Frank Guinta's Debt Ceiling Rock and Hard Place

When you are an empty shell (4.00 / 3)

looking to be filled with money by someone, you are going to run into times like this.  Selling your soul is a perilous transaction.  You might end up having sold it to the wrong devil.  Or even worse, you might have ended up selling it to more than one devil without realizing it, since they apparently all look the same.  

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by: Lucy Edwards @ Mon Jul 25, 2011 at 10:55:30 AM UTC

Money is for spending. That's what it's for. (0.00 / 0)

Money is not for eating; it's not for wearing; and it's not for sheltering under either.
People who want to spend our money want us to save it, so they can have it.  So, they tell us from morning to night that saving money is good.  But, in fact, storing up money is bad. Loving money and keeping it close, out of other people's hands, is bad. The root of all evil, if wise men are to be believed.

In any event, the conservative habit of saying the opposite of what they mean (a convenient code for those who know, in a world where there's another side to everything, that the unmentioned is what's really wanted) is biting them on the arse. Because, not only are the money bags hoarding money (over two trillion dollars in cash and counting), but "consumers" aren't spending either and producers have no incentive to make anything more worth buying. And, though nobody's paying official heed, any slack is likely disappearing into the so-called "underground economy." That's not just the trade in illegal drugs and services. That's also every handyman and plumber and roofer that's collecting payments and not reporting it.  Never mind all the friends and relations who are exchanging "favors" -- i.e. reverting to good old barter.

Then too, there's the fact that the promise of "tax cuts" (actually a cut rate to increase the actual taxes paid), designed to garner support at the polls, simply doesn't persuade people with no income to tax. The party line that corporate profits = more hires has been proved false, at least in the minds of people who can tell the difference between past and present. (Being able to tell time is not the same as being able to read a clock).

But, neither Frank Guinta, nor any of the other parrots, were elected by the Tea Party crowd.  There aren't enough of them.  The Chamber of Commerce parrots were elected by the people who were persuaded to stay home by the commercials that lied to them -- good people, who don't have a lot of time for the foolishness because every day they work longer and harder just to keep body and soul together. And therein lies the crime.  It isn't enough that people have been robbed of the necessities of life, lying commercials, robbing them of their peace of mind, waste the time they can never make more of.

That commercials are no longer selling goods and services is a good omen.  Let's hope it means that the selling of shady politicians is coming to an end, as well. Besides, while the money to purchase commercial minutes is close to infinite, there are only so many minutes in a day.  We can always make more money, but time is definitely limited. But, that's something it takes a sense of time to understand.

So, yes, spending is the problem.  Politicians spending time and citizens not spending money on commercial products.  But, it wouldn't do to admit that, would it. So, it's government spending (spending our money on public goods) that's blamed. Public corporate spending is the presumed opposite of private private corporate income -- i.e. when one goes up, the other goes down in the simplistic see-saw or light-switch model of the economy. It doesn't make sense because that's not how the world works. Even if there's only good and bad, not doing bad does not do good, regardless of what the Party of No assumes.  

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by: hannah @ Mon Jul 25, 2011 at 10:58:10 AM UTC

So, people are angry about the spending. (0.00 / 0)

And Obama offers 4 trillion deficit cut - twice.

And House Republican leadership, scared by Tea People reps like Frank - rejects it.

Okay then, Frank. Keep spinning.

birch paper; on Twitter @deanbarker

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by: Dean Barker @ Mon Jul 25, 2011 at 11:32:12 AM UTC

Carol Shea Porter (4.00 / 1)

had a really good op ed on the debt ceiling issue recently.  I sure do miss her steady and smart support of the rest of us.  

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by: Lucy Edwards @ Mon Jul 25, 2011 at 13:05:44 PM UTC

Guintaganda isn't enough on this one (4.00 / 1)

This is a challenge even for someone so adept at saying nothing.

Guinta will never be torn between the needs of the middle class and the wants of his benefactors.

But now he's between a rock and a hard place that pits his base against itself.

There hasn't been much to enjoy lately--so I'm groovin' on this one.

