The Coming Debt Limit Drama: Government Wins, We Lose (Ron Paul)

The Coming Debt Limit Drama: Government Wins, We Lose (Ron Paul)

 

Free foundation ^ | January 21, 2013 | Ron Paul

 

Posted on Monday, January 21, 2013 3:46:47 PM by listenhillary

 

Congressman Ron Paul at an event hosted in his honor at CPAC 2011 in Washington, D.C. Please attribute to Gage Skidmore if used elsewhere. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

 

 

 

 

Last week President Obama bluntly warned Congress that he will not negotiate when it comes to raising the statutory debt limit. If Republicans attempt to use a debt ceiling vote to win concessions on spending from the White House, Mr. Obama threatens simply to raise the limit by executive order or other unilateral action.

 

Obama 2.0: Smarter, tougher — but wiser? (by David Gergen)

“Just watch,” they said to me, in effect, “he will win re-election decisively and then he will throw down the gauntlet to the Republicans, insisting they raise taxes on the wealthy. Right on the edge of the fiscal cliff, he thinks Republicans will cave.”

 

mussobama (Photo credit: GunnyG1345)

 

 

 

 

What’s your Plan B, I asked. “We don’t need a Plan B,” they answered. “After the president hangs tough — no more Mr. Nice Guy — the other side will buckle.” Sure enough, Republicans caved on taxes. Encouraged, Obama has since made clear he won’t compromise with Republicans on the debt ceiling, either.

 

Obama Dodges Question About His Own Vote Against Raising The Debt Ceiling (video)

Obama Dodges Question About His Own Vote Against Raising The Debt Ceiling (video)

Youtube ^ | 1/14/13 | GOPICYMI

Posted on Monday, January 14, 2013 12:32:14 PM by Nachum

realobam (Photo credit: GunnyG1345)

Pres. Obama Dodges a question from Major Garrett of CBS news on his own voting against raising the debt ceiling when he was a Senator (January 14, 2013).

Obama may Ignore the Debt Ceiling and Suspend the Constitution: Obama and the Debt Ceiling

The debt ceiling is the last leverage that Republicans have to prevent out-of-control Federal spending and on various policy issues. Liberals know this: even as Senate Democrats talk of ending the right of Republicans to filibuster, liberals are seeking to defang the Republican House of Representatives as well.

 

They are also now peddling a new theme that the debt ceiling itself is unconstitutional under Section 4 of the 14th Amendment. Therefore, President Obama may simply ignore the debt ceiling.

 

How the GOP is Betraying America

How the GOP is Betraying AmericaTPNN – TEA PARTY NEWS NETWORK ^ | December 19, 2012 | Todd CefarattiPosted on Wednesday, December 19, 2012 12:45:59 PM by SaveOurRepublicFromTyranny

 

Official portrait of United States House Speaker (R-Ohio). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Most recently, Speaker of the House Boehner has made offers to the White House that already included tax hikes that surpassed what the Democrats had originally asked for- and it was turned down!

 

Boehner then sweetened the pot by offering to suspend the debt ceiling for a year- and it was turned down as well!…

 

(“Social Chaos Is Coming Because of massive dependence on government…”) ~ Government Dependency Will End in Chaos by Ron Paul

 

Listen to Ron Paul

GyGRet (Photo credit: GunnyG1345)

The media insists on characterizing statements about dependency on government handouts as controversial, but in truth such statements are absolutely correct.

Congressman Ron Paul at an event hosted in his honor at CPAC 2011 in Washington, D.C. Please attribute to Gage Skidmore if used elsewhere. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s not that nearly half of Americans are dependent on government; it’s actually more than half. If one includes not just people on food stamps and welfare, but also seniors on Medicare, Social Security and people employed by the government directly, the number is more like 165 million out of 308 million, which is 53%.

Massive default is best way to fix the economy

Massive default is best way to fix the economy

Massive default is best way to fix the economy:

You want to fix this economic crisis? You want to put people back to work?

There’s a way to do it. But you’re not going to like it.

The fastest way to fix this mess is to see tens of millions of homeowners default on their mortgages, and millions more file for bankruptcy………………………………

MORE…..

via BLOGGER.GUNNY.G.1984 (+) NOW!: Massive default is best way to fix the economy.

Editorial: Is A Weaker U.S. Part Of Debt Deal?

National Security: With his boss on vacation, Vice President Joe Biden has a very important job to do. He’s in China, begging communist officials to please keep buying our bonds. If they do, what’s he giving them in return?

Sending Biden to China, pardon the phrase, raises red flags about what we might commit to while he’s there. What is Biden, the gaffemeister in chief, authorized to give the Chinese?

Officially, the White House says Biden’s in China to sell its leaders on the U.S. debt-ceiling deal that will trim $2.5 trillion from the expected deficits of $10 trillion over the next decade.

But with S&P downgrading us from AAA to AA+ just a week ago, Biden wouldn’t seem to have much standing to argue that it’s a good deal. Fiscally, we’ve never been in worse shape. So how can Biden persuade the Chinese — who already hold $2 trillion or so in dollar-based assets — that more debt is a good deal for them?

