Bernanke and Geithner have never run their own household, apparently. And they are the smarts to lead this country.
Bernanke was appointed Fed Chairman by President George W. Bush. He was a major contributor to the Bush legacy of deficit spending and financial irresponsibility. Geithner was appointed President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York during the Bush administration. He began his career at Kissinger Associates (remember Henry Kissinger and the Nixon administration?).
As bad as Obama’s economic policies are, some key players in this drama were put on stage by Republicans, not Democrats. The blame for this economic disaster belongs to both parties.
The appropriations power, granted to the House of Representatives by the Constitution, gives Boehner and the Republican House the ability to fix this mess anytime they choose. They can simply pass a responsible balanced budget and debt ceiling bill and then go home. If Reid’s Senate does not pass the budget, the government is not funded and the fault lies with the Senate. If the Senate passes and the president vetoes, the shutdown is his fault. Bernanke and the Fed have absolutely no Constitutional authority in the debt ceiling and spending debate. The fact the House does not use its power and acquiesces to Harry Reid’s refusal to pass a budget suggests the Republicans are happy with the current situation.
Obama, Reid, Pelosi, Bernanke, and Geithner are all irresponsible. They are enabled by the Republicans. It is long past time for Speaker Boehner and the House Republicans to use the appropriations power to do the responsible thing. Our founding fathers would be shocked to see the people’s House failing to check the tyranny of the Senate and the Executive. Why the absence of responsible behavior by the Speaker and his majority?
Get rid of the debt ceiling? No, get rid of Bernanke: he has no practical value.
If the Dems win the house in ‘14 this will happen ten minutes after Pelosi takes the gavel.
“United States from paying it’s bills”
wwe are so screwed if the “journalists” can’t use contractions correctly. Should be “its” bills dummies
http://www.elearnenglishlanguage.com/difficulties/its.html
Bernanke says it has a symbolic value... since it has been raised every time we bump up against it (by both parties controlling Congress) he’s right. Congress will raise it again in February. It accomplishes nothing and is meaningless.
“If the Congress is approving spending ....”
The problem is indexed entitlements that put spending increases on autopilot. Let’s get rid of indexation, and also the concept of “entitlement,” and make ALL spending subject to the annual budget process.
The working model for this, and a perfectly sensible first step, would be the recent Republican proposal to block grant Medicaid and turn it over to the states.
A trillion here and a trillion there, and pretty soon we’re talking real money.
And the enslavement of our posterity.
At least that bit of posterity that we haven’t paid the abortionists to slaughter.
We’re witnessing a slow-motion national suicide, economically and physically.
Bernanke to Congress: Do your job, Pay the Bills
by Bill McBride on 1/14/2013 05:35:00 PM
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke was very clear. The “debt ceiling” is about paying the bills, not about new spending. He urged congress to do their job, raise the debt ceiling, and pay the bills. His preference was to abolish the “debt ceiling” since it is redundant.
From the WSJ: Bernanke Calls on Congress to Raise Debt Ceiling
“It’s very, very important that Congress take the necessary action to raise the debt ceiling to avoid the situation where the government doesn’t pay its bills,” said Mr. Bernanke ... “Raising the debt ceiling gives the government the ability to pay its existing bills–it doesn’t create new spending,” he said.
At another point, Bernanke said the “debt ceiling” has “symbolic value”, but he prefers eliminating it. He was very clear that Congress should do their job and raise the debt ceiling.
Bernanke also expressed concern about the long run sustainability of the debt (over decades), but that we also shouldn’t cut the deficit too quickly and impact the “fragile recovery”. He thought the fiscal cliff deal would subtract about 1.5% from GDP this year.
CR Note: As I’ve noted before, the “debt ceiling” sounds virtuous, but it is really just about paying the bills. Not paying the bills is reckless and irresponsible.
By stalling, Congress is scaring people and is probably already negatively impacting the economy. Congress should do their job. Today. I remain confident Congress will authorize paying the bills, but this delaying is embarrassing.
Read more at http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2013/01/bernanke-to-congress-do-your-job-pay.html#5zBbhrQKq2cDXoAF.99
Since it’s never been enforced, in my memory, it has no practical value.
Bernanke is looking more like Karl Marx every day. Coincidence? I think not.
So, NOW he admits it. What a lot of people already knew.
Hope Bernanke and Geithner watch out...especially for the 'under the bus' thingy.
Or is this all an Obama plan?
I trust none of them.
If it has no practical value, why go to the trouble of changing it?
The practical value of the debt limit is undermined by a Fed Chairman (Bernanke) who is perfectly willing to buy government generated debt with out limit and monetize it. If he got what he deserved, Bernanke would be hauled out and hung by a mob of hard-working Americans (not to mention their children), from whom he is stealing on a massive scale.
There’s a debt ceiling on my credit card. There was a debt ceiling on how much I could borrow to buy my house. Any lending institution will place a limit on how much a borrower can borrow.
Our debt ceiling is our country’s self-imposed credit limit. It forces our government to address the question of how much borrowing is prudent. It requires legislation to be changed. It is a braking mechanism for our expansion of debt.
Our big-spending administration is having a fit over this barrier to their spending. Obama lies when he says increasing the debt spending won’t increase spending.
We already have more than enough debt. Every available means needs to be used to avoid or at least minimize further increases.
He’s right though. And while we’re at it, or rather, while Obama’s at it, “we” don’t matter anymore, I say, while Obama’s at it, he should get rid of the House, Senate, Supreme Court, and all state and local governments. If it takes all that to get rid of the BCS, it might be worth it.
My checkbook is full so I must have money in my account.
Thanks all for a good discussion.
Bernanke: “... it’s got symbolic value, I guess, ....”
===> Look, I didn’t say Bernanke was wrong.
Pretty much what we have now only got ‘symbolic value’ - Recent election is a sham, the people we elected to represent us is a sham (mostly), the three branches of our government is a sham, the TARP/Stimulus/Bailout/what-nots are a sham.
The illusion of liberty and ownership of our own property is soon to be dawn on general public. How did we get to this sorry point?
When he monetizes each month's new debt, he undermines the real value of every dollar that people have contracted to pay. It is a moral outrage, which is a more honorable time would have been recognized as such.
William Flax
Kind of like throwing the baby out with the bath water and deciding that the baby made the water dirty in the first place, so let’s just dispense with babies...