I wonder how late Boehner plans to run this show. On the one hand this vote will save or sink his speakership. On the other hand he probably has a morning golf date. Decisions.
***Update***
No vote tonight.
Word has it that Boehner retired to redraft the bill and win some teatard votes. The worst bill in American history amended by a sleep-deprived guy under tremendous stress, to please the stupidest group of legislators in American history. What could possibly go wrong?
Martin
All night. No doubt.
Hunter Gathers
This is shaping up like the Medicare Part D vote. It’ll go all night if the Orange One deems it necessary. If it does pass, it’ll be by one single vote.
shortstop
This is keeping him out of the Capitol Hill bars.
Maybe.
burnspbesq
I’m so not in the mood that listening to the Giants vs. Phillies seems like a better alternative.
Felanius Kootea
I am truly starting to feel sorry for him (against my better judgment). How do you get 100 people who actually *want* a default because they think the resulting chaos will help them reshape America in their image to vote against the thing they want so badly?
Mark S.
On the third hand he’s probably already drunk by now.
geg6
Heh. Wonder how many fifths of scotch he’s been through tonight.
lamh34
I’m reading on twitter GOP considering sending bill back to committee for further tweaking, if so, that’s no bill tonight, but on the record they are still saying bill will happen tonight. if so, I think Boehner et al waiting 4 overnight vote to hold out against sleepy reporters.. they will pass the bill with exactly the number they need, no more, and they will have ’til morning news to fine tune their spin.
Davis X. Machina
@Felanius Kootea: Orange Kerensky.
Chris
You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Felanius.
rikyrah
Orange Glo is mad as hell that they’ve made him miss Happy Hour at his favorite bar.
of course, he’s been sneaking from the bottle in his desk every 5 minutes, but he’d rather be in the bar, enjoying himself and a steak.
Seebach
We want this to fail right, so it looks bad for the GOP? It’s dead in the Senate anyway, so I guess having Boner’s Boner is a good thing.
Corner Store Operator
What exactly does he have to offer any of these folks for their vote? I mean what exactly is he doing during this delay. He has no negotiating power. I wouldn’t think there is anything not in this he could put in to get these maniacs on board. This thing isn’t getting through the Senate anyway so it would be even stupider than Dems voting for Cap and Trade (stupider because of the Suicide Primary).
Mark S.
You might win some but you just lost one
Felanius Kootea
@Davis X. Machina: Quoi?
@Chris: That’s Ms. Felanius :).
geg6
Anyone who feels sorry for Boner hasn’t been paying attention. This fucker enabled this very Teabagger bullshit for the last three years. Fuck him. I hope he slinks out of town like the ignominious piece of shit that he is. Maybe I’ll send him a bottle of cheap scotch care of daddy’s Cincy bar.
Mark S.
@Corner Store Operator:
A ride on the Big Orange Boner.
Felanius Kootea
@efgoldman: I did say against my better judgment :). This kind of fail parade is just hard to watch.
Chris
@ efgoldman,
In fairness, the dude who ate Nedry was a dilophosaurus. Not a raptor.
* pushes glasses up nose and giggles.
Martin
Well, I want it to fail just so we can get on with this shit. Regardless of whether it looks good or bad for the GOP, the Senate can’t do shit until the House passes something. So long as they’re trying to fit this square peg into what everyone knows is a round hole, we’re not getting a fucking thing done.
Pass, fail, we need to get this show moving.
Punchy
TPM reporting that Erick Son of Bitch reporting that GOPers rewriting this thing to be way more wingy, to get the wingy votes.
A crap sandwich now dipped in turd sauce with a side of beets.
Southern Beale
I don’t understand this charade. Obama said days ago that he’d veto the bill if it passed the Senate. And Reid said yesterday that it would not pass the Senate. So I don’t understand why Boehner is going through this exercise for something that won’t pass.
I guess so he has something to blame on the Democrats. But it’s not like nobody sees what’s going on. Weird.
jl
Trying to imagine boehner’s office right about now.
Humphrey Bogart has hurt feelings
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgcQaCnOEj4
JCT
Hah, someone at RedState (ptui!) apparently tweeted that they are trying to get a promise to “pass” a BBA 6 months from now WHEN WE GO THROUGH THIS ALL OVER AGAIN added to the bill.
This is just a ludicrous travesty. Give it up Boehner, you’re not getting your vote up tonight.
Chris
Bingo.
merrinc
Screw it. I’m going to bed so I can get up at 6am (an ungawdly hour for this night owl) and get in one last run on the beach before packing up to go home. I’ve managed to keep an eye on the debt ceiling crisis while vacationing in paradise (aka the lovely Gulf beaches of FL) but I have no idea what our idiot Repubs in NC have been up to while I wasn’t watching. Last I heard, they were trying to override Gov Bev’s veto of their idiotic voter suppression, I mean voter fraud bill.
cthulhu
The current rumor is that they are tweeking the bill to make it even more unpalatable to the Senate and WH. Seems like Reid still plans to spike it immediately. So where does that leave Orange John?
