He’s going to filibuster because of course he is.
Rand Paul, who is turning out to be one dumb motherfucker, is planning to throw a temper tantrum filibuster in order to force a debate on raising the debt ceiling. Yup.
He also claims that the Teabilly Caucus’s vote to raise the debt ceiling is contingent upon passing a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution.
Yup. A Balance Budget Amendment. The same one that Ezra Klein called “the worst idea in Washington” — that Balanced Budget Amendment:
Bruce Bartlett takes a look at the Balanced Budget Amendment all 47 Republicans signed their names to and pronounces it “quite possibly the stupidest constitutional amendment I think I have ever seen. It looks like it was drafted by a couple of interns on the back of a napkin.”
I think “stupid” is the wrong word. “Dangerous” is more like it. And maybe “radical.” This isn’t just a Balanced Budget Amendment. It also includes a provision saying that tax increases would require a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress — so, it includes a provision making it harder to balance the budget — and another saying that total spending couldn’t exceed 18 percent of GDP. No allowances are made for recessions, though allowances are made for wars. Not a single year of the Bush administration would qualify as constitutional under this amendment. Nor would a single year of the Reagan administration. The Clinton administration would’ve had exactly two years in which it wasn’t in violation.
Read that again: Every single Senate Republican has endorsed a constitutional amendment that would’ve made Ronald Reagan’s fiscal policy unconstitutional. That’s how far to the right the modern GOP has swung.
But the problem isn’t simply that the proposed amendment is extreme. It’s also unworkable. The baby boomers are retiring and health costs are rising. Unless you have a way to stop one or the other from happening — and no one does — spending as a percentage of GDP is going to have to rise. This proposal doesn’t interrupt those trends. It simply refuses to acknowledge them — or, to be more generous, it rules them unconstitutional. This is the equivalent of trying to keep your kid cute by passing a law saying he’s not allowed to grow up.
Wait, I’m confused — Paul and the Teabillies will only vote to raise the debt ceiling if a Balanced Budget Amendment is passed? So, what, Paul is planning to scramble a Constitutional convention between now and August 2 (the day on which the debt shit is slated to go down)?
Or, or, or maybe he wants Obama to pinky swear that such an amendment will be passed at some point in the future if only Rand Paul and his Teabilly Cave-Dwellers will pretty please with a cherry on top raise the fucking debt ceiling, like right now.
My mind — she is reeling, but let me see if I’ve got this straight:
Eight years of Bush Dimwittery including two unpaid-for wars and unpaid-for tax cuts to rich muckity mucks turned a surplus into a deficit. Seven debt limit increases under Bush’s reign. The GOP steadfastly refuses to raise revenue through tax increases yet also refuses to cut the multi-billion dollar tax breaks to their buddies in the oil industry. Republicans and Teabillies are well aware of the global clusterfuck that will ensue should they decide to not raise the debt ceiling.
Still, they continue to clown around in the Congressional Funhouse, lurching hither and yon in their oversized shoes, stopping only to blow their fake rubber noses on the fabric of our lives — all in the name of fealty to Grover fucking Norquist.
And they’ve chosen Libertarian Nutbag Rand Paul as their ringleader. Fantastic:
Senator Paul has been a leading proponent of adding an amendment to the Constitution mandating a balanced budget, like many states. But some Senator Paul’s proposals go beyond a balanced budget requirement and include spending caps and significant spending cuts.
Senator Paul said he is not opposed to all tax increases. He pointed to the Senate vote on removing ethanol subsidies, but said broader reform with lower overall tax brackets are necessary. “We’re more than willing to look at the tax code,” he said.
Senator Paul said he supports means-testing for entitlement benefits, which would determine the level of Social Security and Medicare benefits received based on a recipients income. “I think this would please the Democrats,” he said. The Democratic Party has not endorsed means-testing, which would reduce benefits for some.
Senator Paul, founder of the Senate Tea Party Caucus, said on Newsmakers that President Obama is showing “disdain” for the Constitution and is “manipulating” facts.
<blank stare>
Just in case your head has not yet exploded, here is the final brick of stupid in the Teabilly Wall of Insanity:
[Paul] praised the lawmakers associated with the Tea Party. “We’re controlling the debate,” he said. “We’re still losing most of the legislative battles, but we’re shaping the debate. “
Get it? They are losing but they are still winning! (Somebody call Charlie Sheen.)
