Posted on 01/18/2013 6:15:59 PM PST by Wisconsinlady
Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, also said the Republican approach was reassuring.
"If the House can pass a clean debt ceiling increase to avoid default and allow the United States to meet its existing obligations, we will be happy to consider it," he said in a statement.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
goldstategop wrote:
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The debt limit ceiling passed in 1939, should be repealed. There’s no reason for a mature country to fight over whether to pay its bills.
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Ok, then please explain to us how you think you can get radical ideologues who refuse to negotiate or compromise like Barack Obama and the modern day Democrat party to reign in dangerously out-of-control spending without a debt ceiling???
I think the pubs should vote FOR the won's proposed budgets that even the dems wouldn't give one yea vote and let the dems squirm before the cameras explaining why the won's budget is no good.
They definitely need to try something different. What they have doing sure hasn’t worked. Of course there are a lot of folks here who want the GOP to just keep on hitting themselves in the head with the same old hammer.
“I can’t believe how stupid the Repubs are.”
Re-examine your premises. This is not stupidity. Or to repeat an oft used phrase, it’s not a bug...it’s a FEATURE.
The gop has only only marginally more interest in a balanced budget or reducing the deficit than the ‘rats do. Both parties benefit from spending to infinity or beyond. If you’re waiting for the gop to pull the plug, then you’ll be waiting for a long, long, long time.
“It’s not a matter of education with the GOPhers, it’s a matter of lack of spine.”
I thought that for a long time. But I’m coming more to the view that this is nothing more than poorly acted theatre for conservatives. The gop wing of our one party system has no more interest in reducing the debt or spending than the ‘rats do. Given that their rhetoric is so divergent from their actions, the gop has to play a game where they appear to be doing something in accordance with their voiced philosophy and “regrettably” fail to do so.
Usually things are more complicated but in this case they’re not. We’re being played by the gop. Nothing more, nothing less.
There they go again
“Not raising the debt limit does not result in default.”
Let’s ask a more basic question: why is default a “bad” thing? Have you seen the benefit from this profligate spending? Has your family? If not, then why should you yoke yourself and your future generations to a debt that fundamentally CANNOT be paid off?
If your drunken neighbor spends all his money, gets foreclosed on and ends up in the street as a result of his profligacy, are you responsible to spend the rest of your life in debt to buy him a new house and support him? If not, then how is this any different?
Would that we could convince every taxpayer who owes the IRS on April 15 to file for an automatic 6 month extension.
Yep. I’m beginning to wonder why stories like this are even news.
Every time one sees the term “House Republicans” or just “Republicans”, it is nearly always followed by such terms as “back off”, “cave,” “fail”, “reverse themselves”, etc. Is there no balm in Gilead?
Of course, they did. This Republican leadership has proven time and again that they have no stomach for any type of confrontation with any Democrat.
We are all being "played" by the illusion that there is a substantive difference between the Dems and the GOP.
In this particular case, yours and my -- that is our -- "drunken neighbor" has been pissing away our money and we all live in the same house.
In the event of default, among other things, interest rates on the national debt will go up...meaning that commercial interest rates will go up...and all prices will follow...and we'll have to deal with rampant inflation along with a continuing recession.
Actually, the debt isn't impossible -- it can be dealt with. But it's going to require a.) spending cuts and b.) a growing economy. The U.S. economy is a powerful machine -- if it's allowed to function.
Interest Expense Fiscal Year 2013
December $95,736,594,801.52
November $25,068,968,472.99
October $12,922,741,407.27
Fiscal Year Total $133,728,304,681.78
That is the interest since October 12 through December 12. The US can pay that interest off every month based on current tax revenues, and then would have to prioritize payments to see what else it could afford.
I predicted last month that the GOP would fold (again) on the debt ceiling as soon as Obama threatened to not pay Social Security checks.
Like clockwork, both event happened.
This nation must reform Entitlements or we will collapse economically in a very short time.
People that collect Entitlements don't want to hear that, but it is the truth.
You clearly don't understand this has nothing to do with paying existing bills. The current interest on the debt is only about 15% of monthly revenues. It has everything to do with making future commitments (spending more in the future and borrowing more to cover the future spending).
The debt limit process should never be repealed. If it was repealed, our rating would be downgraded to that of a third world country and the interest on future borrowing would be through the roof - bankrupting (as if we aren't already) the country.
“In the event of default, among other things, interest rates on the national debt will go up..”
How do you figure? If we default we’ve said “you aren’t getting paid.” Who cares about the interest rate if you’re not going to pay it back?
“..and we’ll have to deal with rampant inflation along with a continuing recession.”
We’ll have really rampant inflation when the Fed effectively destroys the currency by monetizing the debt. As they’re doing right now.
As for the recession, take a look at Iceland. They essentially defaulted on their national debt. They got slammed as a result. Big time. But they’re doing better now.
“Actually, the debt isn’t impossible — it can be dealt with. But it’s going to require a.) spending cuts and b.) a growing economy. The U.S. economy is a powerful machine — if it’s allowed to function.”
I beg to differ. The per capita debt AS IT STANDS RIGHT NOW is probably manageable. The problem is not so much that amount as the unfunded entitlements that will come later such as social security that continue to increase and are politically unresolvable.
Also your assumption is that spending will someday be cut and that we’ll have a growing economy. What leads you to believe that either of those will happen let alone both?
For the sake of argument let’s assume that our beloved gop some how wins both houses of congress and the presidency. What in the history of the last 20 years would lead you to believe that they have any more intention of doing the right thing in the fiscal sense than the ‘rats do?
Ultimately default is less of an “if” as it is a when and how.
actually ... when you get down to it, what difference does it make anymore? There is no point in just fighting over raising the debt ceiling by itself. The pubs need to fight dems on spending and how it relates to the debt and point out there is no budget. Until the pubs can articulate these matters powerfully then just fighting over taxes by itself or debt ceiling by itself will be a losing proposition
The term is “cave.”
They have been bitch-slapped so many times by pop culture and the state-run media that all they do is sulk around like beaten dogs with their tails between their legs protecting their shrinking jewels.
They may as well have the surgically removed.
They have utterly failed to communicate the message that there is no reason to lift the debt ceiling for the US to meet its constitutional requirements. We take in over 200 billion a month in revenue and our constitutional obligations are between 30-40 billion.
If they are incapable of explaining to the American public that what we need to do is prioritize spending until we reach an agreement to reduce deficit spending, they should not hold office.
Personally, I think they don’t want to stop spending because they have as much pork involved to buy votes as the Dims. I still haven’t decided whether or not they are aware that the Dims are intentionally spending us into collapse.
We need a debt ceiling for fiscal sanity.
Reaching the debt ceiling does NOT prevent us from paying our bills. You are believing and repeating the Dim/liberal lie.
We take in over 200 billion a month in revenue.
Our “bills” (that is, what we are constitutionally obligated to pay every month) is between 30 and 40 billion.
What we need to do, when we reach the debt ceiling, is decide where to stop wasting the taxpayers’ money.
THAT is what the left does not want to do.
If we eliminate the debt ceiling, both parties will deficit-spend us into complete economic collapse.
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