Comrade Luke
I certainly don’t feel sorry for him, or any Republican. Based on their actions, it’s clear they don’t feel sorry for any of us, or for that matter are thinking of us at all.
Let them burn.
peach flavored shampoo
@ Chris (20):
What’s a dildosaurus?
Martin
Nothing really. He’s going to have to make the January debt ceiling raise dependent on the balanced budget amendment passing to get these guys.
And I think MSNBC called it right: so long as Obama and Harry are out there saying that this is guaranteed to fail, why should any of the tea partiers sign on and take all that shit from folks back home?
I think it’s telling that the SC Republicans, all of them both House and Senate, are opposed to this. Why does that sound familiar to me?
Seebach
It’s been four hours now since Speaker Boehner scuttled the scheduled vote on his own debt plan. We have four TPM reporters up on the Hill, along with dozens of reporters from other outlets, awaiting some signal that Boehner has rounded up the necessary votes. No decisive movement of Republican votes in his direction has been detected, though often times these things don’t become publicly visible until after the fact.
There are rumblings, unconfirmed, that Boehner may have to make some tweaks to his bill to win over a few more votes and get it passed. But that would probably delay a final vote until tomorrow at the earliest.
One interesting dynamic here is that this Republican House has foresworn earmarks, the type of baubles that come in very handy when it’s time for horse-trading. That makes the art of persuasion more difficult for Boehner.
ppcli
@Felanius Kootea: He’s referring to Alexander Kerensky, an early moderate prime minister in the consolidation stages after the Russian Revolution. Totally incapable of holding off Lenin’s radical faction.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Kerensky
Shawn in ShowMe
Sir Orange, get off the pot already. The country’s hopping up and down on one leg out here!
Loneoak
Long live Speaker Gohmert!
Felanius Kootea
@geg6: Oh I’ve been paying attention. The suicide primary is a great motivator for many of the non-teatards, including Boehner. Now Palin has promised that anyone who votes for his bill will be primaried. That said, I’m the kind of person who would probably try to help out a mortal enemy if it looked like they were seriously wounded (and get hurt in the process because they were just faking it). Good thing I’m not in politics ;).
I hope enough voters are paying attention to what’s going on that they get rid of the whole bunch of Repubs at the next election. Otherwise, I have to believe voters want the fail parade we’re seeing.
JCT
And this is exactly why they were so quick to point this out…..
Jewish Steel
@Punchy:
If it gets too wingy, Boehner will be peeling off support from his other more moderate flank, no?
JCT
Huh? Who would that be — aren’t moderate Republicans extinct in the House?
Chris
Then this is for you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b1a-hqvGNI
Some Guy
This could not be more pathetic. No, wait, Walsh could be out in front of the Capitol accosting passers by and lecturing them about drunken sailors, money, and alimony.
Whatever happens, House Republicans have disgraced themselves beyond belief. For sane people, which is a dwindling constituency, granted.
Democrats have as well, frankly, given how much of the farm they are willing to give away, but in a politics of who is worse they have managed to remain clearly the preferable choice to fucking loons. So that helps me sleep.
My mom, a lovely and kind person, needs her social security and medicare. Like millions of others, she is not a problem for this country, she is a strength, and she should not be hurt to prove a point of small-minded, heartless people who do not believe in science, economics, or compassion. And who clearly cannot read since they think Jesus favors the selfish.
Besides, they have nothing to prove. We know they are dumb as fuck and mean, we don’t need to make the elderly go hungry or be sick to know that. The default circus has more than done the trick.
dmsilev
The House GOP has a more moderate flank? How can you tell?
Martin
@Jewish Steel:
I doubt it. Moderate Republicans know how to toe the party line.
Felanius Kootea
@ppcli: Merci! So where does Boehner flee to?
Steve
@Martin:
Don’t get all Constitutional on us! The Senate can pass whatever it wants, as long as they stick it in a bill that has an “H” on it. Since the Senate is where legislation goes to die, they have plenty of those lying around. There is surely a worst-case scenario where Harry Reid is forced to take the lead because he can’t afford to wait for the House any longer.
rikyrah
the vote was supposed to happen 4 HOURS AGO.
