http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/29/us/politics/29fiscal.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&src=igw In another article, it stated almost all the dissent from within the Republican party comes from the Tea Party. In other words, the GOP is fractured and for this issue the House has 3 parties and neither side able (willing?) to compromise. This is getting to be quite a mess.
if the tea pouchers become an actual 3rd party, what would their animal be? (dems donkeys, pubs elephants, tea dudes ???) maybe a magestic bald eagle with hair plugs
It's the same problem Gingrich ran into in 1994. The people that came to Congress in that class actually meant what they campaigned on. I'm still struggling to figure out why the responsibility to come up with a plan is solely on the shoulders of the minority party.
Boehner is having to come up with more cuts. They'll get a vote done (probably tonight) and it will pass with 216 votes (the bare minimum). Then the House will walk away and let the Senate and President Obama deal with it.
In the House I'm trying to figure out just who the minority party is. I was very perplexed as to how little Boehner could rally them. Clearly, to them, he's not their leader.
So who are these guys threatening to lower our bond ratings? How'd they do rating those mortgage derivatives?
I think it's important to come up with something and then let the Senate and President say 'yes' or 'no'. It turns the tables a bit. Good politics. Good DC drama.
We weren't meant to be a Parliamentary system. Just because you have an R or a D next to your name doesn't mean you have to buy everything your party decides it stands for.
Now that we have an unleadable European-style 3 party system, the logo should be a chubby polished English teapot. It should be depicted tipped and teaing all over our food on the table.
Yeah, that's a good argument. I'm sure no one will pay any attention to the downgrade since they didn't rate the mortgage derivatives correctly. As long as we are fantasizing, why not imagine that Congress behaves like adults and works together to make good decisions? barfo
I hope we default. Let it come. Let's start balancing the federal budget every year, which is the only thing that makes any sense. Let's not spend money that we don't have. Let's start making big cuts in spending. Let's restore sanity to the whole process.
The rating agencies definitely fucked up MBS ratings. Of course, there was so much lying on those applications and finance guys aren't real estate guys (although they think they understand the industry). As well, they simply didn't understand the math. Bond math is rarely fun and quite difficult. These instruments were constructed by mathematics and physics Ph.D's. I worked on the commercial side, which was by comparison much more simple. You could step back and analyze the actual real estate. It simply wasn't possible with the residential product. Finally, we confronted a six sigma event in 2008 that few people saw. All of that being said, understanding the debt problem the country faces is much simpler. The issue with the rating agencies has little to do with the short term debt ceiling, it has to do with our long term debt problem. Of course, the US could just say "fuck it" and ignore the ratings agencies. We could decide to set the market. If we sell our bonds, great. If not, then we have to tighten our belts.
We won't default. There's enough money to pay our debts. There's enough money to pay SS. What will happen is a government shutdown. At that point, the Obama Administration will shut down the most visible parts of the government to try to force the House to give him a clean debt bill. I don't think it's 1995 anymore in terms of the mindset of the American people. We are going to be downgraded, and that's going to wipe out any savings we gain from cutting the budget.
No. It's like having a $50K paycheck, $50K in credit card debt, and asking for a new credit card with $7500 more credit limit.
