The art of…
…the deal?:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wrote in some “extraordinary” provisions to the debt ceiling bill that could mean there won’t be another debt ceiling fight in 2017 after all, he revealed on “The New Washington” podcast Monday.
McConnell insisted, in the face of Democrats’ objections, that the bill be written to preserve the Treasury’s ability to extend federal borrowing power by moving money around within government accounts. In layman’s terms, that means the Republicans can work around the December debt limit deadline and push that issue into 2018.
Getting the debt ceiling deadline out of December is important for Republicans, who don’t want it to be used as leverage for the spending bill talks that will happen that month.
We’ll…see.
“the bill [will] be written to preserve the Treasury’s ability to extend federal borrowing power”
Hot damn!
Just what we need.
As we search for a unicorn way to borrow the nation out of debt.
I am not sure what the provisions McConnell referred to mean. The original article also specifies two difficult votes but does not say what is at issue.
Not being an expert, the debt ceiling seems to be “boob bait for the bubbas.” Even if it is not extended, the US will not default on our bonds. After all, if, as many legal eagles argue vehemently, Obama was within his powers as President to rewrite immigration law, surely President Trump can decide to prioritize the payments on maturing bonds over funding the many useless government agencies. Is this what McConnell referred to?
Similarly, the government shutdowns are boob-bait. I have read that only 15% of the government workforce stops going to their office. And they always get paid for their time anyway. The really important stuff to the masses like social security and other welfare payments always happen. If you do not believe SS is welfare look at the payout versus payments in–it is practically flat above a very low threshold.
here is a sweet deal…
For more than a decade, Awan, his wife and his brothers Abid and Jamal worked as shared IT administrators for nearly 30 members of the U.S. Congress. They did not have security clearances, yet they had administrative access to sensitive information, emails and computer files of members of Congress and their staffers, including three members of the House Intelligence Committee and five members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
skeptic:
When bad weather threatens the Beltway, all except “essential” Federal employees are told to stay home (on full pay). Only 15% therefore come to work. The implication is clear.
You misapplied the 15% figure!
The level of debt; federal, state, local, unfunded liabilities, private, plus global debt is summed up with three words: the world is f#@%ed. The only question is when TSHTF.
No one in positions of power wants to stare in the face of the chaos and destruction that awaits. Sorry to rain on anyone’s parade hoping for happy days are here again.
Time was tax farmers would shake down every free citizen — like the robbers they were.
Today, fiat money issuance permits the Central Authorities to rob every citizen without even showing up at their doors.
It is a TOTAL illusion that the Federal Government’s books have ANY resemblance to anyone else’s.
The Feds are above the law, above currency creation, and sit as economic gods above the nation, and indeed, the planet. This latter fact infuriates Moscow, Beijing and every tin pot dictator in the world.
Caracas, Pyongyang, Tehran, … et. al.
You and I have to pay back our debts with currency issued by another.
The Fed gets to pay off its debts with wisps of digital ether.
As for the Federal debt burdening our grandchildren — that notion is rubbish. They’ll not pay it down any more than we do right now.
Deficit spending is a TAX in the current day and hour — RIGHT NOW. There is NO delay. This tax shows up in the Capital Markets.
Current policy is destroying savings… destroying intangible capital, too.
And inflation is roaring along. It’s just concentrated in sectors that the politicians exclude// suppress from inflation statistics: Rents, Academe, Health Care outlays.
Many, many years ago, the debt ceiling was supposed to be a HINDRANCE to government expansion, and to be taken seriously as a top-bound on spending.
Increasing it monotonically every 3, 6, 9 months or whatever is the going number, makes a complete mockery of its intent.
And BTW, remember the laughably named “Pay as you Go” law touted by Nancy Pelosi and her team, until they actually got to be the ones holding the money bags?
“Similarly, the government shutdowns are boob-bait. I have read that only 15% of the government workforce stops going to their office. And they always get paid for their time anyway.”
I became skeptical of Obama’s competence and intentions before his first election; my negative impressions were even more deeply confirmed by his behaviour in the “shutdown” where he prioritized “shutting down” venues that were not costing anything to leave open — and cost much more money to “close”, stranding tourists and disrespecting American veterans to the max.
(Let’s not even talk about substantive issues like immigration and paying Iran to go nuclear.)
Despicable is too mild a word.
Did people really think DC was just a swamp they could vote for a fix on?
Humans are…
the world is f#@%ed. The only question is when TSHTF.
When another volcano river lake appears from Louisiana to the great superior lakes, dividing the country physically beyond the Miss river.
blert,
“wisps of digital ether”
It will not be so easy as that. Eventually 000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 doesn’t work even if digital. You may think otherwise, and that is your POV, but alas it will not work out that way. Time waits for no one. That time will come sooner or later. I may be ashes and dust when it happens, but it will happen, digital or not.
“rubbish”
Really? I think not, but then I have grandchildren and hope to live long enough to hold a great grandchild. To think we can avoid the Weimar Republic or Zimbabwe or Venezuela seems foolish to me.
Time waits for no one.
Jehovah is considered beyond the bounds of space and time, so a god would be the one waiting on time.
People also have different names they liked to use. I like to use aO, but use JHVH for clarity over Alpha Omega. Alt Right pick up artists and art of man followers might be miscuing it.
To think we can avoid the Weimar Republic or Zimbabwe or Venezuela seems foolish to me.
All of those situations the US had a hand in creating or worsening.
So from a neutral pov, the US is merely receiving blowback. Why was the US immune to blowback from these events so far?
Because the Four angels protecting the US under Divine Providence had not been recalled. They were recalled somewhere around 2001.
Also, when ultra nationalistic and jingoistic patriots like Parker and Ymar (OIF 2004 era) start talking about it being over, it tends to have a different flavor than SJWs talking about it being over for the US.
It’s also a nice contrast to do with Alt Right who put Trum into power telling us that we needed to kiss the ring of the new Papal authority, or else we would be destroyed by the Left.
Bowing the knee to a human isn’t going to save the Leftist alliance nor anybody else in the US. So what was the point.
we[[ Y, I bow to no one. I know what I know and I trust what I know, being well schooled by the salt of the earth. I know (real) history and human nature. I act accordidly. I reognize no authority since the rule of law was abandoned decades ago.