Well, I noticed where he wants to take tax increases off the table in handling the deficit. Kinda shows you where their priorities lie.
Correct. The US Treasury is already taking steps to delay the default until August. 
My agency is already preparing for a potential default and government shut down. We’re already ordered to cut 20 percent from our existing budget (just passed by Congress) for the remaining fiscal year. We’re also being told to prioritize essential work projects (non-essential work will be stopped anyway).
The tone right now is different than just a few weeks ago when there was possibility of a government shutdown because of the then budget issues. The difference is kinda like the budget shutdown threat was akin to saying, “The category one hurricane threat says think about stocking up on essentials maybe this weekend.” The tone now is, “It will be a cat 5 hurricane. We are in the direct path. Move inland now because you will not survive through it if you stay here.”
We’ll see how this firms up in the next few weeks.
Is this a function of how your higher-ups see the chances of a ceiling vote passing? Or is it just an acknowledgment of how IF it doesn’t happen, it’ll be more serious?
In other news: Hmm. Two Senators say they want cuts to Medicare in exchange for their debt ceiling vote.
Will they really stand firm on this? Or are they just trying to show their constituents “hey, we did all we could” when they finally give in?
Hard to tell. Lots of fuzziness coming internally from Washington. As I said, have to wait a bit for some of the fog to burn off.
There really is quite a bit of public grandstanding adding to the fog. Based on several other threads concerning the Tea Party, they shouldn’t have much of an impact. However, the perception of their alleged impact does have the Pubbies on edge. It doesn’t take much to create something from nothing. It may come down to those Dems and few Pubbies who see beyond the partisan self-interest. Still too fuzzy.
He wants a second bite at the apple and its about time Obama realized that Republicans are not bargaining in good faith.
I think the fact that interest on our national debt is such a large part of our budget, we are not talking about new debt, we are talking about existing debt.
No this is just the second leg of starving the beast. The notion is that we will HAVE to pay interest on the national debt, social security, medicare and stuff like that and that will force Democrats to fight for every dollar of non defense discretionary spending because cutting defense is off the table.
Entitlement reform without tax reform is putting ideology ahead of country.
OK, here’s what I wonder: what percentage of current Congresspeople of either party really genuinely think that default “won’t be all that bad” (or, if you’re cynical, are “controlled” by people who think that)?
Because if it’s a small number, then it seems to me that default is pretty much the least likely option; it’ll all come down to who gets (or, perhaps, doesn’t get) “more” when the vote passes.
Suppose Democrats threatened to hold the debt ceiling hostage unless Republicans agreed to cancelling the Bush tax cuts and the oil company tax subsidies?
Seems like they could get away with that, but it would take a spine and I think most of them lack that.
I think if there was a hint of a chance of not increasing the debt ceiling, the moneyed class would be knocking on all the doors in Washington…
In the words of some guy in Indiana Jones, “My soul is prepared… is yours?”
I’d like to see the debt limit frozen - or anything else that will cause the dollar can collapse.
It will spell the immediate end of jobs leaving this country, and the billionaires who control this country will instantly lose all their power. With American troops rushing home to defend their families no currency in the world will be enough to get them to defend the billionaire holdings in America. In short there will be no Army to step in here.
Only with the billionaires who control this country stripped of their wealth, can we hope to rebuild.
This is exactly why the debt ceiling will be raised: the billionaire power brokers know it could lead to a dollar collapse, they’d lose control of America, and afterwards there wouldn’t likely be anywhere in the world they could hide from retribution.
An once the few hundred billionaires have been crucified, who do you suppose the mob will turn on next? Or do you expect once the economy is in wreckage and the plutocrats have been burned in the street, everybody will pull together and build an egalitarian society?
And Congressman Phil Gingrey of Georgia is apparently one of those I mentioned earlier who doesn’t think default is a big deal (can’t find original source, sorry). Like I said, I’m sure there are SOME of those there, but I don’t know how numerous they are, or how influence-able they are.
They are, sorta. But then, I have no idea what’s going on behind the scenes, so this may be as little as a sharp reminder to make sure that they have the votes. But who knows. Mebbe global financial armageddon IS on the horizon. Then I’ll have a reason to be smug over all those here who don’t seem to care. 
Everybody who is counting on Congress not doing something stupid is ignoring history.
One could argue that there’s a difference between stupid and END OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION AS WE KNOW IT stupid.
But then, one could also reply “yeah? And?”
So who out there is living in the woods preparing for the coming catastrophe? 
ETA: I think I’ve asked this before, but I wonder if this whole fight will make the limit a MORE or LESS visible thing from here on in. Will whatever results make future Congresspeople more or less likely to try to attach conditions to raising the limit, or will it cause them to quietly drop mentioning it from here on in?
Oh, a YouTube clip from the other side of the argument, for the sake of balance.
We had a crash in 1929 and improvements were made. We’re not likely to plunge into a 200 year dark age.
The alternative to overthrowing the rich is we eventually become like Mexico - a permanent mud-guns-and-dirt plutocracy.
We did not default on our debts in 1929. The crash of 1929 is fart in a whirlwind by comparision to the US defaulting on its foreign debt. You can’t comprehend the depth of devastion it is likley to cause.
There are worse things, you know. Or, perhaps you don’t.
So I understand we hit the debt limit today, which has (apparently; I don’t know for sure) never happened before.
Is this it? Is it too late now? Is there any point to talking about anything else besides this? Will everyone be pulling out of the dollar and shattering the world economy? Because, after all, even if we “pay up” afterwards, we’ve shown we’ll “almost” default, and could that be enough?
What does this mean for who’ll “blink” first in this whole thing?