Orange Glo is pathetic as Speaker.
maye
Since it’s not passing the Senate anyway, why not just let the tea people write it exactly as they want it? Why pretend with this late night vote?
gf120581
I can only speculate, but from what I’ve seen, I don’t think this vote is happening. I saw a list of 26 Republican who were firm “no” votes earlier tonight (which is more than enough to sink the bill) and none of them on the list have budged (the only vote I’ve seen that changed was a TX Rep who was a “maybe” vote that’s now a “yes”). Who knows what’s really going on, but it’s now going on 10:00 EST and nothing’s happened, so it’s clear they don’t have the votes.
And what an absolute disaster this is for Boner. If anyone had any doubts that he’s completely inept and has no control over his caucus, it’s been made plain for all to see. At this point, I don’t see how he survives as Speaker.
Martin
@Steve:
No, because it won’t matter, so why waste the time? Besides, this is Boehner’s crisis. He made it, he’s gonna have to solve it.
Worst case scenarios are Obama’s to handle, and he’s got way more tools at his disposal than Harry does.
Loneoak
@Punchy:
I know Peak Wingnut is a lie, but if a nonpartisan policy analyst is already calling class warfare “that could well produce the greatest increase in poverty and hardship produced by any law in modern U.S. history” is it possible to make it more wingy?
Maybe they could name it “B. Hussein Nobama Eats Poop Sandwiches and Debt Ceiling Bill of 2011”.
jl
I was going to stay up and see what happens among the tea party gang and House GOP posse, but spotted this clip among the Bogarts and Cagneys in youtube.
Sums it up enough for me. Nighty night.
Cagney slap off
http://youtu.be/41N43xVIiqQ
Martin
@maye:
This is Boehner’s show. He bet on this being a big GOP victory, and he’s going to have to come through on something. He still seems to think that Obama will blink, so long as the bill isn’t too odious.
dmsilev
They tried that last week, with the Hack, Slash, and Burn bill that passed the House and lasted for about ten seconds before being shot down by the Senate. That was supposed to let the maniacs get the mania out of their system, and then pass the “serious” bill tonight.
Oops.
Steve
@Martin:
None of us really know what will happen, but I think it’s a waste of time to go around fapping to thoughts of $2 trillion coins and the like. My personal expectation is that if McConnell is on board with a last-ditch bill, the votes will be there for it in the House.
WarMunchkin
Remember how the Republicans used to whine that nobody read the health care legislation and it was just jammed down our throats? Good times.
Dexter
Boehner probably has to get the vote done before market opens tomorrow. Although wrath of Wall St at this point is least of his concerns.
General Stuck
At this point, I doubt even Michelle Bachmann could survive as speaker. The idiots let in a bunch of new members that only answer to the Lords of Chaos, and therefore are an altogether different third party, that simply used the GOP moniker and assistance to get elected and break shit they don’t like. And they don’t like anything that can remotely be considered progressive or liberal. Welcome to the house of horrors, Mr. Boehner, and MR. McConnell, and the rest that sold their souls to the devil, because no one else made an offer.
Martin
@Steve:
Only if the Dems sign on, and that means Boehner needs to bring it to the floor – which he’s been unwilling to do for anything that won’t be passed solely by the GOP.
Obama doesn’t need to rely on trickery. He shuts the government down for a week, pays the bondholders and other required groups each day, we’re certain to be out of cash before the trust fund bonds mature on the 15th. At that point, he has to violate some act of congress so he declares the debt ceiling unconstitutional and Congress can never hold it hostage ever again.
Punchy
These Housers promised all leggy would see the light of 72 hours before passing. Methinks this’ll barely see 7.2 seconds between the time they craft and vote on it.
Consistency and honesty, it’s not what’s for dinner.
Martin
Thinking about it more, the only way he get ousted as Speaker is if someone wants the job and whips the caucus for it. I’m not seeing that challenge coming up.
Glen Tomkins
That Tangled Web
Those cholos can’t even agree on what effect the refusal to raise the ceiling would have. At first this actually helped them cobble together a coalition of their various factions, since folks who suspected there would be no effect were happy to aid and abet the crazies who actually think a default would be good, because they thought it would be a risk-free gambit.
But now no one’s sure if there’ll be actual default or not. So the various sub-groups of cholos are thrown back on the fundamental disagreements that always divided them. That shit happens when you try to exploit fake veto points to hold the country hostage. You can find, as in this case, that the defenders of the status quo are as confused as you are about what actually happens if the ceiling isn’t raised.
Which is why this is not good for our side, and not good for the country. The problem is that the actual arrival of the debt ceiling being exceeded, is not going to clear things up, because what happens when it’s exceeded is not imposed on us from outside. What happens is what we are smart and self-reliant and self-confident enough to let happen. If we were all responsible adults, the results would very clearly be absolutely nothing — the ceiling was never intended to control the actions of Treasury, it was meant to force a vote in Congress — Treasury would go on observing its actual debt ceiling, which is however much Treasury has to borrow to meet all obligations. But we’re not responsible adults here, we’re a bunch of passive aggressives. We have our president pretending that the administraition will have no choice but to stop meeting 45% of obligations if the ceiling isn’t raised, because he imagines that will get the passive aggressives on the other side to back down. Fat freaking. You can’t budge passive agressives with passive aggression. They know that shit, they dish that shit out as their specialite, they’re not falling for that shit.
