We now have a new frontrunner for the dumbest person in Washington:
Today, I introduced a unique bill that goes in a completely different direction than everything else we’ve been hearing out of Washington. It would force politicians to start practicing what they’ve been preaching by lowering the debt ceiling from $14.3 trillion back down to $13 trillion. Admittedly, this is not your run-of-the-mill kind of law, but it would make it imperative for Congress to think outside of the box and come up with ways to pay off a portion of our debt while drastically cutting back spending. Since 1996, the national debt has increased by an inexcusable $8.79 trillion. I firmly believe that this calls for emergency measures to reduce the debt.
I’m going to introduce legislation to make myself fifteen years younger. Prettier, too.
Every time I get pissed off at Obama for not doing what I want the way I want it when I want it, I remember who he is dealing with.
Baud
Rather than spend all of 2009 debating health reform, the Democrats should have just passed a law stating that “All Americans are hereby declared healthy.” Short and simple for the average voter to understand. This is why the GOP wins elections.
Han's Solo
Who could have guessed that the Dumbest Person in Washington would be a Republican from Georgia?
Shocked, just shocked!
danimal
Please, God, let this come to a vote. It’s tea party catnip and absolutely insane on a scale that has not yet been approached. They won’t even realize until too late that huge swaths of current spending would have to be eliminated immediately. The Ryan budget is timid in comparison.
Congrats, Rep. Broun, you’ve made Michele! (and Gohmert and King, and oh hell, there are a lot of them, aren’t there?) look sane. You are absolutely the stupidest of the stupid.
Gozer
Great idea!
I think I’m just going to call the gov’t and tell them that instead of owing 80k in student loans I’m only going to pay back around 40k.
Wish me luck!
nancydarling
Well John, this is the Georgia rep who, during the avian flu scare of a year or two ago, advised us to wash our hands and stop picking our noses. I heard him on CSPAN. Whaddaya expect? Oh, he’s an MD also,too.
Jamie
wow, that’s impressively stupid.
Brian R.
Move over, Mississippi. Georgia is coming through.
Sloegin
It’s bizarre that all of the ‘out of control spending’ talk and people wagging fingers at charts blithely ignore the fact that we have wars ongoing. Wars historically have a habit of bankrupting countries that wage them.
Worse, they never get called out on it.
Comrade Dread
How about we just pass a bill that says “What debt, suckers?” while we’re at it.
stuckinred
Not only is this moron from Georgia, he’s from my district in Athens. They gerrymandered the district to totally dilute the democratic vote here. Dennis G’s former rag, the Flagpole, has a section devoted just to him.
Poopyman
I’m sure Rand Paul is working hard to regain the crown even as we speak. My money is still on ol’ Randy. Go Paul!
TooManyJens
Of course, the NRO commenters think that’s an awesome idea.
Brian R.
Wars that their party pushed. Wars that their party refused to pay for through new sources of revenue, and instead placed on the national credit card.
Their party was the first in history to cut taxes during a war, too.
And their party pushed through the biggest entitlement program since the Great Society in Medicare Part D, also with no way to pay for it, other than adding to the national debt.
And when you ask them who’s to blame for the current debt? Not them. Not them at all.
Jay in Oregon
WTF does he think “thinking outside of the box” is going to accomplish?
If you have a deficit, there are two ways to eliminate it; take in more money, or spend less money. If there’s a third way to balance things, I’d love to hear it.
And given that the teabaggers would rather flense themselves with a rusty cheesegrater than make rich people pay a oenny more in taxes or tackle the major boondoggles in spending, he can just shut his piehole.
Martin
So, with $2.16T in tax revenue, he wants to use $1.3T to reduce the debt, and because we can’t default, another $450B in debt service on the rest. That leaves just about $400B to do everything from pave roads to run the military.
No problem. Where’s the budget to go along with that plan?
Han's Solo
Stupid for Teabaggers is like the Force for Jedi’s.
“The stupid is strong with this one”
Montysano
Louie Goehmert won’t go down without a fight.
Southern Beale
Well, this bill struck me as rather dumb. It’s Sen. Jim DeMint’s “Retirement Freedom Act” (God I love how the GOPers have to put the word “freedom” in everything).