Yesterday, one of my best friends who is a chef in New Zealand said I should move my money into Chinese, Australian, or New Zealand currency. I laughed at him.
Then this morning, I read about Rand Paul’s nonsense.
Who’s laughing now?
[via Little Green Footballs; image via Mario Piperni]
[cross-posted]
Davis X. Machina
He’s with us on the war, though.
ruemara
Rand Paul is
beinga dick. Full stop, nothing more be said.General Stuck
You see now, this is the kind of insane shit that has just about soured me on politics in general. If I wanted to run off and join the circus, I would dye my hair orange, and learn to walk on stilts.
There really isn’t much sense in blogging about crazy people and what they might do next, except maybe for a heads up on when to board the canoe and start paddling my ass off. My luck thought, that there really is an Aqua Buddha, and the motherfucker has my number.
Derf
Atta boy Davis,
Focus on the things you like about Libertarians and ignore the fact they are batshitcrazy about everything else. I would expect no less from a Libertarian sympathisers blog.
To the rest of you numb skulls (that means you JOHN GALT COLE).
Repeat after me these absolute truths.
*Trump never had any intention of running for Prez.
*Palin never had any intention of running for Prez.
*The Rethugs never had any intention of blocking the debt ceiling rise.
If you did not and/or do not believe ANY of those things then congratulations. The Media has made you their bitch.
4tehlulz
If the US defaults, there is nowhere safe for your money; you’re just choosing where to lose it.
Martin
This. Even Paul isn’t stupid enough to not know that it takes years for an amendement to be passed. Hell, the last one took 203 years after Congress passed it before it was ratified by the states. The 26th (voting age) took slightly more than a year after Nixon signed it.
dogwood
Rand Paul is a media whore and a dick. This will get him booked on some talk shows. That’s what he’s looking for. He hasn’t been in the news for awhile.
jwb
I’ve come to the conclusion that congress is not going to raise the debt ceiling, so basically it will just be a question of what Obama does about that and whether he has cards to play that the Goopers aren’t expecting.
trollhattan
Thank you Kentucky, may I have another. [Smack] Thank you Kentucky, may I have another. [Smack] Thank you Kentucky, may I have another. [Smack] Thank you Kentucky, may I have another. [Smack]
Yup, the BBA sat on Cato’s shelf in a Mason jar the entire Bushpocalypse while it was inconVENient to bring up the whole deficit thing, now it’s a shiny new hobbyhorse. And it’s sooo easy to balance a budget whilst cutting taxes, after all, St. Ronaldus Magnus proved THAT.
jwb
@Derf: You want to make a side bet on that debt ceiling vote? I don’t think we’ll default, but it won’t be because the Goopers will vote to increase the debt ceiling.
Dennis SGMM
Emessem to praise Paul’s “seriousness and game changing ideas” in three… two…
Jewish Steel
Le Derf: Vous ne pouvez pas encore détecter l’ironie ?
If I do not believe they never had those intentions then I must believe that they had those intentions, non?
L’anglais still giving you fits I see.
ETA: failage de la blockquote. merde.
OzoneR
Maybe Obama should use the bully pulpit, call out Republicans, compare them to children, maybe his daughters. Then everyone will think he’s awesome, pundits will shut up and Rand Paul will quake in fear, stopping just long enough to vote to raise the debt ceiling.
He won’t though, he’s too weak.
James E. Powell
No doubt, Brooks, Sullivan & the rest of the Village Choir will sing of Rand the Bold & Brave. Bracing evidence that we are well past fucked.
And, with all due respect, I don’t need Ezra Klein to tell me about the stupidity of the balanced budget amendment. The right-wing fringe has been pushing that stupid idea since the 70s. It only faded away for awhile because a Democratic president balanced the budget!
I’m with General Stuck on this shit. I just can not throw up enough.
Davis X. Machina
@ Derf:
Yeah, but remember, Lieberman is with us on everything except the war, so if you add them up, you get one whole progressive senator!
It’s all how you look at things.
KyCole
On behalf of the sane people of Kentucky, I apologize. I still can’t believe people voted for this waste of skin.
