Posted on 01/14/2013 8:51:05 PM PST by tentmaker
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Investors should understand why some Republicans are willing to allow the U.S. to default on its debt.
President Barack Obama on Monday took a preemptive approach to criticize Republicans on the looming debt-ceiling clash, as he said they had the choice between acting responsibly and paying Congress' bills, or acting irresponsibly by allowing the economy to crash.
(Excerpt) Read more at thestreet.com ...
Republicans ought to do a lot of things, but they won't. It will do nobody any good to hope that they will do what they ought to.
They will no longer be a serious national party by 2016.
——— Obama on Monday took a preemptive approach——
Was he boasting of his tyrannical power or projecting his fear?
Either way he comes off as a loser. He shows that the way forward is best without Obama
The plan sounds good. The GOP has as many good plans as the Democrats has ‘good’ intentions.
Unfortunately, the party is composed of cowards and liars. Connie Mack did not even try for the seat. GOP=Geriatric Obtuse Perjurors.
Maybe that is because they are...
Hard work and determination are no longer part of the American lexicon. Americans believe in magic. We want someone with a wand to come in and wave it all away.
RE: We weren’t. Not even close.
My point is we survived with government revenues of just $2.6 trillion ( not the $3.6 trillion today ). There was no mass starvation, no seniors being thrown to the snow with no medical care, no debt default.
If we could do it with $2.6 trillion then, why can’t we do it now?
edit to add:
And here’s why there is NO chance of a default (and why Obama is simply posturing, or at worst, LYING ):
There are two parts to the obligations subject to the debt ceiling: that part of the principal maturing during the time in question and the interest payments that the federal government must make on its debt.
Between February 15 and March 15 of this year, the federal government will owe roughly $38.1 billion in interest payments. Failure to make those payments would indeed result in default. However, the federal government will also collect an estimated $277 billion in taxes and other revenue over that same period, meaning there will be MORE THAN ENOUGH money available to make those interest payments.
True, the federal government would not have enough revenue to continue spending the $452 billion that it otherwise would over that period. It would have to prioritize its expenditures until the debate was resolved. But there would be, for example, enough money to afford the interest on the debt, military salaries, Social Security, and Medicare, with at least $90 billion left over for other things.
So, where’s the problem? ANSWER: WE WANT TO SPEND MORE THAN WE TAKE IN.
Simple solution: DON’T SPEND MORE THAN WE TAKE IN. In other words, WE DON’T NEED THE ADDITIONAL 1 TRILLION DOLLARS WE HAVE BEEN SPENDING SINCE WE DESIGNED AN INEFFECTIVE “STIMULUS” BUDGET IN 2009 WHICH BECAME THE NEW NORMAL!!
What’s so hard to understand?
The historical lesson is that when Hoover was president, everything he wanted to do to end the Great Depression was thwarted by the Democrat controlled congress. But not always.
In the first half of Hoover’s term, congress was all Republican. Then the House was won by the Democrats, who absolutely *refused*, point blank, to do anything to lift the US out of the Great Depression, figuring correctly that Hoover would be blamed.
In other words, the parallels are enormous, but the Republicans should contemplate the outcomes.
In Obama’s first term, the Republicans played along with him, passing continuing resolutions instead of Harry Reid even permitting the senate from discussing a budget.
And Obama was reelected. The Republican house could have done what the Democrats did during Hoover, and ruined Obama, but they didn’t, so they lost.
Now they have yet another chance. If they raise the debt ceiling, they and the country will lose again, and they will be slammed with the mid-term elections. Democrats may very well get an entirely Democrat congress for the last two years of Obama.
But if the Republicans fight, refuse to pass the debt ceiling, yes there will be economic trouble. But Obama and the Democrats are the ones who will suffer for it.
And the earlier the Republicans start, the less it will be held against then come the mid-terms. But this may be their last chance to prove themselves worthy. Otherwise, they may again be relegated to minority status for another 50 years, and radical Democrats will systematically destroy America.
If they fail to disarm him, John Boehner and Mitch McConnell should not just be turned out of office, but their names should be stricken from the books, and their families sterilized.
However, it won't happen. There are too many Repubics who are no different, essentially, than Democrats . . . they are strung out junkies addicted to spending money we no longer have.
Wish it weren't so, but . . . things will have to get much worse before they will ever get better. America is in for a very bad patch.
>>Repubics love to spend money we don’t have just as much as 0bamatrons.
Demonstrably false. There are at least pockets of resistance to this in the Republican Party. There are none, zip, nada in the Democrat Party.
Pushing the falsehood that there is no difference doesn’t help matters.
“Demonstrably false,” you say. Then you refer to “at least pockets of resistance to this in the Republican Party,” Which is an admission that what I say is not “Demonstrably false.”
I agree with almost everything you said, save that I don’t consider rolling over debt to be “paying” debt. Especially when we’ve been doing it since the initial baby boomers, who are now at retirement age, were delivering newspapers.
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