When the ceiling is breached, it looks more and more like the administration will actually start stiffing 45% of US obligations. They’ve claimed they have no choice, how do they go back on that when the day comes? And then, how does the other side respond? More to the point, how does the absence of another side respond? The actual event is going to fracture their coalition of the clueless even worse than the prospect of the actual event. There will be no cobbling them together to agree to a rise in the ceiling. So we will go on stiffing 45% of US obligations until we manage to deadbeat ourselves back into the Stone Age.
Al Qaeda couldn’t have done anything half this good. Al Qaeda doesn’t have our resources, least of all our inexhaustible reserves of passive aggressive bullshit.
Sasha
This also got to hurt the Pylon: Catholic Bishops Blast Boehner’s Debt Plan
Jewish Steel
@JCT:
@dmsilev:
Surely there must be a wingnuttiest congressman. Everyone else would be to the left of him or her down to the least wingy. It’s possible that Rockefeller wouldn’t be able to spot the most moderate current Republican with a good pair of binoculars.
@Martin: Who is the most moderate Republican in congress anyway? This is exactly the kind of thing you know and why we hired you, Martin.
Steve
@Martin:
You are a lot more confident than you have any right to be that this is something Obama can do or will do. What does it even mean to declare the debt ceiling unconstitutional? Obama unilaterally amends the Constitution and declares that the President now has the power to borrow money?
Amir_Khalid
@Martin:
You mean, Böhner might survive as Speaker simply because nobody else is stupid enough to want the job? Hmm. Yeah, that seems legit to me.
Roger Moore
@Punchy:
IOKIYAAR.
Bullsmith
Speaker Eric Cantor? Yipee. Smooth sailing ahead.
mikefromArlington
Republicans moaned about uncertainty to get into office. Now they tank the global markets.
mr. whipple
F Boner. He whipped these nutters up for two years.
Who can forget this classic?
dr. bloor
Only a stupid fuck like Boehner could screw this up. You need to promise Joe Walsh 100K in back child support money, a hooker for every JimBob in his district and magical sparkle ponies that can balance the budget to get to 217? GO THE FUCK AHEAD–hell, give sparkle ponies to EVERYBODY. HARRY REID’s GOING TO KILL IT.
Stupid, craven dumbshit.
Tonal Crow
@Steve:
Na. He merely asserts that when Congress appropriated existing spending — knowing that much of it could be paid for only through debt — it implicitly authorized Treasury to issue that debt. In this view, the debt-limit vote is a nullity, since its failure can’t repeal existing appropriations or the implicit debt authorization that goes with them. Only a bill passed via the normal procedures and signed by the President (or overridden after veto) can do that. And no such bill has passed (or will pass) Congress in the next few days.
Roger Moore
@mikefromArlington:
See, now they’re providing certainty that Congress is going to be run by crazy as fuck dunderheads who wouldn’t know a good idea if it hit them in the head. That’s exactly what the markets need.
RalfW
Steve Bennen 15 minutes ago:
Fucking slashing Pell grants. That’s a winning strategy. I know old farts in hoverounds don’t give a shit about college, but their grandkids do. As do the parents of the grandkids, who somehow have to pay for the skyrocketing in-state tuition hikes the state austerity budgets have imposed.
Welcome to Dumbistan.
JCT
@Ralfw
Yes, at this point the bill is being turned into a demented “wish list” for assholes. Besides, you know who gets Pell Grants? Poors and Browns. So there you have it.
Martin
Might be Mary Bono now. Cao and Djou are gone. ‘Moderate’ is, of course, a relative term.
eemom
Put me down with those who have not one gazillionth of an ounce of sympathy for Orange Meltdown. I shall give no quarter even to the “to be fair” crowd. WTF? When was he fair to US??
Now, howzabout a rousing chorus of that old favorite, “The Night They Drove Old Orange Down.”
Steve
@Tonal Crow:
In my opinion, that’s one of those arguments you make if you have to, but it doesn’t really hold much water. You’d have to believe that Congress initially delegated a limited amount of borrowing authority to the Treasury Department, and delegated additional authority something like 89 times over the years, for absolutely no reason whatsoever because the authority was already “implicit” in every spending bill passed by Congress.
Of course, no court will ever rule on this, so it doesn’t matter much if the argument is good or bad. And Obama has the physical power to order Treasury to issue debt, that’s true as well. But I think there would be a nasty impact on interest rates from the President issuing debt that may or may not be backed up by the full faith and credit of the United States. If the president of a company started issuing bonds that hadn’t been authorized by the Board of Directors, you’d want a risk premium before you bought those bonds.