It’s really wonderful because it
It basically decouples Social Security and Medicare Part A, allowing seniors to opt out of Medicare while staying in SS. And if you opt out of Medicare you can opt back in without penalty.
I’m trying to figure out how this could possibly work and who would even want to participate. They’re short on the details, but do you get refunded the money you put in all your working life? And then as soon as times get tough and private insurance decides NO they won’t pay for your cancer treatment you can decide, woopsies I want back in! My bad? I mean, can we all get that deal? How is that fiscally sound? It sounds like a plan to break Medicare.
I don’t get it.
nancydarling
Stuck @10, I would feel some pity for you except my guy is the one who wanted to take away funding for the Prez’s teleprompter as a step in reducing spending. Dipshits abound.
Wes
You know what? I wish it did pass. It’d be championed, passed by the House and Senate… and then, when it gets to the White House. Veto’d with the statement saying “The 14th Amendment says ‘Screw You.” Then, it magically somehow gets passed by 2/3rds override. The Obama says “I warned you.” He pulls out the 14th Amendment card.
At the end of my dumbass dream, Paul Broun gets to become the first tea partier nut-punched by the US Constitution.
Sadly, I can only instead dream that a crazy person nut-punches him literally.
Brian R.
Remember, this is the same douchebag who was asked at a town hall meeting, “So, who’s going to shoot Obama?” and responded with a big ol’ belly-laugh.
He’s an idiot, and he’s an asshole. No wonder the NRO comments love him.
arguingwithsignposts
I’m sure Louie Gohmert, Virginia Fox, one of the Pauls or James Inhofe (to name just a handful of the candidates vying for the position Stupidest Person in Washington) will be along any minute to take the lead.
Montysano
@Southern Beale:
No, those are the details.
Caz
What’s so dumb about that?? The only position that is dumb is to think that the govt is unable to find enough spending to cut to balance the budget. It’s not that they can’t – it’s that they won’t.
Lowering the debt ceiling is a great idea. But I’d settle for just keeping it where it is. Either way, it will force the govt to rein in its spending which is completely out of control.
Han's Solo
What are the chances that the GOP wants the US to default so they can get rid of the social safety net?
They’ve pushed “Starve the Beast” for decades. There was only one place “Starve the Beast” could lead, and it was default of one sort or another.
Now they are making their final push towards breaking this country so that they can rebuild it into a Galtian paradise.
Joy
I like that idea. I want to introduce legislation to make me prettier and younger too. I also want to know as much now as I did when I was younger so that when I get younger, I’ll be smarter. Now I’m really starting to sound like that guy!
Linda Featheringill
But did you read the comments?
Wow. They sound like BJ regulars and really dissing the honorable Mr. Brown.
Really. It’s worth the effort to go to that link for the comments.
Southern Beale
BREAKING:
Murdoch’s News Of The World has been shuttered, Sunday’s paper will be its last.
Woodrowfan
DNFTT
srv
Mitt needs to go on the tube and say he’ll “double deficit reduction”
piratedan
well if its government spending that has to be reduced, I’d like to go ahead and nominate all of these “deficit hawks” get behind a dramatic withdrawal of troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, stop spending on wars, muster out all of those “vets” onto the streets (after all, most of ’em are national guardsmen anyways, they can just go back to their imaginary jobs that are being held open for them, right?) and stop paying them all that money that is bankrupting us. Then we can bring military spending in line with 1933 levels and save our way of life ;-)
Linda Featheringill
joy #26
Can I add my name to your wonderful new legislation?
danimal
Caz–this debt limit change would require an immediate 1.3 trillion dollar surplus right now. Propose a budget with an immediate 1.3 trillion dollar surplus and we’ll talk.
LankyLoo
This bill sounds great! I can’t wait to see how it produces synergies with our big banks. This will right size our debt!
arguingwithsignposts
@Southern Beale: And Brooks and the Murdochs wipe their hands of the mess. Loverly.
Brian R.
No, it won’t. We’ve already spent the money here, it’s gone.
Your statement above is like saying now that we’ve eaten a five-course dinner and gotten the check for $200, we should either pay only $150 or lower it even more to $100. Because either way, it will force us to eat less than we just did.
OzoneR
No, they won’t, because that would require we hurt good hardworking people, but you couldn’t care less about them, we know.
JPL
Southern Beale –
Murdoch is trying to save the Sky Broadcasting deal..that is all.
