Submitted by Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
The battle over raising the debt ceiling has made some interesting bedfellows and even more intriguing and perplexing moments. At this instant, we are awaiting the vote on Speaker Boehner’s Plan which has been delayed to allow the mainline Republicans to scurry about coaxing tea partiers off their high horses named “No Taxes,” and “Cut Government.” For his part, Boehner has the distinct look of the bridegroom anxiously waiting at the legislative altar while the cavorting bride finishes up at the ‘No, no Nanette” (you’ll recall that ditty, “Tea For Two.’) themed bachelorette party over at Michele Bachmann’s encounter group/ chapel/ballroom.
Boehner’s position is curious. Knowing full well his tea party friendly plan is DOA in Harry Reid’s Senate and faces a certain veto in the event of a Democratic Senate tram crash, he plods on, orange tan intact, but lubricated with enough sweat to float the barges building Palin’s “Bridge to Nowhere.”
Enter now that modern day Solon and runner-up Presidential candidate, John McCain, sounding almost, well, statemanesque. Decrying the newbies in the Congress flush with conservative street cred, our Senator from Cactus, is shocked–shocked — shocked that the Young Turks actually meant what they said about wanting to throw the federal government in a bathtub and choke the life out of it. And if there’s no porcelain around, a debt ceiling spiked with a balanced budget amendment will do nicely for the moral horde who took Washington by storm in the last election cycle, armed with a nose chain Grover Norquist pledge to oppose ANY new taxes — even closing loopholes for the Mark Cubans’/Richard Gates’ of the world. What do you mean a seven year depreciation write off for my Gulfstream 5? Anything more than five years is positively Marxian. Next, you’ll be rescinding the cake donations for the poor charitable deduction!
The venerable Senate dinosaur was unimpressed by the kiddies’ hijinks that threaten to force the nation into default and lead to a downgrade of our credit rating even as we claw from the mire of the Bush-borne recession. “Bizarro” and “Deceivers,” he cried as he rose to speak in the great well of the Senate. “Too little, too late,” said we as we sat down in forlorn disgust in our upside down mortgaged homes. Here he is sounding like a grownup even as we are all thinking that this is the guy who almost put Sarah Palin a heartbeat away from the nuclear codes:
Source: Washington Post
~Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_LQtXytLTQ&feature=player_embedded
Projection is good until you get out of the delusion you are currently set in Tinfoil Master….Hopefully the meds will help with your antisocial personality disorder(s)….I would not count on that if you are still consuming massive amounts of energy drinks….They did tell you to stay out of the sunlight while taking the meds right….
AY,
Did I just hear a bell?
Tinfoil Elf Boy, I see you finally spotted the internal contradiction in your ramblings. That’s a good sign. I would continue on your current dosage and hope that this lucid state remains for awhile.
I suppose you rang they came and took your hat away…Now you can’t communicate with anyone…what a relief…..to the Blawg and the world…
If the Tinfoil Hat fits….then I am talking to you Ratshit4brains…..I was just tossing ideals out there….I suppose if you are paranoid enough they could be directed at you….watch the gamma rays…….Then you’ll know I am talking to you Kdponzi…Ok, ring the bell for the nurse….
anger, anger, Tinfoil Master…..can’t make any pleasant comments when you disagree with people can you….gotta start the insults….right off the bat…It would probably be a good ideal for you to stay away from those energy drinks…they can make you psychotic….and antisocial…just the opposite of the meds the Psy MD’s are giving you…
Tinfoil elf boy, I thought you were going to put up or shut up. You failed to put up, at least have the decency to shut up now.
Harry Reid is said to be bringing his plan forward today, Can’t wait for Boehner. So far Reid has fifty five votes. That is not enough to break the filibuster that Rand Paul and Jim DeMint have promised.
Oh, now we have verbal diarrhea…from the tinfoil master….aka ratshit4brains….
one of his regrets….
Frank,
If you take away all of the extra money away like Milliken did…put in IOU’s, stir up party animosity….make it a witch hunt….create dissent….then say its unfunded…and needs to be abandoned…then you can pretty much get what you want…oh…Bush in his book said SS should have come before IRAQ….missed opportunity….
Frank, you are as stupid as ever. FICA rates were increased to cover the shortfall SS would experience as the boomers retired. It was a stupid idea because that extra money was immediately spent by the democrat controlled congresses which can never spend too much money when in power. All you have now is IOUs which can be redeemed from the treasury by borrowing more money or cutting budgetary spending. Hence, the present debt ceiling crisis. That extra money is now being used to fund SS because payroll taxes are already insufficient to cover outlays.
So, yes, it remains a ponzi scheme. Your money contributions are not being used to fund your retirement, they are being used to fund some other geezer’s retirement. That is a ponzi scheme. Now stop being stupid and have something smart to say for a change.
SM, you do understand that Pell grants merely inject money that is available for education and colleges are very adept at raising tuition to capture as much of that money as possible. That’s part of the reason why college tuition prices are skyrocketing. It’s economics 101. See supply, demand, and the effect on prices. So by giving more grants to the “poor” you create higher tuition which must be paid by the middle-class by obtaining more student loans. The lesson is that there is no free lunch.
Wrong again klownderosa! After the actual damage of the Reagan tax cuts became clear – not only did the not “pay for themselves” as promised they blew a huge hole in the budget – FICA tax rates were increased. That additional money was used to hide the total damage Reagan did.
But the story was that money would be socked away to pay the additional cost of boomer retirement. The government has several trillion dollars sitting in IOUs in a vault in MD. Boy Blunder even used that vault as a backdrop for one of his photo ops when he tried to destroy SS after the 2004 election.
See, its not a ponzi scheme. We have paid in that extra money already and after 2017 (the current estimate of when income drops below payments for SS) cashing in those bonds will pay for the boomers till well past 2050.
The current hysteria over SS is cover for Republicans to steal that money from the people who paid it in so that they can continue the reckless tax cuts started by Reagan & running wild under Boy George.
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/174253-house-conservatives-angry-over-pell-grant-funding-in-boehner-debt-bill The stumbling block for some republicans appears to be Pell Grants. They do not won’t the poor to be educated and are calling the grants the new welfare ……so much for upward mobility.
It is by definition a Ponzi scheme, SM. That’s why the president is able to effectively scare you that your SS check might not arrive if a budget fails to pass. SS depends on collecting new money every month from new suckers to pay off the existing suckers. Your contributions have already gone to pay off older geezers. If a private company tried to run a SS like investment scheme, they’d be thrown in jail.
Peter Schiff has called Social Security a “ponzi scheme” and is for its elimination.
Puzzling – which will lead to what the Republicans really want – the impeachment of President Obama. Congressman Issa said something the other day about it being a “great show”.
ekeyra,
Schiff is correct on all points, of course. The events of this week are a distraction from the imminent crisis he lays out, although I don’t think most people or politicians actually believe that there is a market lending limit that would ever apply to the United States. We are acting as if we could borrow tens or hundreds of trillions more should we decide to do so, and lenders would be there.
I would predict that if the debt ceiling is not raised by Congress, it will be raised by executive fiat.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/07/28/rick-perry-for-president-how-the-texas-governor-could-win-in-2012.html