Samara Morgan
i say go to the source, AllahP @ hotair.
Heres a great thread— he is practically bawling.
and best of all, the sandwich board guy shows up.
i wish BJ had a sandwich board guy. :(
Mark S.
Pell Grants? Where the fuck did that come from? The economy is close to melting down and they’re haggling over Pell Grants, for a bill that won’t be passed by the Senate anyway?
These are truly delusional, insane people.
General Stuck
No, as Martin said earlier, that the debt ceiling law runs head on into other laws that are explicit in the constitution, as the debt ceiling law is not explicit.
And that explicit law in contradiction to the debt ceiling law, is the process by which laws are made, and codified with the presidents signature. All of our obligations, financial and the letter of law, has already gone through the constitutional prescription for making law, and the monies needed to exercise them has been appropriated and therefore mandated to be satisfied by the executive branch to execute those mandates.
The debt ceiling simply allows the borrowing needed to do those things, and is not a separate requirement explicitly called for by the constitution. It was an entire creation of congress and made law by the same process as all laws are made.
The problem with it is that it will block other laws from being carried out, ones that are enumerated in the constitution, as the debt ceiling law is not. So Obama has a dilemma of which law to follow when two of them conflict, along with the evidence that not meeting ALL of our obligations is sending the country into a dangerous tailspin. I don’t agree with Obama if he lets this play out for pol cover. I think he needs to step in before August 3 and make his choice of what law he will honor, when two conflict to the exclusion of one.
The explicit constitutional one for making laws , or the one not in the constitution (except maybe by the 14th amendment)that only is a permission slip devised by congress for political reasons for borrowing monies to carry out our legally completed obligations and maintain the full faith and credit of the United States of America.
I thinks I hurt my brane with this comment. Oh well, make of it what you will.
Martin
I’ve been looking at the money flow pretty closely. I think inside of 2 weeks, Treasury will be forced to violate at least one piece of legislation that he’s required to execute. When the President has conflicting legal obligations, with no clarification from Congress, that’s a legitimate Constitutional crisis. He has to break the law. He has no choice. So what law does he follow and what law does he violate? Well, the debt ceiling approval he’s working under was passed in Feb 2010. The budget he’s working on was passed in April 2011. It wouldn’t be at all unreasonable for him to then assert at a point when he has no other choice, that the most recent approved legislation should supercede the older legislation.
Now, that requires all discretionary spending be ignored, and all mandatory spending be adhered to, but I think just prior to Aug 15, he’d run out of revenue to even meet mandatory spending.
Uncle Clarence Thomas
.
.
Hey, professional religious nutcakez, you’re fucking retards that need to render unto Caesar. Pipe down! President Obama is the boss of your boss.
.
.
robertdsc-PowerBook
I haven’t seen an Ohio boy choke this bad since LeBron. What a bitch.
rikyrah
no vote tonight.
Orange Glo is pathetic.
ChrisNYC
National Review says GOP whip says “no vote tonight.”
Rome Again
No vote tonight. :) Just announced. LOL Boehner is losing his mind right now, I’m sure! LOL
pat
no vote in the house tonight. as of 9:30 CDT (ed shultz show)
lamh34
Well via twitter, no vote tonite. Guess that’s all she wrote. If there was any justice morning news will be about boner’s beings big disgrace!
danimal
No vote tonight-anyone want to buy some stocks???
Martin
Oh, absolutely. In fact, even if you want to make it, you can’t make it until you actually are in that crisis situation. If you do it early, it’s a violation of the constitution because no crisis yet exists. So, it’s business as usual until the 2nd. Sounds like tomorrow or maybe Sat, worst case Mon, Obama lays out who does and doesn’t get paid starting on the 3rd, and we run that formula until even that plan runs out.
One open question in this is ‘what counts as debt’. If you don’t pay active duty military (discretionary spending), do you count that as an IOU? Or do you tell them ‘You’re not ever getting paid’. If it’s an IOU, I’d think it’d have to get counted as debt. So it might be that some bills can simply not get paid at all and those are pure savings, but others actually get shoved into this non-bond debt category and don’t help the situation much at all and speed this whole process along.
ChrisNYC
Anyone watching Luke Russert on the verge of tears? He is FURIOUS that Dems will not help the good good responsible GOP. Seriously, he looks crushed. Also too, TPers are very very principled.
Seebach
House Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) just announced there will be no vote tonight on the Boehner debt bill.
A remarkable turn of events. Simply no reason for Boehner to bring up his own bill if it was doomed to fail, and clearly it was.