Zifnab
Oh good. I can finally rest assured that taxes I’m paying into the Social Security trust and Medicare trust aren’t going to those frilly little entitlements, and are instead going to that massive war debt we racked up under Bush Jr.
I was really worried for a little while that some of my tax money might go towards something I support. *Phew*
Cain
Since 1995? Fuck you assholes.. there was no debt after Clinton left. .you assholes. So basically, Clinton is to blame too for the debt. Piece of shit..
Southern Beale
@JPL:
I know but didn’t Cameron (or someone big over there) already assure him that the BSkyB deal would go through?
Anyway, I hope this isn’t the end of the story because there are a lot of questions over here in the U.S. too.
scav
That was an implosion. I think I’ll stay tuned.
Montysano
@Caz:
Like the similar trope that “The size of government has exploded”, “spending is out of control” is easily disproved by a quick Google search for “spending as a percentage of GDP”. Thanks for playing, though.
kd bart
Why don’t we just post an ad in the international papers stating that we are not responsible for any debts incurred between the years 1996-2011.
trollhattan
@24.Caz
Fxt
Poopyman
@Jay in Oregon:
Chapter 11, Mofo. Chapter 11.
kdaug
What’s that quote about Afghanistan? Something about graveyards and empires?
JPL
Southern Belle, Cameron came out in support of the sky deal but it still has to be approved. The last week the committee received over 100,000 notes from the public wanting the deal to be blocked..
He’ll open another paper and get the tv station.. The only coverage here has been from the nytimes and now that will die down.
Call me a cynic.
Halteclere
I love the new “We are like Greece” meme. K-Thug has a post about how completely wrong this is. But it sounds scary to people who have no concept of what the Greece situation is like beyond TV scenes of riots and huge debts.
Ripley
That’s a Very Serious Bill. Very…
daveNYC
To be fair, that is good advice.
You don’t seem to be grasping the difference between the two actions. Lowering the debt limit would force spending equal to whatever the limit was lowered by in order to retire the now illegal quantity of debt. That would be in addition to any actual goods and services that the government would otherwise want to spend money on.
El Cid
US debt should be illegal. Under Democrats at the very least.
In addition, any form of taxation should be made un-Constitutional.
We all have to tighten our belts because of all the government spending.
We need to get back to the days of responsibility when you lived on your own patch of land on a mountainside and took care of all your needs on your own.
me
@Southern Beale: …and nothing of value was lost.
WyldPirate
The NY Times just posted a new article article on Obama’s latest episode of “bend-over-and grab-his-ankles” negotiating tactics with the Rethugs;
sounds exactly like what has been the standard modus operandi coming out of the WH since day one. No. fucking. spine. At. All.
Montysano
@Cain:
Wrong. Clinton balanced the budget, i.e. there was no annual budget deficit that added to the national debt.
The Other Chuck
Maybe Obama should just take the wars off the books again the way Shrub did.
WyldPirate
@Cain:
Defict and debt are talking about two different things, moran. Get with the game.
Clinton ran budget surpluses and had no budget deficit in the last couple of years. We still had all the debt that has accrued since the Jackson administration–the last time the US didn’t owe anyone any money.
Baud
@WyldPirate
Wow, a news article about anonymous White House officials stating that a deal is better than no deal. You’ve completely changed my mind about Obama. Where do I sign up for the revolution? Can I drive a tank?
Martin
This is a personal favor to Dick Armey, by the way.
He sued to be able to opt out of Part A because his federal benefits as a former congressman are better. Of course, the federal benefits are structured to assume that once you hit 65 you’ll get dumped into Medicare – it’s how the feds keep their costs down a bit by knowing they won’t need to carry anyone >65 without getting that SS money dumped back into the pool.
Dick Armey and the rest of the lot who want to pass this solely for their own personal benefit as they’ll be about the only people who benefit, can all go DIAF. And I mean that. This is not far removed from introducing “Dick Armey Should be Paid $1M per Year Because He’s Awesome” legislation.
scav
NI are trying to shut down the NoTW part, sure, probably for the sake of Sky, but up to the very end they were trying to push harder on the police as equally guilty parties (and the govt, but less overtly) and those fires won’t be put out quite so easily so the general stick probably continues. NoTW’s advertising stream was looking pretty hosed too, which had to count for something. I’m not sure this puppy is under control: I’m still getting flashbacks of guys with squirt guns trying to control Fukushima.
