strategy. A simple turn of phrase turned the tables on the GOP.

(snip)

We shared this linguistic analysis with top Democrats and recommended a simple, but critical, change in their message: Stop talking about the “debt limit.” Start the conversation with the word “default.”

(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: ceiling; debt; debtceiling; default; gope
Word games and psy-ops from Rat consultants, proudly bragging about it in Pollutico.

Boehner and company are such morons.

1 posted on 02/12/2014 5:06:51 PM PST by Timber Rattler
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To: Timber Rattler

The local radio (WBAP in the DFW metroplex) newsreaders today used a phrase like the “GOP voted to avoid default.” So everyone is getting on board with borrowing our way to prosperity I guess.


2 posted on 02/12/2014 5:11:36 PM PST by Menehune56 ("Let them hate so long as they fear" (Oderint Dum Metuant), Lucius Accius (170 BC - 86 BC))
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To: Timber Rattler

The word should have been “bankrupt”....


3 posted on 02/12/2014 6:00:06 PM PST by Tzimisce
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To: Timber Rattler

A permanent freezing of the Debt Limit would not cause default. Uncle has enough money coming in to pay the interest in any given month. Interest payments come first. Other things would not be paid, entitlements maybe would be trimmed a bit or the Navy might get beached but that all does not constitute “default.”


4 posted on 02/12/2014 6:18:07 PM PST by arthurus (Read Hazlitt's Economics In One Lesson ONLINEhttp://steshaw.org/economics-in-one-lesson/)
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To: Timber Rattler

Blame the dumb masses who fall for this crap.
No wonder Nancy told fellow democrats, “Don’t gloat after debt ceiling rout.”


5 posted on 02/12/2014 6:27:43 PM PST by griswold3 (Post-Christian America is living on borrowed moral heritage)
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To: Timber Rattler

Unsurprising that the same idiots who can’t figure out “shall not be abridged” can’t figure out “shall not be contemplated”.


6 posted on 02/12/2014 6:32:19 PM PST by jdsteel (Give me freedom, not more government.)
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