Despite a lot of confident talk from Boehner and his leadership team, it appears they never had the votes.
More soon …
Amir_Khalid
@General Stuck:
I admit, I’ve never understood the most fundamental issue in this whole mess: How your Congress can pass a budget, and yet not allow the raising of money to meet it. As far as I know, having a ceiling on the government’s total permissible debt is unheard of elsewhere in the world, let alone having to pass a law to raise that ceiling.
Splitting Image
You know what they say about poker games? Every poker game has one, and if you haven’t spotted him in the first half hour…
Poopyman
Hey! Mr. Tangerine Man!
Where’s your vote tonight?
MISTER TANGERINE MAAAAAAAAN!
(Apologies to William Shatner)
Lojasmo
I feel about as sorry for boner as I did for that fuck wit Rahm when he promoted all those blue dogs who then stabbed the party in the back.
Anybody who cuts their nose off to spite their face is better off without a nose, and hopefully will get a raging meningitis for their trouble.
Poopyman
@ChrisNYC: I love his wimpy five o’clock shadow. He’s going to have to learn to shave one of these years.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
The very idea is making me laugh way too hard.
Kathy in St. Louis
I’ve got to say that the little update at the end of your blurb did make me laugh out loud. I could use a laugh, then a good night’s sleep, and if I drank, a really tall one.
General Stuck
Okay, I see your point, and can’t disagree, but man it seems enormously dangerous and unpredictable, letting the latch open for the shit to start flowing. Even for a week or two.
Mark S.
Halperin’s saying this is great news for John Boehner!
dr. bloor
You forgot the part about his having been drinking since sunrise.
Brad DeLong has a post up about the Titanium Coin option. Remember the last line in The American President–“As it turns out, I have a rose garden?” As it turns out, he has a mint, too.
Danny
Alternate futures:
The house republicans fail to pass their own bill tonight, Obama takes to the airwaves and declares that a small group of ideological extremists are holding the nation hostage, trying to extort amending the constitution with no time left for the peoples representatives to even debate the new amendment. He then demands that moderate republicans make a deal with democrats in the house and pass a bipartisan bill, saving the nation from the lunatics.
Use teh magical Bully Pulpit!!1! But maybe this is a context where bully pulpit-ing could be effective – when the house republicans just clowned up passing their own bill with 5 days left on the default clock?
Good idea?
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
On Monday.
hilts
@Poopyman
Hey Mr. Tangerine Man, play a song for me. I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to.
Wannabe Speechwriter
Hey, don’t go after Boehner! He’s a strong, tough man! When danger reared its ugly head, he bravely turned his tail and fled-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZwuTo7zKM8
rob!
Yes, by all means, let’s get rid of Pell Grants, and get the yoke of socialism (and a college education) off the backs of our nation’s poor!
Forget college, poor people! You can all go work for minimum wage (until the GOP gets rid of that, too) at, say, bookstores. Oh, wait…
Seebach
Update: It’s still alive. The Rules Committee is meeting at 11 p.m. to tweak it in hopes of getting to 216 and then they’ll vote on it tomorrow.
Martin
Well, again, Obama controls that side of the plan. He can go out and say, ‘Ok, here’s the plan – SS, Medicare, Unemployment, Treasuries, Medicaid, veterans benefits, food stamps’ all get paid in full. Critical staff remain on, everyone else is furloughed as under a shutdown scenario, and we’re good until August whatever.
If the markets freak out even after that, then Congress gets their shit in gear, and this ends. That’s what happened in 2008. If the markets don’t freak out, then we can let this play out. Even if Congress sends him a bill, he can veto it. If it’s holding together, he runs out the clock, declares the debt limit unconstitutional, and it never has to bother us ever again.
RareSanity
I wonder what it feels like when one is running a huge con, only to find out when it’s actually time to go in for the kill, that their partners never knew it was a con in the first place?
The teatards are going into Boehner’s office for these “meetings” and saying, “Where the hell is our snake oil?!?”
Scott P.
Just to add to your comments, this “Constitutional option”, which everybody now seems so fond of, is indeed not so much a solution as a unilateral resolution of a Constitutional crisis. It may be a necessary, even a wise course of action. But we cannot sustain a Republic in which Congress regularly creates Constitutional crises and the President unilaterally resolves them.
Amanda in the South Bay
I agree with Martin; my gut instinct is that Obama is gonna do the Constitutional thing, teatards will whine, some contrarian left wing law professors and idiotic circular firing squad congressional Dems will bitch, and things will be back to normal by the end of the month.
ETA: Thank the good lord Jebus Spaghetti Thingey that my Gi Bill housing payment get paid on August 1.
*I may have mis interpreted Martin, so apologies there
**I may be too optimistic overall, but people not getting their SSA money is gonna…produce a backlash, that pansy fucking ass Luke Russert to the contrary.