Villago Delenda Est
Obama’s daughters, on their worst day of throwing conniptions over the failure to deliver on the puppy, are infinitely more mature than the teatards and this vile whelp who should be removed from office, along with the cur that sired him.
OzoneR
I’m not really sure why people are surprised. It’s always entertaining though how people are shocked when lunatics get elected in red states and districts, as if they thought they wouldn’t? I’m not really sure what world some of them are living in.
Ed Marshall
@10 I think they do vote for raising the ceiling and get beads and trinkets for it. If they actually push the thing into the Treasury just ignoring the congress and pointing at the 14th amendment it’s the last time they get to try that trick.
cat48
This is actually a good thing to me. It will slow down cuts of any kind & no bills were going to pass anyway b/c Mitch walked out of passing trade deals after he screamed for 6 months for them to be sent to the Senate by the prez.
The bankers will move his ass in time.
Ken Conrad has a Budget he’s submitting this week that reduces the Deficit more than Ryans & doesn’t cut SocSec or Medicare any more than Dems already have w/health bill. Bernie Sanders voted Aye so I’m looking forward to that. It must have a lot of new taxes or something.
Yutsano
In other news water is wet.
Kent Conrad just FTR, and it will be interesting to see if this goes anywhere. But since there can never be a new tax ever until Grover Norquist is worm food (and probably beyond) if there is any sort of revenue change ANYWHERE it’s dead in the water thanks to the Turtle.
jwb
Ed Marshall: Yes, that would be true in a rational world. But that’s just not the sort of world that our current Goopers live in now, is it? I expect Treasury to ignore, the House to impeach, and the stock and bond markets to tank. Should be fun.
boss bitch
@cat46: Bernie Sanders voted AYE on a budget from Ken Conrad?
whoah.
boss bitch
Rand Paul is not only a fool but he’s unbearably smug. The kind of smugness that makes you want to him a back hand slaaaap.
cat48
@Yutsano
It might have the new Tax code that Kent’s been working on for years which would be brilliant b/c the Villagers might get excited about lower taxes & if that happens, it will only be bashed on Fox on a regular basis. Also, the TP about no Dem budget for “years” will be gone.
JordanRules
Water’s still wet and Fred’s still stalking I see.
Rand’s smugness also irks me to no end, kinda like Fred.
ABL
i was speculating as to what would happen if obama was like “Fuck this noise” and ignored Congress. This sounds about right.
i hate these people.
(edited for sense)
cat48
JonF
The teatards like Rand believe that if there is a default, nothing bad will happen(wrong) and it will force the kind of budget slashing that they demand(also wrong). Expect more of this.
Ruckus
ABL
Your original question is rand as dumb as he sounds?
Why yes, yes he is.
Maybe not as dumb as a post, but really fucking close.
Yutsano
Not paying the bills is nowhere near removing the obligation to write the check in the first place. One makes you a deadbeat, the other just changes what you have to pay out. The Republicans want to make the US official deadbeats. They should take a class on FICO scores and realize that our credit rating is more or less the same idea.
cat48
There will NOT be a Constitutional Option, according to an enraged Cornyn!
burnspbesq
In other news, Rand Paul, in drag, refereed the Australia – Equatorial Guinea match at the Women’s World Cup. There is no other plausible explanation for the worst refereeing decision in the history of sport.
Yutsano
Brain bleach. Now.
burnspbesq
@ cat48:
John Cornyn can suck my tiny white dick. He needs to get his ass over to Balkinization and read Jack’s posts on the legislative history of Section 4. The situation we’re in now is exactly what the drafters had in mind.
Martin
Again, the US will not default even if the debt ceiling is not lifted. What it does is force about $1.4T in spending cuts over the course of the next year because our ability to borrow is gone.
Since Congress has given Obama conflicting information on how to manage the budget – he’s compelled to spend according to the budget but without any ability to borrow, that becomes impossible – then he has no choice but to defy Congress, so he might as well solve the problem as he sees fit. That’s a recipe I’d think the GOP would want to avoid. I’d think the most fair solution would be to cap spending to states at the level at which they contribute to federal revenues, if borrowing is off the table.
Emerald
Not difficult to achieve when you remember that Ryans’ budget INCREASES the deficit, and increases the debt by trillions.
Bernie Saunders voting AYE? Awesome.