Davis X. Machina
@Baud: No, but you get to stand in front of one. We’ll never see you again, but damn, you’d be famous.
Comrade Dread
Maybe I’m drinking the Kool-Aid here, but I’m starting to agree with Glennzilla.
Maybe he’s not spineless, maybe he actually thinks it would be a good idea.
Assuming of course, that you can trust a bunch of unnamed sources saying vague bullshit off the record.
Citizen_X
Brian R. @ 13, and Caz…anytime: Here, Kevin Drum puts up about as good a summation of how we got into this mess as I’ve seen anywhere:
Derf
ADP non-farm payroll numbers today doubled analysts expectations. Where is the breathless headline from John Galt Cole? Just like he did when the last numbers came out worse than expected. Is this not enough evidence for all you lemmings?
But no, that’s not bad news so why should a naive libertard like Cole care about that. No let’s focus on the latest feined pro left outrage over the latest pre-emptive strike on Obama over non-info about what hasn’t happened yet. Just like the last time.
You are so predicable John Galt Cole. It’s getting boring being able to predict your horseshit day after day.
Martin
@Comrade Dread:
There’s no way these guys can write $2T or $4T legislation in 3 weeks, get it scored, and get it passed in two chambers. Impossible. Obama is making the game so big as to make it impossible. The only thing these guys actually need to do is pass one page of legislation raising the debt ceiling, and that’s all they’re going to do.
Omnes Omnibus
Many trollish comments today (of both far left and right varieties). Isn’t this fun?
NonyNony
@Southern Beale
Feh.
Nobody’s getting fired. Nobody is being held accountable. This is a shuffling of the deck chairs to convince people that they’re sorry for being inhuman monsters, and if the folks in Britain let them get away with it it’ll be disgusting.
And nobody’s being held accountable because it goes right to the top and everyone in the organization knows it. If the Murdoch clan starts to try to pin the blame on someone the finger pointing will begin and eventually all of the fingers will end up pointing at one of the Murdochs. They want to nip it in the bud before that happens.
WyldPirate
@Baud:
Seems to me that the WH is trying to put out a few brush fires. Given OCapitulator’s latest rhetoric and past history, he seems as if he has started the fires himself.
Please feel free to give me the 11-dimensional chess version as to why this reporter made the comment up along with the other sourced comments, Baud. I enjoy watching you fools twist yourselves into knots with the tortured pretzel logic.
The Moar You Know
Cain: Hate to be the bringer of bad news, but you’re wrong. Clinton did not ADD to the debt for his last two-three years in office. He came into office with a national debt of about 4 trillion dollars and left with slightly over 5 trillion in debt.
Spectacular performance compared to his replacement, who took that 5 trillion and in the space of eight years, added more to it than every other administration combined, leaving Obama with a debt of about 11 trillion dollars.
IrishGirl
Good lord this Broun guy is an M.D.! I guess it goes to show you don’t have to have a logical brain to go to med school. Then again, he could have gone to the Oral Roberts School of Medicine where they do their dissertation on the efficacy of “laying on of hands”. Ugh…..so much dumb stupid it makes my brain hurt.
Hugh
One problem is that it often doesn’t look like Obama knows who he is actually dealing with. The only way to respond to these lunatics and greedy, corrupt assholes as best as I can tell is to make them feel heat. Obama just doesn’t like to do that.
JPL
Derf -…How long before Cantor takes credit? He might even suggest that businesses want the republicans to default.
Han's Solo
@Derf: Wow, you sound really upset.
You do realize that there are many other sites you could spend time at? I’m not saying you should go away, but you don’t seem to be enjoying this place, so why do you come here?
Really? It sounds like you must think you have a better quality of horseshit, if so you should start your own blog. If you are as brilliant as you think, I’m sure you will have a huge following in no time.
WyldPirate
@NonyNony:
Damn,, change a couple of words and that sounds exactly like what happened with Wall St…or the Bush administration war crimes.
Two systems of justice in America and America.
Citizen_X
@Fred Derf:
It’s spelled P-R-O-J-E-C-T-I-O-N.