Tonal Crow
Boehner sat alone on his seat of stone,
And fluffed and flattered the wingnut drones,
For many a year he had fellated them near,
For The Gavel was hard to come by.
Done by! Gum by!
In a K-Street room he had dwelt alone,
And The Gavel was hard to come by.
Up came Grover with his tax pledge on,
Said he to Boehner: ‘Pray, what is yon?
For it’s like a chance to topple Nancy Smash,
And wrestle The Gavel from her.
Done her! Gum her!
This many a year have we been alone,
Now let’s take The Gavel from her!’
‘My lad,’ said Boehner, ‘let’s to it now!
With my teatard friends it’ll be a row!
And Dems will be dead as a lump o’ lead,
And then we’ll gnaw their shinbones.
Tinbones! Thinbones!
They can spare a share for the teatard hordes,
So let’s go and taste their shinbones!’
Said teatards: ‘We don’t see why a RINO like thee
Without axin’ leave should go makin’ free,
With The Gavel we earned in earnest fight;
So hand The Gavel over!
Rover! Trover!
Though Speaker you be, not much longer you’ll see,
So hand The Gavel over!’
But just as teatards thought their lunch was caught,
They found their hands had hold of naught,
Before they could think, Boehner slipped behind
And gave them the boot to larn them.
Warn them! Darn them!
A bump o’ the boot on the seat, he thought,
Would be the way to larn them.
But stupider than stone is the flesh and bone,
Of a teatard who faps to Palin alone,
As well set your boot to the mountain’s root,
For the flesh of a ‘tard don’t feel it.
Peel it! Heal it!
Teatards laughed, when Boehner groaned,
And they knew his toes could feel it.
Boehner’s leg is game, since home he came,
And his speakership now is lasting lame,
But ‘tards don’t care, and they’re still there
With The Gavel they boned from its owner.
Doner! Boner!
‘Tards’ old seats are still the same,
And The Gavel they boned from its owner!
(with apologies to Samwise Gamgee)
chris9059
“worst bill in American history amended by a sleep-deprived guy under tremendous stress, ”
even better, amended by a sleep deprived DRUNK under tremendous pressure
Steve
@Martin:
I think that is debt, but the debt ceiling isn’t really a restriction on debt, it’s a restriction on borrowing.
The problem I’m having with these arguments is that before there was a debt ceiling law in the first place, it wasn’t like the debt ceiling was unlimited. In fact, the debt ceiling was zero, because the President couldn’t borrow any money at all without getting permission from Congress, even if he really really needed it in order to pay off lawfully incurred debts. If you think that state of affairs was unconstitutional then you have to say the Constitution was unconstitutional.
Which brings us to the other problem with the argument. If passing a spending bill necessarily implies the authority to borrow enough money to make it happen, why does the Constitution explicitly say that the power to borrow money lies with Congress? Why wouldn’t the Framers have just said, Congress passes the laws, and then the President does whatever he needs to do to raise the money to enforce those laws? The only reason you ever need to borrow money is when you find yourself in a situation where you won’t be able to pay the bills without borrowing money. And it seems like the Framers were saying, even if that situation comes up, we still want to leave it up to Congress to actually borrow the money.
beltane
Though I’m an atheist, it would almost seem that being led by this group of deadbeat, drunken, sociopathic baboons is some kind of punishment for our passive acquiescence to the invasion of Iraq. There are a lot of stupid, evil people in this country, and the Tea Traitor Congress is a reflection of the nasty white underbelly of the USA.
burnspbesq
Ironic. We bitched for years about Republicans putting party before country. We finally get a group of Republicans that aren’t willing to do that, and they’re going to end up fucking the party and the country.
darkmatter
@Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen:
Of last week.
Felanius Kootea
If the Repubs in the house can’t get their act together, can Reid add the text of his bill to some previously passed house bill that’s languishing in the senate (stripping the garbage from the house that’s in it first, of course) and send it back to the house for Boehner and Nancy Smash to cobble a coalition and a vote together? I’m just not sure what’s possible or what will work anymore.
OzoneR
He pretty much did this already and the end result was “both sides do it”
NamelessGenXer
Fuck him. Just fuck him.
I’ll wear an electric blue dress to his funeral and do a pole dance on his grave.
Ahasuerus
@Tonal Crow: Absolutely brilliant. Are you by chance related to the Cuttlefish individual who hangs out on PZ Myers’ Pharyngula blog?
cynn
Looks like the Galterati prevailed. All hail.
hilts
The wisdom of Paul Ryan
h/t http://www.mediaite.com/tv/rep-paul-ryans-response-to-defense-cuts-lets-pass-a-bill-to-cover-the-moon-with-yogurt
Chris
Oh, they’re still putting their political in-group ahead of the country. It’s just that the definition of “party” has shrunk even further.
freelancer
Jon Stewart: “Quick Robin! To the BatShitMobile!”
needs to be a tag.