(And OzoneR #13, awesome!)
Dennis SGMM
@Martin
I saw what you did there. ;)
celticdragonchick
I agree. They really intend to crash the country…corporate masters be damned. A prolonged depression as their best option for capturing the Presidency in their calculus, and they are going to run with that.
celticdragonchick
Sullivan is most definitely not part of the Rand fan club, whatever fantasies yo may have of that. Read what he says before you presume to know about it.
Mark S.
Has anyone read this fucking Balanced Budget Amendment? Section 4 solemnly constitutionalizes the Laffer Curve:
So when you cut taxes and revenues go up, that’s okay.
Countme In
Blogging about the actions of filthy, subhuman, murderous Republican vermin is going to a lot of good.
No more elections either. I’m not represented, which according to 9-year-old Founding Beatle, John Quincy Ono, is reason for massive. final, bloody violence against the Republican King.
John Brown had the right idea, but on much too small a scale.
Even Lincoln missed the mark with several hundred thousand dead motherfucking Confederate vermin.
Add two zeros for what needs to be done for the good of the country.
celticdragonchick
I do think an impeachment bill would be voted on by the teatards in the House. If passed, I cannot think of a surer way to guarantee civil violence and bloodshed on the streets. Nothing to do with “violent” African Americans, mind you. I’m thinking of millions of long suffering Americans who would take to the streets, and possibly take up arms…at the prospect of another Democratic president being impeached by neo-facist idiots. It would be the most visible sign yet that democracy was finished and corporate monarchism was here to stay.
rikyrah
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
he was always a stupid mofo.
plain and simple.
rikyrah
Cornyn can go somewhere, because he, nor anyone else in Congress, has standing.
yes, pull the 14th Amendment. NOW
jon
For all the talk Republicans have given the subject, have they ever in their party’s history shown us a single balanced budget? I want to see how they propose to do this thing that’s going to be Constitutionally required before I call them a bunch of mendacious fools. But until I see a single balanced budget, I can only call them a bunch of bluffing morons who don’t have a fucking clue how to balance the budget of even ten years ago. They either have no fucking clue or they don’t know how to use a calculator, maybe they don’t know how to use an Excel Spreadsheet? I can’t say. All I know for certain is that those bozos want to cut grandma and poor people out of the budget and are too cowardly to just come out and say it without their precious Constitution forcing them to just do it. Bastard GOP people. That’s what they are.
Yutsano
Wow that’s a piece of junk. It would basically proscribe any sort of budget policy from being passed ever. Good luck getting that passed though.
Not quite yet. That trigger will get pulled on July 23rd. That’s the day of reckoning since if nothing is on paper by then it won’t pass Congress in time. But I’d bet good money that trigger does get pulled.
OzoneR
you lost me at “take to the streets”
have Americans ever “taken to the streets” on anything, ever?
karen marie
OzoneR @ 13:
Did you miss the entirety of last week somehow? What do you think Halperin calling Obama a dick was about?
Dennis SGMM
Anyone else remember Rand Paul’s Electric Underground Border Fence?
Calling him a stupid motherfucker is an insult to stupid motherfuckers. The fine Spanish word “baboso” seems more appropriate.
MikeJ
I love the 14th. Same amendment that makes Gov. Goodhair ineligible to be president.
Mark S.
@celticdragonchick:
Yeah, goopers impeaching Obama would probably blow this country up. I also think if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling, it will be looked on as the end of the legislative branch having a meaningful role in our government. Just like how the Roman Senate persisted for centuries after the Caesars grabbed absolute power.
Countme In
Each time Eric Cantor walks out of budget talks, or Rand Paul or Ron Paul or Paulisdead Quincy Adams threaten filibuster over the debt ceiling, or John Cornyn shits with his vermin mouth, the President should direct the Treasury to default on one trillion dollars of Federal debt.
Pay for it by turning away all parasite Republican vermin in Republican districts and States from all Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare payments.
Shoot them on sight when they apply for public assistance or try to get medical care on my fucking stolen dime.
Bring home the troops from Afghanistan and Iraq to enforce deadly martial law against Death Panel loving Republican filth.
OzoneR
@ karen marie.
change the batteries in your snark detector :-)
MikeJ
Funny how progressives see using the 14th as sticking it to the republicans when in fact it is the best possible outcome for them.
