Posted on 10/13/2013 8:05:15 AM PDT by Kaslin
You would have had to be under a rock to miss our President stating that recently. He mouthed that repeatedly during the budget debate and the government shutdown. It became his mantra leading up to the impending vote for raising the debt ceiling. The constitutional lawyer was apparently absent the day they taught that we have three co-equal branches of government. More than anything else, Mr. Obama apparently does not understand how the debt ceiling works.
President Obama has regularly repeated “I will not negotiate over the full faith and credit of the United States.” Certainly he may mean that, but it appears he does not really understand the nature and the history of the debt ceiling. Or like many other things he may just be choosing to ignore it.
As with many other things, there was not always a debt ceiling. It was not part of our Constitution, as I am sure the Founders of our country never envisioned us being this much in debt. In fact, until 1917 the Congress had to authorize every specific incident of the country contracting debt. Then the United States entered World War I. Six months after our entry into the war, the Congress passed the Second Liberty Bond Act. The concept of a debt ceiling was created in this act. The law allowed the executive branch to issue bonds or incur other debt without Congressional approval. The debt could be issued up to a pre-established limit. The law was signed by the then most liberal President (Wilson) the country has had (other than the current one). It was passed by a Congress that had a plurality of Republicans in the House and a majority of Democrats in the Senate.
You may wonder what the leaders were thinking at the time. You can surmise that they wanted to provide flexibility to the President during a time of war. But since financial matters originate in the House, they did not want to provide a carte blanche to the executive branch to incur unlimited debt.
Thus, they established that a vote would have to be taken any time the debt ceiling would be raised. And it has been that way for 96 years. A vote in the Congress is by definition a political event. During the past 96 years there have been numerous votes regarding raising the debt ceiling, and I cannot remember a President flatly stating he will not negotiate.
Just to be clear there have been 53 votes to change the debt ceiling just since 1978. Of those votes only 26 were passed without being tied to other policy issues. The other 27 times (more than half) the debt ceiling was raised as part of either a comprehensive package or tied to significant reforms.
One of the arguments the President makes for his unique position revolves around the manner in which the debt was created. Mr. Obama states that the Congress is just approving the debt for expenditures to which they have previously committed. But our President once again deliberately misstates the facts. He seems to forget that his partner-in-crime, The Undertaker, has not passed a budget out of the U.S. Senate in four years. Well, that is technically incorrect. The Senate did pass a budget, but the Undertaker has ordered Senator Patty Murray, chair of the Senate Budget Committee, to not conference with Paul Ryan and the House Budget Committee as directed by the Constitution. That is why there has been a fight over a continuing resolution to keep the government operating. We once again have no official budget. But why should the Democrats in the Senate follow the law when they know they are doing the right thing?
One writer stated “I know of no other developed nation that has a debt ceiling. This is purely a recurring symbolic vote to make people feel good by voting against it.” That may have been so when Mr. Obama was in the U.S. Senate and voted against raising the debt ceiling during the Bush Administration. But times have changed. We have a President who has spent recklessly, and we have a Senate that has enabled him by not following their Constitutional obligation and approving a budget which might control that spending.
When Liberals are screaming about how irresponsible those crazy Republicans are with trying to negotiate over the debt ceiling, you can now educate them with facts. Then again, as has been said, facts to a liberal are like kryptonite to Superman.
What fool has full faith and credit for the American dollar any more.
Our dollar has one foot in a grease spot and another on a banana peel.
The administration and 3.3rds. of the Congress along with most of the Supreme Court.
Especially the blackmailed Justice Roberts.
President Stompy Foot always has to get his way!
Obama has Reid carrying his water with all the “it’s not gonna happen” rhetoric. Obama has managed to maintain a perfect Zero for accepting responsibility...
Spoiled brats usually think they are entitled to.
Stop it.
Stop It?
Justice Roberts is the reason for this shut down.
It was he who pulled this mess out of the fire. If he had ruled correctly Obamacare would be gone or at least in a lot of trouble..
Stop It? I do not have that intention.
Justice Roberts sold America out.
That is your opinion and you are entitled to it.
Massive payments of Payroll taxes are sent to Washing every day.
Telling Americans they will ‘be out of money’ on the 17 th is a blatant lie.
Are employers being told to NOT send in their Payroll Tax Deposits?
As a life-long bookkeeper, I seriously doubt it.
Thank You. So many times in here people feel that people with opposing opinions have no rights.
Respect for the rights of others is lax here.
I hate Obama more than anything . then I hate democrats then I hate socialism. but that’s all the same thing
Obama = democrats = socialism
I hate Obama more than anything . then I hate democrats then I hate socialism. but that’s all the same thing
Obama = democrats = socialism
Roberts exposed the heart of the beast. All Americans had to do is acknowledge what he showed them, and they'd be free. But they walked away from the truth.
He did what he could. It's not his fault if people want to play games with their freedom, rather than protect it.
He could have dissented to Scalia and just be done with it. He did not.
I don’t think the R party’s leaders or most of its members realize how important Obamacare is to the Dem party. The Dem party has wanted this for decades and it is considered the ultimate achievement in the establishment of a socialist gov’t. No less that Dem saint T Kennedy sought this and it is worth everything the Dem’s can muster to fight for it. They passed it in a very sleazy way, trying to quickly outfox the American citizenry, and will fight with every cell in their socialist bodies to see it stay in place. Its failings, risks, and impossible costliness are of far less concern to Dems than having it. Control over American health care is too important to the Dems to allow it to be compared with any previous political or government efforts.
The R’s need to grasp this if the R’s are to understand how challenging it will be and how hard they must fight to counter Obamacare. If they take up the fight, the R’s have the benefit of a large amount of public support for the fight against Obamacare.
That's because Scalia avoided the real issue. They all did, except Roberts.
Roberts pointed out that Obamacare was limited in application to corporate entities, as specified by the tax code itself.
It was the most heroic ruling in SCOTUS history.
Really....
Obama: “I will not negotiate...”
Obama: “I have bent over backwards...”
Zero is a complete and utter failure of a leader and a damned liar.
October 17 is Debt Default D-Day. Adjust your stock and bond holdings to account for the looming Market hissy fit.
Can you say morons?
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