Will he tell China’s apparatchiks that a half-trillion, maybe more, of the cuts in the debt deal come out of defense? Or that the cuts were so severe that even new Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has warned of going too far — and possibly hollowing out the military? If so, China may agree it’s a good deal.

The administration has signaled as much. On the eve of Biden’s trip, the White House suddenly announced it wouldn’t sell F-16 jets to Taiwan — a huge strategic favor to the Chinese. Was there a quid pro quo?

(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com …

via Editorial: Is A Weaker U.S. Part Of Debt Deal?.

Reports of America’s death are greatly exaggerated

A number of influential thinkers had concluded that the era of U.S. dominance was coming to an end. The military was overstretched, debt was overwhelming, the East’s new economies were taking over and no one was listening to the Yanks.

SNIP

A few things should be kept in mind. First, pay attention to what happened when markets plummeted Thursday: Precious metals, the euro and the loonie also tumbled as investors fled to the safety of U.S. Treasury securities.

The greenback remains the world’s haven. Despite two years of deliberate currency devaluation (and more to come), the U.S. dollar remains the preferred currency of reserve, exchange, account and savings – not because it’s stable but because there’s nothing else on the horizon. Countries have snapped up all the Brazilian real securities they can find, China’s yuan isn’t trusted and the euro has lost whatever reputation it had.

Second, note that Washington’s debt emergency was not a real event created by economic circumstances but a political event created by a partisan showdown. The U.S. debt burden would be eliminated almost immediately if Congress would implement tax measures of the sort that Canada and most Western countries have. The fact that Congress won’t do so is deeply damaging to the U.S. economy and its citizens’ livelihood, but it’s not inevitably related to America’s standing in the world.

And third, ignore those tales of military decline. Yes, Afghanistan and Iraq were either failures or break-evens, but so were the first three big wars the U.S. fought after the Second World War. Yes, military spending is being slashed, but only to mid-2000s levels, still giving the U.S. more force than all other major armies combined.

(Excerpt) Read more at theglobeandmail.com …

via Reports of America’s death are greatly exaggerated.

Rep. Chris Gibson Won’t Address Questions About Possible Obama Crimes ~

Rep. Chris Gibson Won’t Address Questions About Possible Obama Crimes ~

Subject: [The Post & Email] Twice Daily Digest Email

To: webmaster@thepostemail.com

The Post & Email has posted a new item, ”

Rep. Chris Gibson Won’t Address Questions About Possible Obama Crimes

http://www.thepostemail.com/2011/08/01/rep-chris-gibson-wont-address-questions-about-possible-obama-crimes/

TO WHICH CONSTITUTION DID THIS RETIRED MILITARY MAN SWEAR AN OATH?

by Sharon Rondeau

via BLOGGER.GUNNY.G.1984(+): Rep. Chris Gibson Won’t Address Questions About Possible Obama Crimes ~.

Prison Planet.com » An Economy Destroyed: The Enemy Is Washington

Recently, the bond rating agencies that gave junk derivatives triple-A ratings threatened to downgrade US Treasury bonds if the White House and Congress did not reach a deficit reduction deal and debt ceiling increase. The downgrade threat is not credible, and neither is the default threat. Both are make-believe crises that are being hyped in order to force cutbacks in Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

If the rating agencies downgraded Treasuries, the company executives would be arrested for the fraudulent ratings that they gave to the junk that Wall Street peddled to the rest of the world. The companies would be destroyed and their ratings discredited. The US government will never default on its bonds, because the bonds, unlike those of Greece, Spain, and Ireland, are payable in its own currency. Regardless of whether the debt ceiling is raised, the Federal Reserve will continue to purchase the Treasury’s debt. If Goldman Sachs is too big to fail, then so is the US government.

There is no budget focus on the illegal wars and military occupations that the US government has underway in at least six countries or the 66-year old US occupations of Japan and Germany and the ring of military bases being constructed around Russia.

The total military/security budget is in the vicinity of $1.1-$1.2 trillion, or 70% -75% of the federal budget deficit.

In contrast, Social Security is solvent. Medicare expenditures are coming close to exceeding the 2.3% payroll tax that funds Medicare, but it is dishonest for politicians and pundits to blame the US budget deficit on “entitlement programs.”

Entitlements are funded with a payroll tax. Wars are not funded. The criminal Bush regime lied to Americans and claimed that the Iraq war would only cost $70 billion at the most and would be paid for with Iraq oil revenues. When Bush’s chief economic advisor, Larry Lindsay, said the Iraq invasion would cost $200 billion, the White House Moron fired him. In fact, Lindsay was off by a factor of 20. Economic and budget experts have calculated that the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have consumed $4,000 billion in out-of-pocket and already incurred future costs. In other words, the ongoing wars and occupations have already eaten up the $4 trillion by which Obama hopes to cut federal spending over the next ten years. Bomb now, pay later.