The money guys don’t want a default. Without the 14th amendment option, congress *has* to pass the bill raising the limit. If Obama uses the constitution, no Republican ever has to raise the debt ceiling, but their money guys are protected anyway. All the posturing, none of the pain, and they get to go on and on about how Democrats drive up the debt, and since this is already the way the media identifies Dems, they’ll get a friendly hearing.
karen marie
OzoneR @ 54:
Testing, testing. One, two, three, testing. Is this thing on?
You’re obviously way too subtle for me.
FlipYrWhig
Rand Paul is the first senator who’s essentially a wingnut troll. There have been plenty of right-wing Senators before, but he’s the one whose attitudes, ideas, and outsized sense of self-regard embody the internet Right. It’s like having Glenn Reynolds as a senator.
Mark B
OK, after watching the clips, I’m impressed by what a moron Paul actually is. He apparently thinks spouting a talking point and smirking is debate, even when the talking point is patently stupid. He’s like a wind-up doll with about 20 prerecorded phrases. The people of Kentucky are really fucking stupid to have elected this nimrod.
LongHairedWeirdo
I think one would be better off saying “that’s how *stupid* the modern GOP has gotten,” or, “that’s how completely unrealistic the modern GOP has gotten”.
Using “right” or “conservative” or any other descriptor only encourages them. “Damn straight we’re moving to the right!”
Martin
And yet if you put the idea out there, the wingnuts would sign on in a second. That’s the beauty of it.
My son is inside watching The Road Warrior. They really should rename it “Libertarian America”. Strapping men in leather driving high pollution vehicles without nanny state safety restraints while liberally employing their 2nd amendment rights in the free-market quest for fossil fuels.
Countme In
efgoldman:
Thanks.
Someone on this thread or elsewhere recently claimed the Republican Party has no intention of carrying through with its threat to destroy the country.
If that commenter is right, then my threats are snark.
If they are wrong, then my threats aren’t snark.
It’d be too bad of if a snark miscalculation occurred between me and the Republican Party.
I think John Brown and Abraham Lincoln included a wink in on their threats as well until events turned against their native good humor.
Will you still love me when I’m not snarky anymore?
Anne Laurie
Well, yeah — in terms of “controlling the debate“, they’ve won pretty handily. The Media Village nods its heads in unison, agreeing that “everybody” must concede the Real Seriousness of the teahadist temper-tantrums, and that “nobody” will risk political suicide by contradicting their earnest demands for unlimited free ice cream that won’t make you gain weight. Doesn’t mean President Obama and the tattered remnants of the Sane People Party aren’t going to have to sack up and do something about the debt ceiling, but in terms of winning the debate, this week’s Loud Moron-in-Chief Rand Paul is getting all kinds of media love that would not otherwise be available to an IQ-deficient, heinously fact-challenged first-term Congressnothing from a state whose only national icons are fast-moving horses and slow-talking racists.
I swear, what Rand and his fellow GOPers have in what passes for their minds is the kind of nightmare world envisioned in C.M. Kornbluth’s The Marching Morons — millions of gullible morons ruled by a frantically overworked ‘elite’ of sane, intelligent people. Rand, Cantor, McConnell and their ilk would gladly embrace an actual career as the idiot rulers of Idiotworld… well-paid strutting actors bloviating in front of a goggle-eyed media for the benefit of their slack-jawed supporters, and all the hard work of thinking & negotiating left to the drones behind the curtain. They’ve achieved a rude model of that already, after all.
General Stuck
With the recent government funding showdown, Obama showed he has a limit after getting to a certain point where, it’s “NO John” with this bullshit about digging into entitlement bennies and other social spending. I think he or his surrogates should state through leaks to the press, that he is willing to go this route if all else fails, and let the wingers stew on that and make their plans with that in mind. Plus, letting things stay mum to the last minute, as to his intentions on using the 14th amendment, would begin to see increasing panic in the markets well before the July 23 date.
If he uses it, the wingnuts will go crazy, and so will the firebaggers squealing “lawless Obama” just like Bush. But he just can’t give in to what the wingers are demanding, and I think they know this, nor can he allow us to default.