Matthew
John –
Honestly, is there anything that Obama could do in these so-called negotiations that would bring you to call him out for being history’s worst negotiator? What if he voluntarily places Social Security on the chopping block, as he seems eager to do? Would that then prove to you his worthlessness as far as economic plans go? Or would you and the rest of Obama’s Democrat cheerleaders continue to point hysterically at Michele Bachmann as proof that Obama is doing a heckuva job?
gnomedad
Derf just called Cole “predictable”. My sides are hurting.
Derf
ADP non-farm payroll numbers today doubled analysts expectations. Where is the breathless headline from John Galt Cole? Just like he did when the last numbers came out worse than expected. Is this not enough evidence for all you lemmings that John Galt Cole is nothing but a Greenwald reading idiot?
But no, that’s not bad news so why should a naive libertard like Cole care about that. No let’s focus on the latest feined pro left outrage over the latest pre-emptive strike on Obama over non-info about what hasn’t happened yet. Just like the last time.
You are so predicable John Galt Cole. It’s getting boring being able to predict your horseshit day after day.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-07/u-s-stock-index-futures-extend-gains-after-adp-report-shows-jobs-growth.html
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-07/jobless-claims-in-u-s-decreased-more-than-forecast-last-week-to-418-000.html
Joel
News of the World is done.
Baud
@WyldPirate
I have no logic to defend because I have no facts to apply any logic to – just rampant speculation of the type I’ve seen umpteen times before in the media and the blogs. I’m happy to admit I’m wrong about Obama when I have actual evidence that I’m wrong about Obama.
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
And yet, somehow, this is the kind of jerk we lose too all the fucking time, across the country. These are the kind of arguments that somehow we fucking lose too all the fucking time because they ‘make so much sense!’ to the rest of the country than anything actually fucking based in reality and simple fucking arithmetic. Somehow, we’re on the verge of it all actually really burning down, and yet us being saddled with the blame because obviously, it’s all the dirty fucking hippies’ fault that our godly Galtian GOP Gods couldn’t save us with their brilliant Personal Responsibility encouragements.
God, fuck this all.
Citizen_X
Hugh @ 71:
Gene Lyons has a piece here suggesting that Obama still thinks of Republicans as the Republican guys he dealt with at Harvard Law, where all disagreements could be handled in a collegial manner, blah blah blah. That’s also part of the mythology of the U.S. Senate (canings by pro-slavery Senators aside), so he probably only had that misconception reinforced there.
me
They’re just remaining it.
5.31pm: As speculation turns to the space left by the News of the World, my colleague Chris Moran has spotted that the domain name thesunonsunday.co.uk was registered a mere two days ago.
Han's Solo
@Derf: Here is a hint for you; if you are going to insult someone by calling them predictable you probably shouldn’t post the exact same comment twice. It makes you seem not only predictable, but also a tad slow.
trollhattan
@70.IrishGirl
Maybe he “self-credentialed” like our senator-ophthalomologist? “Freedom!”
http://theweek.com/article/index/204039/is-rand-paul-a-real-doctor
Citizen_X
No, he just called him “predicable,” twice. Which I’m hearing in a Daffy Duck voice: “You’re pre-dicable!”
arguingwithsignposts
As to Broun being an MD, so is Coburn. And Bachmann is a lawyer. Idiocy is of no tribe or clique, to borrow a phrase.
aisce
@ fred derf
1. the adp is a made up private statistic and a shitty indicator of actual economic conditions. it’s neither reliable nor accurate month to month. you can’t wait 24 whole hours for the labor department?
2. of course people will overreact to downside news rather than the truth: that we are not on the verge of a “double dip” recession. we are growing. we are growing slowly. and erratically. the economy is stagnant and below trend, but growing. hip hip hooray.
3. “analyst expectations” aren’t worth the paper/pixels they’re printed on. beating them on the upside or missing them on the downside. it doesn’t matter, they’re always wrong and never in one direction. if the last three years haven’t demonstrated that, i don’t know what to tell you.
4. yes, cole reads greenwald. cry about it.
5. your crusade has as much a chance at succeeding as matoko’s. you two should hang out sometime, i think you’d have a lot to talk about.
TreeBeard
I have heard of wage-inflation spirals, but the Republicans are into a idiocy-rhetoric spiral.
