Having nothing better to do, apparently, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation that it knew was dead on arrival in the Senate. It agreed to raise the debt limit contingent on the Congress passing a Balanced Budget Amendment to the United States Constitution and sending it on to the states.
A couple of things to keep in mind:
#This specific “crisis” is entirely manufactured. The deadline is self-imposed and can be avoided by passing a one page bill that agrees to raise the debt limit; something that has been done routinely by Republicans and Democrats alike.
#This is not a matter of taking on new obligations. The Congress has already agreed to the spending; right now is whether it is willing to pay for the obligations it previously agreed to.
President Obama and Senate Democrats, as is their wont, have confused compromise with capitulation at nearly every step, agreeing to make cuts to social safety net programs without requiring increased taxes on the wealthy. It’s not clear what the House Republicans have been willing to give up. Personally, I think the Democrats’ negotiating style is stupid. If the other side is making outrageous demands, you make outrageous demands too. If they want a Balanced Budget Amendment, you demand single payer health care. The goal is keeping the “middle” somewhere in the middle.
Update As long as we’ve given up on legislation that can pass and are just offering fantasy amendments to the United States Constitution, Hunter has some suggestions including:
#The South Carolina Port Amendment: Modeled on the 14th amendment, this amendment would state that all future debts incurred by the state of South Carolina in building ports, harbors, theme parks, gigantic gold-plated sphinxes and all other potential coastline projects shall not be questioned. Ever.
#The Ten Dollars Amendment: Whenever Michele Bachmann asks any American for ten dollars, if the aforementioned citizen has ten dollars on their person, they must give it to her.
. . .
#The Ron/Rand Paul SuperAmendment: From the time this amendment’s passage until the eventual death of the named House/Senate members, Ron and Rand Paul shall have veto power over all legislation, the ability to amend previously passed legislation, and the ability to change the Constitution at will. This will be known as “the founders’ intent” and shall be binding. Also, Rand Paul will get a shiny golden crown, but he promises it will be tasteful. Ron Paul would like a new car.
I think maybe they should throw something in there stripping President Obama of his alleged citizenship.
I think it was a manufactured crisis by the other side. “Increase the debt limit, or you’ll crash the economy”.
Really? Why is Wall Street still over 12k? If we are going to default on our debt, why is the 10 year yield DOWN to 2.75%?
It is all a bunch of BS.
I think the folks on Wall Street were pretty certain the Democrats would capitulate before allowing default. It’s pretty much their standard MO.
Doesn’t change the fact that all the news stories were doom and gloom. It was a manufactured crisis from that perspective, just like TARP was (when an 800 point drop in the Dow was called Armagedon).
It was also manufactured in the sense that there was nothing that required the budgeting to be tied to the debt ceiling. Dragging feet on the debt ceiling was a threat to renege on obligations Congress had already committed to.
Doug, you make your own opportunities. The D’s are the ones who didn’t take care of bidness when they had the majority (like, for example, get rid of the Bush tax cuts, if they really wanted to). There is a vote to raise the debt ceiling for a reason, and it isn’t to be a rubber stamp.
Mortgage rates are back down to 4.5%, I see this morning. So much for “economic chaos”.
What these low rates are really indicating is that we are going back into recession, and all signs were pointing that way well before this crisis was manufactured.
Buzz: I generally agee with you. Still I can’t help notice the stock market’s performance over the past few weeks (I am additionally shocked that the market dropped even further today).
Paul, the stock market went from 12.6k to 12.1k. Big deal. The drop was nothing, far smaller than the outrageous rhetoric in the papers would make you think.