Poll time! If you had the sole vote, but the potential plans listed were your only choices, which one would you choose? There is no 'other' option in this poll, because, obviously, everyone would choose 'other'. barfo
I choose "other candidates" next time I vote. Until someone has the stones to end all business subsidies and tax the rich far heavier than they have been in the last 20 years, this country will continue to circle the drain.
In the end Obama is probably going to have to lone-wolf it. There is no reason for the Republican's to cooperate, they can say he's a debt hungry liberal if he raises it on his own or that he let the country's credit rating fall if he defaults. Agreeing on anything, even what they want, with Obama will only give him fodder he can use to parade around as bipartisanship during 2012. They are thinking that sacrificing lunch now will make dinner all the more tastier.
Let's just make it an unlimited debt ceiling forever, continue doubling it every 18 months and see what happens. I'm sure it'll be just fine. This is one area where there need not be any accountability in government.
Don't raise limit, default is the closest to my choice. I'd not raise the limit and not default, which isn't an option in the poll. Neither is cut spending, period.
If they all agree to cut $3T in spending in exchange for raising the limit, they should do it. The democrats are blocking it because there aren't $1T in tax increases. But the extension of the Bush tax cuts sunsets soon enough, so they're going to get the tax hikes they seem so desperate for anyway.
Keith Hennessy has done the best writing on this subject, describing the issues at hand in layperson's terms: http://keithhennessey.com/ Donald Marron has an excellent blog post about how fungible the numbers are under the GoS proposal: http://dmarron.com/2011/07/20/does-the-gang-of-six-cut-taxes-or-raise-them/ John Podhoretz arrives at a scary conclusion: http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2...ally-trying-to-talk-the-markets-into-a-panic/
http://www.nationalreview.com/exchequer/272257/democrat-downgrade-reality-and-repercussions Terrifying.
Is it? I notice a whole lot of your fellow teapartiers going around saying default is no big deal. Michele Bachmann has said she'll vote for default no matter what deal is offered. Ron Paul says we should default. Are they the idiots they appear to be? barfo
"Unless major changes are made today, the U.S. will default on its debt sooner or later, and it is certainly preferable that it be sooner rather than later." That is what he's talking about. It isn't what I've seen people misrepresent him as saying. He also wrote this: It isn’t too late to return to fiscal sanity. We could start by canceling out the debt held by the Federal Reserve, which would clear $1.6 trillion under the debt ceiling. Or we could cut trillions of dollars in spending by bringing our troops home from overseas, making gradual reforms to Social Security and Medicare, and bringing the federal government back within the limits envisioned by the Constitution. Yet no one is willing to step up to the plate and make the hard decisions that are necessary. Everyone wants to kick the can down the road and believe that deficit spending can continue unabated. And I agree with him.
That's the concluding line of the piece. I can't see how you can make an argument that he's not calling for us to default now. barfo
It's out of context with the whole article he wrote. "If we don't get our shit together and quick, we'd be better off defaulting now when the pain will be a lot less." He's clearly dubious that we'll get our shit together.
As he should be. It obviously isn't going to happen in the next two weeks, any more than pink unicorns are going to arrive from Venus and pay off the debt. The choice we are actually faced with doesn't involve pink unicorns or getting our shit together. The choice is raise the debt limit or default. And he's for default. This isn't some slip of the tongue. He wrote it down and had it published. And it fits with your own views, according to the poll, so I'm not sure why you are trying to pretend he didn't mean it. barfo
So we should raise the glass ceiling debt more. And more. And more. And more. Until finally it simply can't be raised again. At that time things will be much worse. Your idea barfo of zero accountability and just shoving the problem behind the dam until it bursts open is typical of lefties.The " Let's just blame and then soak the rich, create more multi trillion dollar entitlement programs like there's no more tomorrow" plan isn't going to work this time. We don't need asinine sound bites anymore- we need solutions. Real solutions.