Sko Hayes
Not one Republican seems to realize they have to raise the ceiling to enact that other Paul guy’s budget, and that the budget itself creates 4 trillion in debt over the next 20 years. All they can do is repeat talking points (“it’s a spending problem not a revenue problem!”) without having
any idea of what they’re talking about. I imagine most of the freshman class of the Tea Party could repeat verbatim everything Mitch McConnell and John Boehner said over the last week, but not one of them could answer an actual question about Paul Ryan’s budget or this “constitutional amendment”.
The idiocy used to be entertaining, but it’s just not funny anymore.
Dennis SGMM
@Martin
It occurs to me that the Red State congresscritters have failed to think through just exactly how their constituents will take it should they force the gov into a bare bones budget. Most all, save IIRC Texas, are dependent on the flow of Evil Gubmint Money. These people make Pol Pot look like an amateur.
MacKenna
Let’s make that balanced budget idea retroactive and… oh look, MAJOR FAIL FOR EVERY REPUBLICAN ADMINISTRATION SINCE REAGAN.
Rand Paul needs to be slapped upside the head with a large marine being. I recommend a whale.
General Stuck
On further reflection, I agree Obama should drop the hammer now and make his declaration of unconstitutional the debt ceiling law, and stop this bullshit right now in its tracks. That would limit pol damage with the press fluffing the wingers for a month or two, that are threatening to destroy civilization as we know it, and demanding dems and Obama submit their own plan on destroying the world.
Take it of the table now, what should never have been on the table, and let the winger howl at the moon for awhile, and it will blow over for most Americans, but not so much if it turns into an around the clock pol soap opera, that dems always lose.
He might want to first call some kind of summit in the WH with the gooper leaders, and read them the motherfucking riot act on this shit, and give them a chance to back off. But that is about it.
AAA Bonds
Hey, quick request:
Could y’all please not quote Ezra Klein as though he’s anything other than a fucking moron drop-out?
Seriously, Klein’s done more than most liberals to make Americans stupid. Every front page writer here is smarter than him and you don’t have to quote him as though he is any authority on anything (he simply isn’t, by experience or training).
In fact, I’d put Ezra Klein on about the same intellectual level as Rand Paul. Klein certainly doesn’t know anything more about the topic of the debt ceiling than Paul. He just parrots what he’s told, and usually with substantial errors.
For an example, see Yves Smith’s explanation of why we don’t need to listen to Ezra Klein:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/04/new-propaganda-coinage-to-klein.html
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/06/ezra-klein-should-stick-to-being-wrong-about-health-care.html
Thanks and y’all have a good holiday.
Countme In
“take it off the table now”
And then have Joe Biden enter the room with a chainsaw and make a pile of sawdust out of the the table.
No more negotiation with al Qaeda Republican terrorist murderers.
Boehner, Cantor, and McConnell can go find a compound somewhere in a cracker slave state and hold out while watching some FOX porn, with the fascist FOX blondes sucking Norquist’s tiny battery-powered, but tax-free, dick.
Until Obama tracks them down and puts bullets through their eyes.
Not snark.
Martin
Correct. Basically every reliably Republican state save Texas is a recipient state. Obama needs to give the Jed Bartlett debate speech: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0745624/quotes
With no debt ceiling, Obama does his national address, announces the plan to balance the budget with no borrowing, and goes through the states alphabetically, listing how much federal revenue each state generates, and whether the state will receive a funding cut (and how much) or not. Fair is fair. Good night and God Bless America.
Jinx
Actually, I bet Rand Paul doesn’t know that it take 67 votes to pass this in the senate and 2/3 in the house. And I am guessing he has no clue that then the states have their shot to ratify it and it takes 3/4. His partner in crime on this filibuster until we get a balanced budget amendment is the moron Ron Johnson from Wisconsin. I hope the two of them rant and rave for days in the senate and bottle up all business so the villagers and the wall street boys get a real clue how insane these morons are and we see the market start to react. If they keep up this escalation, Obama will be a hero if he implements the 14th amendment solution.
And I too am curious to see Conrad’s budget. Remember, a budget vote only takes 50 votes. But there is no way a budget passed by the senate dems would ever pass the house. But, would it send to a conference committee since the house has passed Ryan’s budget?
Lurker
Were the CEO raises linked to their stock options/compensation? If so, the chaos of debt default could indirectly dock CEO pay.
General Stuck
But Haley, our unicorn will no longer shit block grants if the truth gets out.
gbear
Great. Part of the reason that I’m sitting at home in MN without a job next week is because the republicans were trying to negotiate abortion restrictions, voter ID rules, school vouchers and a ban on stem cell research into the budget talks that fell apart last thursday. There is no low to which republicans cannot aspire.
Citizen_X
Focussed like a laser on jobs, as always.
LB
I think your friend isn’t exactly wrong. Chinese are letting their currency appreciate and Australian/New Zealand currency is close tied to Chinese one. That’s completely independent of all the stuff with debt ceiling.
Stan of the Sawgrass
this is horrible, and bad, and not bi-partisan in any way, but when I saw the “bumper sticker” ABL used in the post, all I could see was: “RAND PAUL..FOO” I had a flashback to the mid-nineties:
FuPaul!! or should it be “Foo’Paul”?
Call him anything, except “Senator.”
Stillwater
Heh. Take that motherfuckers! You’re
going downsharing the pain with us!debbie
@ Mark B:
Which is why I want him to filibuster. Imagine the clips from that!
Stillwater
And I bet you don’t know the game Rand Paul is playing. Hint: it’s not about actually amending the constitution.
moonbat
Martin @ 62: I bow before your superior snark, sir.
The Raven
Well, hey, let’s hear it Californication!
So the stage is set. The conservative Democrats, led by Obama and Reid, cut a compromise with the Wall Street Republican s, led by Boehner and McConnell. This will include substantial austerity for the lower class and continued support and amnesty for the upper class. This is likely to lead to a decade of depression.
The Combined Corvids of North America thank the government of the United States for this rich gift of food.
Croak!
Stillwater
I’ve been out of touch for a while … Have the chinese decided to let their currency float?
BO_Bill
Ezra Klein is a twit.
General Stuck
No shortage of trolls and their nonsense in this bad economy. Too bad we can’t mulch them into some kind of alternative energy to fuel the extra clown cars, or at least ferment some decent likker.
nancydarling
Hey! Leave Ezra alone! If I could have a boy toy, it would be him. He’s not only really smart and a foodie, but just as cute and sexy as can be to this old woman’s eyes.
Martin
They burn just fine. A 180 pound troll contains 630,000 Calories (kilocalories). A gallon of gas contains about 29,000 Calories when burned, so your typical troll is worth almost 22 gallons of gas, valued at about $80 at what I paid at Costco yesterday.
Davis X. Machina
@ The Raven: What’s worse, property still isn’t theft.
Davis X. Machina
@ Martin: It’s complicated, but when you do that there’s a real problem with sub-10μ particulate emissions.
dlnelson
Paul was just elected, he is cover for the future runners. He is perfect for tv, etc. he has nothing to lose. Di Fi from Cal has done nothing, (in my opinion) but she is running as a 78 year old woman( very rich ). She holds no candle to Nancy Smash I would love to see some new young democrats. The politics in Cal make that impossible. Why is it so hard to get new folks into politics. Washington is full of Hatfeilds and Mc Coys. They are inbred. They are older than snot. We as a country need new folks. The old senators trade votes, within their ranks, and without their ranks. It is about power, and never giving it up. Politics will not change until we change it. These folks should be forced to be on medicare, once they turn 65, no more capped teeth, no more golf priv. no more dental, (which ends when you are older), let them walk the walk. It might be interesting.
Litlebritdifrnt
Until Rand Paul quits sucking off the gubmint (medicaid) teet he can shut the fuck up. He is one of the problems, (huge medical bills caused by grossly overpaid doctors and medical staff) not the fucking answer.
Martin
It’d be worth it. The thought of shoving one of our trolls into my gas tank is quite pleasing.
Comrade Kevin
I’d say a Great White Shark, teeth first.
nancydarling
dnelson @94. What do you think about Debra Bowen? I have been out of the CA political loop for a while. Is Debra running for Harman’s old seat? Harman was like Charlie Wilson in drag—she never met a new weapon system she didn’t like.
Comrade Kevin
@nancydarling: Bowen lost in the primary. Janice Hahn will be the Democrat running in the special election, against some guy named Craig Huey.