I feel like swimming across the Atlantic and cock-punching some of these stalwarts.
dj spellchecka
if he’s gonna try and stick clinton with some of the debt he should start with 1992 rather than ’96, because the majority of the $1.1 trillion increase over bill’s eight years happened during the first administration, not the second.
and what’s with pulling numbers out of a hat? why is a $13 trillion debt limit all that much better than $14 trillion?
for that matter why was $10.6 [the figure at the end of bu$hco] not worth fretting over but $14.1 is the end of the world?
iokiyar, natch
TreeBeard
@aisce
If Cole *does* post about the actual numbers due tomorrow, Mr. Derp will only show up (or crow on his Reason/WSJ/American Stinker forum) to say “Ha ha! He bowed to my threats!”
AAA Bonds
Sure! Let’s call it the “Burn It All Down Bill”
Suffern ACE
@Citizen_X – I believe it enough to conclude that I will never vote for another Senator in a primary again. The experience is a negative…I might consider voting for a governor who was caught selling state secrets to the North Koreans before voting for a Senator of any sort in 2016.
nancydarling
Arguingwithsignposts @87, One can’t help but expect more from an MD, than one would from a congressman who used to moonlight as a rodeo clown—Rick Crawford of Arkansas. Yes, we send real clowns to congress here in The Natural State. Mr. Deficit-Hawk-Rodeo-Clown Crawford ranked 5th out of 94 freshman republicans in spending on his DC staff. Speculation here is that he has a big tanning salon bill cuz he’s as orange as Boner.
Lolis
I like Derf. It is fun seeing someone whinge like a firebagger but be an Obot. The combination is new and startling. S/He is more entertaining than Wyld Pirate hands down.
Scratch
Paul Broun ought to have “I AM STUPID” tattooed across his forehead. That way, he would look less stupid than he does with this proposal.
Zandar
D: We need to raise the debt ceiling.
R: No. You’re communists and we want you to burn in hell.
D: But the country will default.
R: Fine.
D: But this would destroy the economy.
R: OK, but we want you to cut trillions in spending.
D: Let me crunch the numbers. *tap tap tap* OK, we can do that by letting the Bush Tax Cuts expire and cutting some defense spending.
R: No, you’re socialists and I want you to die from ebola. If you raise taxes we will destroy the country. Cut spending or else.
D: That won’t actually reduce the national debt, in fact it’ll make it worse.
R: You hate America. Cut spending or watch the country burn. Where are the jobs? I want more tax cuts.
D: More tax cuts will make the debt worse and won’t create jobs.
R: You’re avatars of all that is evil on earth. Give us tax cuts and spending cuts and we’ll destroy you.
D: Don’t you mean “or” destroy us?
R: Give us what we want or the country gets it.
D: (Crunches more numbers) You know, this is a reasonable deal where we both make a compromise to reach middle ground.
R: Intercourse your middle ground. Lower the debt limit and pass a balanced budget amendment and cut taxes and cut the social safety net or we destroy everything.
D: You know, the 14th Amendment says…
R: We’ll impeach you and then destroy the country. You have no choice. Give us everything we want or we get everything we want and we’ll rip your souls out and take a big steaming dump on them.
D: I get the distinct impression you might be negotiating in bad faith.
R: Even mentioning that proves you are racist scumbags. We’re leaving. Oh, and give us everything we want. *storms out*
D: Well, this might be a problem.
AAA Bonds
@aisce:
uhhhhhhhhhh I’m pretty sure both of them have already succeeded over and over and your comment is proof??
Han's Solo
@TreeBeard: Don’t bother, they are mostly dickless. Not only that, but they’ve polluted the Atlantic to the point where swimming in it could turn you into Godzilla.
Omnes Omnibus
@ Lolis: The novelty will fade and the idiocy will remain. WP can, and frequently does, offer interesting commentary; Fred/Derf, on the evidence seen thus far, cannot.
RalfW
No shortage of morans in the comments at the Corner.
My g*d these people have not the faintest idea how the economy works.
“I have an idea!!! Lets default on $1.3 trillion of existing debt, and refuse to issue any new debt! Problem fixt!”
And the public says “Woohoo! Bankruptcy and insolvency for all my friends!”
