Mike Lee Admits Extortion

[FourScore]

Run time: 01:14 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It3bOySjTjM   Posted on YouTube: July 25, 2011 By YouTube Member: ThinkProgress6 Views on YouTube: 32   Posted on DU: July 26, 2011 By DU Member: FourScore Views on DU: 1644

 
Mike Lee: I Want America’s ‘House To Come Down’ Unless Congress Votes To Rewrite Constitution
By Ian Millhiser on Jul 25, 2011 at 7:23 pm

In an interview on MSNBC’s Hardball this evening, tenther Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) admitted that he is using the threat of a catastrophic default to extort the nation into rewriting the Constitution to force a permanent era of conservative governance...

SNIP

...It’s important to note just what Lee wants the American people to swallow before he’ll agree not to set off an economic crisis that could cost millions of people their jobs. Lee’s proposed amendment makes it functionally impossible to raise taxes by imposing a two-thirds supermajority requirement — a provision closely modeled after the California anti-tax amendment that blew up that state’s finances. It would also require America to return to 1966 spending levels — spending cuts that are so steep they would have made every single one of Ronald Reagan’s budgets unconstitutional.

If Lee’s proposed cuts were imposed across the federal budget, every single senior would lose one quarter of their Social Security and Medicare benefits, and that’s just the beginning. Because Lee wants to write these draconian cuts into the Constitution, We the People will lose our power to overrule these cuts by electing different leaders.

So Lee wants to rewrite our Constitution to that the American people must always live under conservative governance, regardless of who they elect, and he’s got a simple plan to force his colleagues in Congress to make this happen. That’s a mighty nice economy we’ve got here, it would be a shame if Mike Lee had to break it.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/07/25/278811/lee-admits-he-is-an-extortionist/

[CBHagman]

1. Go, Chris!

I've had my problems with Chris Matthews over the years, but I do like it when he gets the don't-give-me-this-shit tone in his voice.

As for the 'cans wanting a constitutional amendment in the midst of all this, I'd say that was the phoniest suggestion I'd heard in a while, or maybe the most impractical, but frankly it's hard to keep up these days, given the shenanigans. :grr: