The Gipper, that’s who !

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5066/5684032538_71d8db3038_b.jpg

That’s right boys and girls. Reagan was more responsible for increasing the countries debt than anyone who came after. Bad actor and worse president.

Update:

And John Stewart wonders what’s the problem with the GOP ?

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-september-26-2011/indecision-2012—the-great-right-hope—the-gop-finds-another-ideal-candidate

Well there is an old saying from AA. “If you have a problem and you can’t solve the problem. There is a very good chance that you are the problem.”  As Stewart points out the problem is NOT with the GOP candidates, but with those who pick and elect them.

From VOA News.

And the Dow drops over 200 points.

Down 265.87 (2.19%) points.

Well that worked out real well.

For on thing FOX FAUX News is reporting that a substantial number of republicans will not vote for raising the debt ceiling for any reason.

Therefore, the maximum number of votes in the House is 432. 217 is one more than half. So 217 is the minimum number required to approve any debt ceiling agreement.

“80-120”

The next “number” is actually a range. 80-120 is the number of House Republicans who handicappers believe wouldn’t vote for a debt limit increase, no matter what.

For starters, the House Republican Conference has 240 members. Losing 80 to120 is a staggering chunk. That explains why it’s hard to forge a deal that garners substantial Republican support.

“Boehner has two factions in his caucus,” said Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) on GOP prospects for passing the debt ceiling. “There’s ‘no’ and there’s ‘hell no.’”

Allen Grayson confirms this.

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.

And Paul Craig Roberts outlines just what may occur if the country might default.

We are talking about a crisis beyond anything the world has ever seen. Does anyone think that President Obama is going to just sit there while the power of the US collapses? He doesn’t have to do so. There are presidential directives and executive orders in place, put there by George W. Bush himself, that President Obama can invoke to declare a national emergency, suspend the debt ceiling limit, and continue to issue Treasury debt. This is exactly what would happen.

The consequences would be that the power of the purse would transfer from Congress to the President. It would be the end of the power of Congress. Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, have already given away to the President Congress’ Constitutional right to decide whether the country goes to war. Now Congress would lose its power over debt, taxes, and the budget itself.

Republicans need to decide whether the advantage of delivering a blow against “leechdom” is worth such extreme risks.

Some readers will say “this could never happen.” But Congress is already emasculating itself as a result of the Republicans’ intransigence over the debt ceiling increase. Republican Mitch McConnell and Democrat Harry Reid have come up with a proposal for a committee of Congress, called a Super Congress, that could fast-track legislation by prohibiting amendments.

Well the self same people who are bitching and moaning and groaning about right now, that’s who. From Blomberg.

Yet the speaker, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell all voted for major drivers of the nation’s debt during the past decade: Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts and Medicare prescription drug benefits. They also voted for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, that rescued financial institutions and the auto industry.

Together, a Bloomberg News analysis shows, these initiatives added $3.4 trillion to the nation’s accumulated debt and to its current annual budget deficit of $1.5 trillion.

As Congress nears votes to raise the $14.3-trillion debt ceiling to avert a default on U.S. obligations when borrowing authority expires on Aug. 2, both parties are attempting to claim a mantle of fiscal responsibility. They both bear some of the blame: Many Democrats contributed to the expenses that are forcing lawmakers to boost the nation’s debt limit, as have Republican leaders at odds over how much borrowing authority to hand President Barack Obama and when.

“There’s plenty of blame to go around,” for the debt, said Robert Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, an Arlington, Virginia-based group that advocates for balanced budgets. “If there had been no Barack Obama, we would still be bumping up against the debt limit.’”

In Washington hypocrisy and two faced lying is the order of the day.   As the Native Americans would say. “White man speak with forked tongue.”

Here is a graphic from the NY Times that show us.

Bush and the republicans are responsible for $5 Trillion of the deficit. That’s 4 times more than Obama and the Democrats.
Now why the hell is this not being shoved up the republican’s noses 24/7 until they scream with agony ???

To the Tebagging Tea Party representatives in congress and all their addle brained, pissed off, moronic followers.

Enjoy.

Oh where is Chuck Barris when you need him ?

First of all remember that the WH wanted a clean debt limit bill originally and to work on the budget as a separate matter.  It was the tea party clowns in congress – Canter and Ryan – that insisted on tying the debt limit to cuts in spending. The WH said fine and presented it’s outline for cuts. The dems in congress as well as the WH then insisted that cuts had to be accompanied with revenue.