Brian
We are sovereign in our own currency, ergo we are nothing like Greece. Paying our debt, to the extent it even makes sense, can be done by switching the debt from one account at the Fed to another. Done. Debt paid. Whether they are liars or ingorami (not a word, I know), the Washington pols (Obama included) are going to do permanent and profound damage to the economic well-being of this country with this austerity nonsense.
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@RalfW #100:
It’d be laughable if it didn’t feel like folks like that were literally the only group that gets their fucking voice heard in politics these days. Even when other groups scream as fucking loud as possible, it’s the ‘YAY!! BANKRUPTCY FOR EVERYONE! LETS DO WHAT WE CAN TO FUCK THE HIPPIES EVEN IF IT MEANS ECONOMIC COLLAPSE!!!” crowd that only gets the fucking megaphone.
Culture of Truth
Obama is scheduled to make a statement sometime after 1:00 p.m. Presumably it will cover what was served at lunch, and possibly whatever else got eated.
TreeBeard
@Han’s Solo
Cool!
Monkey Business
I’m loathe to call this the stupidest piece of legislation ever introduced in Congress, but it’s in the top five, right? At least the top ten.
JCT
@trollhattan and @IrishGirl
Don’t forget the old joke “What do you call the med student who graduated last in his class”? — Doctor.
And self-certified Rand Paul? Well, that just speaks for itself.
Barb (formerly Gex)
Hmmm… 1996. Shortly after the GOP took the House back. They’re the fuckers who keep making the deficit bigger. They start unfunded wars, provide a prescription medication benefit specifically designed to be more costly than it need be, and refuse to raise revenues. They can just STFU.
Brachiator
OT, A bit of cheer amid the budget gloom: Rupert Murdoch gets knocked down a peg:
The rival Daily Mail is having all kinds of fun with this. “End of the World: James Murdoch announces phone hack scandal paper will shut down this Sunday,” and “The Paper that Died of Shame.”
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Omnes Omnibus #66:
I blame Obama. He never should have signed into law that bill raising the troll ceiling. Our nation is drowning in out of control trolling.
Brachiator
Very good.
Everybody sing: Merrily we troll along, troll along, troll along.
gene108
Quote from another forum, I regularly post on.
With thinking like this, there’s really now way you can win. Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, et. al. have brainwashed a large chunk of the electorate to ignore reality and believe their lies.
With voters like this, I don’t blame the GOP for being as nasty as they are. There’s nothing the GOP can do that will damage themselves with their base, in terms of giving tax breaks to the rich, making sure corporations are above the law, and gutting social programs.
Derf
A reminder:
Last month bad jobs report and our hero John Galt Cole was there to report it. Complete with Apocalyptic terms.
https://balloon-juice.com/2011/06/01/double-dip-here-we-come/
This month good jobs report and nothing but crickets from John Galt Cole. No, he would rather focus on the lastest feined outrage from the Pro lefties. Why? Because he is nothing but Greenwald reading, libertarian sympathizing concern troll.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-07/u-s-stock-index-futures-extend-gains-after-adp-report-shows-jobs-growth.html
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-07/jobless-claims-in-u-s-decreased-more-than-forecast-last-week-to-418-000.html
ruemara
Comrade Dread
You must have missed the Ron Paul debt plan, which calls for the Fed to just say “what debt” to several trillion of it and shred it. & no, I’m not kidding.
daveNYC
From Calculated Risk:
You consider that to be a good jobs report?
gocart mozart
Why didn’t he just introduce legislation changing the word “deficit” to “surplus”? Shazaam! All our fiscal problems are solved. He’s not thinking out of the box enough IMHO. I think the TeaBags should primary his ass. Fuckin’ RINO!
gocart mozart
Now that’s the kinda “out-of-the-box” thinking I’m talking about.
El Cid
__
In these trying times, someone has to be gutsy enough to think inside the rocks.
steve
I am today announcing my new legislation increasing my Blowjobs From Jolene Blaylock Ceiling from zero to a billion skillion. Admittedly, this is not your run-of-the-mill kind of law,…
Alex
Is it actually possible for both parties to stop this nonsense and work towards a solution?! Take our polls later this week and tell us what you would do about the deficit. http://bit.ly/Votocracy
Alex
Is it actually possible for both parties to stop this nonsense and work towards a solution?! Take our polls later this week and tell us what you would do about the deficit. http://bit.ly/Votocracy