As taxing the rich is not part of the political solution, the focus is on rewarding the insurance companies by privatizing Medicare at some future date with government subsidized insurance premiums, by capping Medicaid, and by loading the diminishing middle class with additional Social Security tax.

via Prison Planet.com » An Economy Destroyed: The Enemy Is Washington.

Surprise! Obama can’t remember his birthday

President Obama just can’t seem to keep track of birthdays, especially his own.

After spending more than two years in office deflecting questions surrounding his birth, the commander in chief said on Friday that he’d be turning 50 in a week.

“You know, I’m going to be turning 50 in a week, so I’m starting to think a little bit more about Medicare eligibility,” Obama said at a news conference concerning the U.S. debt.

(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com …

via Surprise! Obama can’t remember his birthday.

Surprise! Obama can’t remember his birthday

President Obama just can’t seem to keep track of birthdays, especially his own.

After spending more than two years in office deflecting questions surrounding his birth, the commander in chief said on Friday that he’d be turning 50 in a week.

“You know, I’m going to be turning 50 in a week, so I’m starting to think a little bit more about Medicare eligibility,” Obama said at a news conference concerning the U.S. debt.

But, according to the document he claims to be his official Hawaiian birth certificate that he released April 27, his birthday is not until August 4, which is actually three weeks away from the time he said it, not one.

via Surprise! Obama can’t remember his birthday.

A Short History of US Credit Defaults – John S. Chamberlain – Mises Daily

On July 13th, the president of the United States angrily walked out of ongoing negotiations over the raising of the debt ceiling from its legislated maximum of $14.294 trillion dollars. This prompted a new round of speculation over whether the United States might default on its financial obligations. In these circumstances, it is useful to recall the previous instances in which this has occurred and the effects of those defaults. By studying the defaults of the past, we can gain insights into what future defaults might portend.

The Continental-Currency Default

The first default of the United States was on its first issuance of debt: the currency emitted by the Continental Congress of 1775. In June of 1775 the Continental Congress of the United States of America, located in Philadelphia, representing the 13 states of the union, issued bills of credit amounting to 2 million Spanish milled dollars to be paid four years hence in four annual installments.

The next month an additional 1 million was is

via A Short History of US Credit Defaults – John S. Chamberlain – Mises Daily.

Barack ‘No Drama’ Obama makes a stand on debt and finally loses his cool

He walked out of a meeting with Republican congressional leaders on deficit reduction, telling them “enough was enough”.

It was the fourth such meeting in as many days to end fruitlessly, and the president’s mounting frustration had been clear.

In a press conference on Monday he ruled out a temporary agreement on raising the US debt limit, insisting “we might as well do it now – pull off the Band-Aid, eat our peas”.

“They’re in one week and they’re out one week,” he said, making his irritation plain. “You need to be here. I’ve been here. I’ve been doing Afghanistan and bin Laden and the Greek crisis. You stay here. Let’s get it done.”

Liberals will ask what took him so long. Losing the public option on health care, failing to close Guantánamo, extending Bush tax cuts for the rich – none of this caused the famously cool operator in the White House to lose his rag. He has often been accused of excessive detachment, of failing to empathise with the plight of ordinary Americans.

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk …

via Barack ‘No Drama’ Obama makes a stand on debt and finally loses his cool.

Jim Rogers Calls U.S. Debt Ceiling Talks ‘A Sham’

While his former colleague at the Quantum Fund, George Soros, was busy discussing the euro zone sovereign debt crisis, Jim Rogers chose to focus this week on the fiscal problems facing the United States.

In an interview on Fox Business News, the legendary investor provided his latest scathing criticism of American politicians and the federal government as a whole.

“They will probably raising the debt ceiling and announce some kind of wonderful deal, which they will promptly ignore,” Rogers contended. “The United States is not going close down. It might be good for the world if the United States closed down for a while, but I can’t see that happening. Something will happen, things will look better, but then in six months or a year, things will be worse again.”

“We are going to default one way or the other but they may not call it default. These debt reduction talks are a sham.”

via Jim Rogers Calls U.S. Debt Ceiling Talks ‘A Sham’.

It’s morning in America

“The cause of America,” wrote my countryman Tom Paine, “is in great measure the cause of all mankind”. That statement now has a practical, financial truth which Paine couldn’t have imagined in 1776. The US is the world’s leading economy, the dollar its reserve currency. American prosperity is especially critical to Britain, its single largest overseas investor.

That, above all, is why Britons should take satisfaction from the return of candidates committed to restoring order and sanity to the federal budget. Virtually the first thing John Boehner, the new Speaker of the House, said in his acceptance speech was that Congress would “cut government spending”. Not before time. Under Barack Obama, US debt has risen from 40 per cent of GDP to 62 per cent and, according to the Congressional Budget Office, it was on course to rise to 87 per cent by 2020, 109 per cent by 2025, and 185 per cent by 2035.

Yesterday, American voters reminded their politicians that they are servants, not rulers: that elected representatives are there to carry out the will of a people who, as the experience of many ages shows, are generally wiser than their leaders. Americans understand that governments, like individuals, must live within their means.

More…