The repugs balked at this. Also the WH wanted it to be clearly a bi-partisan bill.  Meaning any cuts to entitlements or military would also be owned by the repugs as well. At this the senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell said no. He would not sign on to anything that made them look bad and the WH look good. If the WH wanted to raise the debt limit, it had to go it alone.

At this the tea party loonies in the house went crackers.  So, what we have now is the establishment repugs at odds with the tea party goof balls and the Speaker of The House refusing to put them in their place. This is the first time I remember a majority leader or speaker, in the senate or the house, of either party letting some junior or freshman congressmen run the show. Newt most certainly would not have done that or Hasert or Sam Rayburn or any of them.

Eventually a bill like the one Mitch McConnell outlined will get agreed upon. The WH may symbolically grouse but will sign it.  I say this because the package that the WH says what it’s willing to accept in the way of cuts is getting smaller each time they meet.

But it brings up just how dysfunctional Washington has become.

And Obama gave him one. According to Politco.

When Cantor said the two sides were too far apart to get a deal that could pass the House by the Treasury Department’s Aug. 2 deadline — and that he would consider moving a short-term debt-limit increase alongside smaller spending cuts — Obama began to lecture him.

“Eric, don’t call my bluff,” the president said, warning Cantor that he would take his case “to the American people.” He told Cantor that no other president — not Ronald Reagan, the president said — would put up with the treatment he was getting from the House majority leader.

Democratic sources dispute Cantor’s version of Obama’s walk out, but all sides agree that the two had a blow up. The sources described Obama as “impassioned” but said he didn’t exactly storm out of the room.

“Cantor’s account of tonight’s meeting is completely overblown. For someone who knows how to walk out of a meeting, you’d think he know it when he saw it,” a Democratic aide said. “Cantor rudely interrupted the president three times to advocate for short-term debt ceiling increases while the president was wrapping the meeting. This is just more juvenile behavior from him and Boehner needs to rein him in, and let the grown-ups get to work.

Ha…If you can get Bonehead away from the bar long enough. But the people – especially the seniors – are the ones who will eventually get a black eye in all of this and they will remember  come election time who threw the first punch.

The card players at the North Olmsted senior center are used to calling each other’s bluff, but now they’re wondering which politician is bluffing.

“If politicians tell you enough lies enough times people will believe it,” Mary Ann Ward said.

Whether you believe the president or not, seniors took notice when the president said social security checks may not be sent in August.

“It’s going to tear the seniors up because we rely on our social security,” Shirley Jenkins explained.

Whether you’re elderly and relying on social security or young and relying on student loans, it may all be at risk if a decision is not made on the debt limit, which is essentially the nation’s credit card limit.

“It’s going to be really hard to go to school without a loan,” Kent State Junior Jackie Griswold said.

According to Bankrate, the new market slogan would be “If the U.S. can default anybody can,” which means your interest rates on your home, car or other loan could go up.

“I think the scare is real,” said Dr. Tom Sutton, a political science professor at Baldwin Wallace College.

Sutton said when interest rates go up, jobs are in jeopardy.

“The stakes are at their ultimate when it comes to the debt limit and what it can do to the economy,” Sutton said.

The stakes are high for every American, and for the politicians themselves.

“No one wants to get the blame and it’s too risky to predict if we do X then the other side will get the blame. We don’t know that,” Sutton explained.

And they won’t care which side they were on that threw it.

With Obama calmly announcing that seniors may not get their Social Security checks. Geithner saying that a default would lead to economic chaos.  And McConnell deciding to fold. We now have a situation where the economic situation sounds more like a high stakes Las Vegas card game. And now Bachmann insists on Obama showing his hand and accuses him and the dems of playing with a marked deck.  Obama of course just wants to continue the game.

But can he win with a busted flush ?
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All right…OK…I’ll admit it. I was wrong in my original post. The consequences of a default  would be rather severe. And Robert Powell in Market watch explains further.

It’s no joke. The sky over the investment world and everything under it, including bonds, stocks, money markets, commodities, you name it, will fall unless lawmakers raise the $14.3 trillion Federal debt ceiling by Aug. 2.

It could be nothing less than catastrophic and worse than the financial meltdown of the late 2000s should Uncle Sam fail to raise the legal limit on government borrowing and default on U.S. debt, according to Greg McBride, a CFA charterholder and senior analyst with BankRate.com. “There will be no safe haven,” said McBride, from his perch in Florida.
In a press conference Monday, President Obama called for compromise as party leaders seek to craft a deal that raises the legal limit on how much the U.S. government can borrow while slashing projected deficits over the next decade. Democratic and Republican leaders held talks Sunday, but discussions broke down over taxes.
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