Posted on 07/17/2011 3:39:40 PM PDT by kristinn
Plan B is fast becoming Plan A for raising the debt ceiling and averting a fiscal crisis. With the White House’s push for a “grand bargain” fizzling and two weeks to go before the Aug. 2 debt default deadline set by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Senate leaders are negotiating a way to sidestep a default while providing maximum political cover for Members of Congress who believe they face a potentially career-ending vote.
Of course, the Senate plan would do little to put a dent in the deficit, and it falls well short of the $4 trillion deficit reduction package that Standard & Poor’s warned last week was needed to avoid a downgrade of the United States’ first-rate AAA bond rating.
For now, both chambers are moving forward this week with votes on a tea-party-backed Cut, Cap and Balance plan that would tie a debt ceiling increase to passage of a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget and deep spending cuts. “We have to check the boxes,” Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “One of them is to engage in this debate,” even though he said there’s no chance the GOP effort would succeed.
The votes in both chambers appear to be designed to give Members a face-saving way to eventually vote for the Plan B proposal.
“Everyone gets to vote on their Plan A before they go to Plan B,” a Senate GOP aide said.
The proposal being written by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) builds on McConnell’s fallback plan to give President Barack Obama the authority to raise the debt ceiling by $2.5 trillion in three installments. It would also kick the broader budget fight over that elusive $4 trillion grand bargain to a new...
(Excerpt) Read more at rollcall.com ...
At least Rand Paul will be opposing it. Had McConnell been successful in getting his stooge Trey Greyson nominated ....
You can tax ALL the rich 100% of their incomes and it wouldn't put a dent in the Obama deficit.
It is time to "MONETIZE THE ASSETS", and that's going to consist of issuing bonds backed by the land and other assets owned outright by the US Government.
They are immense. Without too much effort I was able to come up with well over $5 trillion ~
It is time to "MONETIZE THE ASSETS", and that's going to consist of issuing bonds backed by the land and other assets owned outright by the US Government.
[Translation]: Sell the mines, the coal and oil deposits, the Alaskan minerals and other national industrial treasures to the highest bidder - aka the Communist Chinese.
Great Plan! Who needs messy and inconvenient wars when your own politicians can literally sell you down the river to the Communists! And you are encouraging it!
[We all know what they will really do, nationalize the private pension and 401ks.]
Thanks for making my point for me. Speaker Pelosi was not going to let a single mid-term election stand in the way of doing the “right” thing (or I should say the Left thing).
Give the Demo-devils their due...they did the “right” thing, crammed 30 years of socialism into one Congressional term, exploded the debt to $14.3T and now taunt the GOP to have the balls to undo it.
And they guessed right: the GOP doesn’t have the balls. And Obamacare continues to be - and will continue to be the law of the land.
She, Obama, and the Democrats have - and always have had -their eyes on the prize. The GOP just likes being the loyal opposition, losing with “honor” and giving good concession speeches. While the country continues its 80 year march towards collectivism.
This is a small price to pay to keep Ponzinomics viable.
But as for me I choose Sarah and the Tea Party.
Congratulations.
The sole purpose of the Republican Party is to serve as an ineffective alternative to the Democrat Party.
Many Freepers are realizing that they have been caught up in the Good Cop Bad Cop trick.
From the pay scales I have seen (comparing the salaries of government workers) and their benefit packages (which cost about four times more than private sector workers), you won’t see any tears coming from me. From my Air Force days I don’t remember any DOD employees who were dropping dead from overwork.
“Many Freepers are realizing that they have been caught up in the Good Cop Bad Cop trick.”
Yep. Same as the last time during the Shutdown debate.
The are not caving. They are realizing it is even worse than they thought and choosing to try to keep the Ponzi going for a while longer. They are not geniuses. They were hoodwinked along with the rest of us.
Default and Reboot!!
Any Port in a Storm.
Dump the debt-based monetary system and go to greenbacks, with no debt. Problem solved.
I wonder how much of this is disinformation by the Left hoping to divide the Reps and undermine the significance of the legislation that will be passed by the House next week.
You could be right.
I have sadly become so cynical about the politicians on both sides, I am of the opinion they are all just actors to fool us about their true motives.
I guess I’ll be surprised if some preconceived result isn’t reached...and we are just watching a very scripted performance.
Every Republican that votes for “Plan B” had better spend some of the next 17 months looking for a place to live outside the beltway.
Most of the Democrats need to accompany their Republican counterparts since no amount of spin is going to hide reduced take home pay as food prices continue to rise 20 - 25 % per year.
The days of “We, the People” buying into reduced inflation numbers (aka inflation numbers without the volatile energy and food prices) have run the end of their course as more and more of us realize we cannot do without either energy or food.
It is time to CUT - CAP - CLOSE. If it hasn’t worked close it, cut it out, cap the proposed growth.
John Galt has arrived some 60 years after he was born.
There is nothing any GOP Prsident can do now to derail this Marxist freight train....If we, as a Nation, had acted 20-years, or so, ago, maybe Reagan's prophesy would have been avoidable.
Read the Declaration...The only possible solution for ending this tyranny is carefully laid out...
It’s another one of those “heads I win, tails you lose” deals. The balanced budget amendment deal will pass the House and fail in the Senate. The McConnell/Reid bill will pass the Senate and then the House with RINO/Dem coalition. Unless there is some last minute miracle that is the deal that is going down. I have read quotes from House GOP freshman that Boehner and Ryan are laying this out to them. I still don’t know if the RINOS have the votes. Nobody will be happy with this result except maybe Obama.
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