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by: Chaz Proulx @ Mon Jul 25, 2011 at 17:11:07 PM UTC

In no part of the universe is a debt ceiling or a depth ceiling (0.00 / 0)

a "tangible thing." A tangible thing is something one can touch. But, we should probably assume that the other senses of people, who rely on superficial optics for all their information, are somehow deficient.

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by: hannah @ Mon Jul 25, 2011 at 17:33:00 PM UTC

Boehner can't deliver. (0.00 / 0)

By my count, there are at least 100, and possibly as many as 130 Rs who will not vote on raising the ceiling.  Pretty sure that Guinta is among those, Bass probably not.

This is a dangerous game these idiots are playing.  And not because of the "Full Faith and Credit" argument.  That's all bs, because, as I've pointed out numerous times, we don't need to borrow from anyone.  

Here's the real issue:  The gov't spends about $150b each week, excluding interest payments.  That's a significant amount to remove from GDP at once - at least 1/3 of GDP per week vanishes in the first week.  That's a lot of projects stopped and people furloughed - of course, the Republicans have always believed in trickle-down economics.  Wait until this trickles down.

In the immediate aftermath of Since the start of the financial crisis, the Fed/Treasury lent, spent, or guaranteed $28 $29 trillion to save the banking system.

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by: StraffordDem @ Mon Jul 25, 2011 at 17:39:25 PM UTC

Debt ceiling (0.00 / 0)

This is long, but worthwhile. Probably can't get the accompanying picture of Boehner as a clown but here's the text -- came from Grayson in FL.

I know why House Speaker John Boehner walked out of debt ceiling talks with President Obama on Friday.

It's because Boehner can't deliver.

It doesn't matter what terms the President offers. It's that simple. Boehner can't deliver the votes.

The President might as well be negotiating with Tiger Woods; Tiger can't deliver the votes, either. But at least Tiger has a better swing.

On Friday, the President said, "I think that one of the questions that the Republican Party is going to have to ask itself is, can they say yes to anything? Can they say yes to anything?"

The answer to your question, Mr. President, is no. The national Republican Party can't even says yes to yes. And Boehner can't do anything about that.

In May 1935, Pierre Laval, then the Foreign Minister of France, and also the once and future Prime Minister of France, met with Josef Stalin, the Soviet dictator. Laval, a Catholic, urged Stalin to stop persecuting Catholics in the Soviet Union. Stalin asked Laval why it mattered. Laval replied that continued persecution could provoke a quarrel between Stalin and the Pope.

Stalin replied, "The Pope? How many divisions does he have?"

I don't think that anyone could confuse John Boehner with the Pope, but nevertheless, at this point, President Obama might ask the same question about Boehner. How many divisions does John Boehner have?

Fifty-nine House Republicans abandoned Boehner on the "compromise" appropriations bill. Even though Boehner depicted it to them as a Republican victory on par with, say, the Battle of Stalingrad.

And now, Fox News has reported that between 80 and 120 Republican members of the House will vote against any bill to increase the debt ceiling, no matter what else is in it. You can be sure that Fox News knows what Republicans in Washington are thinking - because Fox News tells them what to think.

So somewhere between a third and a half of all of the Republicans in the House of Representatives are going to vote against increasing the debt ceiling, no matter what Boehner puts in front of them. Boehner is a general with no troops. The coach has no players. The teacher has no students. The chief has no Indians. The bride has no bridesmaids.

That's why Boehner is always crying.

It seems as though all those rounds of golf lately between Boehner and the President aren't likely to accomplish much, except maybe lowering the President's handicap.

According to Fox, Boehner can't deliver enough Republican votes to increase the debt limit. So where does that leave us?

Congress has over 200 caucuses. The largest is the Congressional Progressive Caucus. I think that what Congress needs is a new caucus, Democrats and Republicans, who are willing to raise the debt ceiling without cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits.

I'd call it the Sane Caucus.

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by: Katemck @ Tue Jul 26, 2011 at 15:26:46 PM UTC