OzoneR
Wow, you have been out of the loop for a while. Debra missed the runoff, which is between Janice Hahn and a tea party douche.
nancydarling
Comrade Kevin, if Hahn is half the woman her daddy was a man, she will be an asset to Dems, (I hope). I remember reading about that odious ad put out by Huey supporters. ABL had some righteous things to say about it.
ETA It seems like a personal fortune is required or else being born into a family political dynasty.
Mike in NC
Rand Paul appears to be a guy who takes a shower once a week whether he thinks he needs it or not.
WereBear
If he would do that, he gets the rent money, and half the grocery money, too!
MomSense
I say pull the 14th amendment on those sorry saboteurs!
parsimon
ABL or anyone else:
Forgive me, but I’m not seeing a link to a story explaining that Paul is intending to filibuster the debt-ceiling increase.
Maybe this was covered earlier in the thread, but I got impatient, since I didn’t see anything in the OP. Sorry if I just missed it.
nancydarling
Parsimon, He said it on CSPAN’s Newsmakers this AM.
http://www.c-span.org/Series/Newsmakers/
The Raven
@$DIETY: “What’s worse, property still isn’t theft.”
It’s time to start talking about class again. (BTW, that allusion is to Proudhon.)
It wouldn’t even matter if Obama were as liberal as we’d hoped. I see no more choices left. The best outcome I can see, barring a miracle, is a coalition of Democratic conservatives and Wall Street Republicans.
Going to be a rocky decade. Think 1950s combined with 1930s.
parsimon
Thanks, nancydarling.
(For some reason, the Reply hovertext/button on comments here has disappeared for me.)
Gus diZerega
Good post, ABL, but please stop slandering dicks.
jrg
I can only assume that they think they could get away with it, by convincing the hicks that it’s Obama’s fault.
I don’t think it will work… But then again, rural America is a bottomless cesspool of idiocy, so it might.
Ed Marshall
@110 They know they aren’t going to do any such fucking thing. It’s political posturing. For those who have forgotten some extremely short-term political history, examine the voting behavior of the 110th congress.
The democrats were in lockstep pressing a progressive agenda with the force and clarity that you find when you have a scapegoat to veto your efforts….just like the Republicans have. They are counting on none of their ideas being implemented and being accountable to exactly no one.
A stronger majority, elected in 2008 backtracked all to hell. EFCA got sent to Bush to veto with everyone on board. When a president came to power who would sign the fucker, all of a sudden half of them went wobbly. It’s the same dynamic.
Yutsano
OT but uh-oh: Herman has issues.
Origuy
nancydarling, the Reply button has gone Galt; either that or Tunch eated it. It’s broken in the latest WordPress update.
parsimon
That was me, Origuy, about the Reply button. But thanks for the confirmation — wasn’t sure if I had a computer problem of some sort.
The Raven
Ed Marshall, #111, “They know they aren’t going to do any such fucking thing.”
You mean like they aren’t going to do it in California, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio, …?
Calouste
@nancydarling:
Back to the 18th century. Shall we just make the Senator, Governor and Reprensentative title inheritable to make life simple?
Nutella
Cornyn objected to this
when talking about the debt limit? But we have just established by the failure of congress to either approve or disapprove of our participation in the Libyan war that the president can conduct a war all by himself, so yeah.
I will also note that if congress passes a budget that requires a specific amount of spending (which they have) and then refuses to permit either borrowing or tax increases to meet that budget then they have given the executive branch complete authority to decide who gets paid and who doesn’t. They had the power to choose when they passed the budget but they are giving away that power if they don’t pass the debt ceiling change. If they decide we’re going to default, Obama gets to decide where. If he wants to pay all the bills except the ones from, say, defense contractors, he can.
Congress is taking Congress out of the decision-making.
edited for sense
Citizen_X
Fuck, that’s depressing.
Zandar
Hey, I voted for Jack Conway.
boss bitch
Bye Hermie!
Yutsano
Let the bumper stickers be printed post-haste.
AAA Bonds
I predicted here back when Rand Paul was running and Democrats were whimpering over whether they could call a guy who wanted to repeal the Civil Rights Act “racist” that if Kentucky elected him he would shut down the government with a filibuster.
He has never, ever, ever hidden this: his entire mission is to shut down the goddamn government.