The President and the debt ceiling

[SHRED]

I don't get it.
This debt ceiling raising had been a relatively routine exercise in the past.

Why did the President and many Democrats in Congress allow for debate on attaching these insane RW issues to it?
Why didn't the President just stand firm and use the bully pulpit to repeat the need to do it, past practices, and announce that he will sign a clean raising of the debt ceiling only?

Why in the hell has he dragged our party and many in Congress along in this 'negotiating' charade perpetrated by the Tea Party wing in Congress?



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[Oceansaway]

1. it's called "change"...nt

[emulatorloo]

14. We would not be having this discussion if Pelosi was still Speaker of The House.

2010 midterm results had huge consequences. People tried to warn about it before the election.

[tridim]

2. Because of the reality of the makeup of the current House.

It has nothing to do with Obama or the Democrats, or the few remaining centrist Conservatives.

IT'S THE FUCKING TEABAGGERS.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. Something that seems to be lost on the pubs, toying with medicare and medicate as

well as SS will increase the dead ceiling. I'm not sure that would be in their best interest.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. It's never been about legislating. It's been about who controls policy.

The minority in the republican party is not content with mere Separation of Powers. They want it all. They set the policy, they control the policy, they don't compromise.

As soon as "conditions" were attached to the vote on raising the debt ceiling, Obama had a choice of sticking with "just vote on the damned thing" or start playing their game. He chose the latter. And think of the situation as anarchist's poker. As soon as Obama met their demands, they changed the rules and the conditions. No matter how he played, he would lose.

Two goals by the republicans:
1. To get the majorities in the House and the Senate and the Presidency in 2012.
2. To make Obama set the policy they would have installed had they controled all branches of government.

[Tennessee Gal]

5. He did it?

Congress - the House - is in the control of Republicans.

Read up on the history:

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2011/05/debt-ceiling-limits-through-the-ages/

[blkmusclmachine]

6. So you can ram thru destructive policy, like the "Super Congress" of 12 unelected idiots:

Never miss a manufactured "crisis" to ram thru some Shock Doctrine.

[polichick]

7. Because he wants to be the adult in the room? - or because he's okay with Republican policies?...

I don't know - but imo he never should have allowed the right to frame the issue or allowed anything to be attached to the debt ceiling bill. Wall Street and/or Republicans would've eventually dealt with their fantasy freaks.

[Botany]

8. It is part of a plan by the republicans and they are ...

.... sticking to the script faithfully.

Script:

act 1 ...... run the debt through the roof (but if you are a republican don't say a thing)

act 2 ...... wait until there is a democratic President and then start screaming about the debt and how it is the big tax and spend liberal democrats fault

act 3 ..... cause a crisis by not signing off on raising the debt ceiling because you are worried about the size of the debt

act 4 ...... blame the debt on social programs that did not cause the debt (wars, tax cuts, & unfunded drug bill are at fault) and say cuts must be made

Remember these are the children and grandchildren of the troglodyte republicans who had FDR is a communist signs on their walls and have wanted to kill
these programs for years.

Scene for this play is set by getting a dirty U.S. Supreme Court to pass " the citizens united" ruling so you can have unlimited money to buy adds for
the rich and powerful in order to spread the lie that cuts of our bloated government are needed to help the economy and to protect and expend
employment opportunities ..... this worked with great effect in 2010 by blaming the debt on the democrats and that it (the debt) caused all the job
losses in Ohio.... hell our new senator Rob Portman worked with the bush administration to send tens of thousands of jobs from America out of the
country but he blamed his democratic challenger for those very same job losses.

"I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub." Grover Norquist

[Major Hogwash]

9. Boehner is the one that brought up those issues. Put the blame where it belongs.

Boehner was the one that said they should START with Ryan's budget if they wanted to have serious talks.

Obama didn't talk about making any deals until Boehner started harping on Ryan's budget.
That's the timeline, keep it in mind.

[Cool Logic]

10. Democrats opposed raising the debt limit in 2006.

It's all about political posturing and Democrats & Republicans are all experts at that game.

[AC_Mem]

11. I wish the President would get on the bully pulpit

and get on all the media programs, during prime time and lay it out to America. Give the truth about how many times the debt ceiling has been raised, under Presidents over the last 50 years. Do a rolling screen that shows congressmen such as Cantor and how many times they voted to lift the debt ceiling so that they are put on record for all to see.

Then explain to America why he may have to use the 14th Amendment so that we can understand and get behind him on this.

Expose the real reasons that this deal has turned into another attempt by the GOP to grab another couple trillion in social programs from the poor and how they are NOW trying to add the Health Care Law individual mandate in their blackmail scheme.

It is time, Mr. President - bring it all out to us and encourage us to call our congressmen to express our support for raising the debt ceiling. Stop worrying about playing with the bullies. They will always hate you and want to destroy you, even if it means destroying the country you are leading.

It is past time to put an end to this. I don't even want to think about what might happen if the GOP's actions throw us into a catastrophic depression. They must be stopped NOW.

Annette

[emulatorloo]

13. He laid that out at the press conference the other day

The number of times the debt ceiling has been raised with minimal fuss. The number of times under Ronald Reagan. He showed how the Republicans are prisoner to their ideology, their fear of their extremist base, their fear over some stupid "pledge" they signed, their fear of what Talk Radio will say, their fear of being "primaried". They can't say YES to anything.

Unfortunately you would have had to see the press conference LIVE, as the TV/CABLE news outlets don't seem to want to show those parts.

A prime time speech is a very good idea.

[emulatorloo]

12. Because House has to pass bills and Tea=Baggers control the House since the 2010 election

That is the unfortunate political reality. The 2010 election had really bad consequences.

We would not be in this situation if we had the Pelosi House.

[AndyTiedye]

15. The "Bully Pulpit" is the Tee Vee, and Every Tee Vee Station in the Country Supports the Repigs

We haven't got a bully pulpit. The Repiglickins feepin own it.
If they don't get their way, the economy gets it.



Cantor and the rest of the teabaggers (and their paymasters) are shorting Treasuries.
They will make out like bandits when we default.