Davis X. Machina
@Amir_Khalid: It’s common sense. If you authorize its expenditure, you authorize its raising. The two were linked auto-magically under the Gephardt rules for a number of years.
Gail Russell Chaddock, staff writer, The Christian Science Monitor, at the start of the present Congress in January wrote:
.
burnspbesq
And the “Republicans will shape up when the Galtian overlords weigh in” theory takes it in the shorts. The Galtian overlords weighed in, and it had no effect whatsoever.
http://www.financialservicesforum.org/index.php/commentary-and-speeches/1150-letter-forum-letter-to-president-obama-and-congress-on-nations-debt.html
Martin
I would agree, but honestly this is a specific problem that has been waiting to happen. Normally Congress doesn’t pass along these completely contradictory problems, at least not ones that aren’t immediately apparent and resolved with a signing statement – and that’s what signing statements are: unilateral resolution of a constitutional conflict. It’s not that Congress isn’t empowered here – they can send him a bill whenever the fuck they get their shit together.
The problem is we have these overlapping, and frankly redundant authorities – the budget and the debt ceiling. And, well, it’s idiotic.
Jewish Steel
@Tonal Crow: That’s an epic work of nerdery. Well done, Spiritus Corvidae.
Mark S.
No Boehner No Cry
I remember when we used to sit
In the government yard in Georgetown
And then Cantor would make the fire light
Log wood burnin’ through the night
Then we would cook sour mash bourbon
Of which I’ll share with you
Ev’rything’s gonna be alright
Ev’rything’s gonna be alright
Ev’rything’s gonna be alright
So, no Boehner, no cry
No, no Boehner no cry
Oh, little orange man, don’t shed no tears
No Boehner, no cry
ChrisNYC
@ burnspbesq
Oh please. Neither the TP or the GOP was thinking of the country. They are and were doing this entire thing to damage Obama OR at the very least, to AVOID responsibility. Nothing, absolutely nothing, admirable about either group. They want their seats in Congress and lobbying/board seat money later and they want to scream about the Constitution/gays/Mexicans/debt/Reagan and never have to do a lick of actual work. Grifters. All of them.
Chris
If it wasn’t the debt ceiling, it’d be something else. Every government, especially every democracy, has its little oddities and quirks like the debt ceiling.
No, the root problem is simply that we’ve got a huge faction willing to paralyze the government at every possible turn unless all their demands are dealt with and who keep changing said demands. Which in turn happened because a huge chunk of the country got it into their heads that the country was their birthright and theirs only, and that the government therefore exists to serve them and them only. Nothing’s going to change until that does.
Canuckistani Tom
115 @Tonal Crow
Nicely done!
BTW, what’s with all the LOTR references all of a sudden? The first Hobbit movie isn’t due out for another year and a half.
I’m not complaining mind you, I just finished going through the trilogy over the weekend.
For those who need a reminder of awesomeness, may I present
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0nyfyifErg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmTz7EAYLrs
artem1s
@RalfW:
and what will slashing Pell grants save their grandkids? a whole buck and a quarter each? the most pathetic part of this is that the true cross crazies don’t even have a clue how to slash and burn when given the opportunity.
Felanius Kootea
@Mark S.: LOL! That was awesome.
Tonal Crow
@Ahasuerus:
Thanks.
Not to my knowledge. For one thing, Corvidae have wings….
RalfW
Update: Quitter!
General Stuck
The key to this theory is that the separate act of congress to appropriate funds for the executive to carry out, has to have taken place already, before the crisis. Obama could not usurp congress to borrow money not already appropriated, I would think.
Stillwater
I’m curious of the timeline here. COuld someone confirm/correct this for me? Reid proposes a bill that Boehner says he can get the votes for. Turns out he can’t, so he revises the bill rightward and says he can get the votes for that. Now he postpones the vote, presumably because there isn’t enough GOP House support, and there are rumblings he’s gonna revise the bill rightward again. Is that right?
And doesn’t this mean that the revised bill will be even more draconian – hence an even more clownish proposal to send to the Senate?
Martin
@Steve:
Ah good point. That settles that then.
Well, I agree that’s a problem for discretionary spending, but we now have mandatory spending which didn’t exist at that time. Obama has to meet the mandatory spending requirements, which I think all of this hinges on. That’s where the conflict exists, and debt service is part of that mandatory spending and is a constitutional requirement per the 14th amendment.
My suggestion here differs from the other ’14th amendment’ argument in that others seem to be arguing that the 14th amendment, in order to protect the debt would also be used to protect discretionary spending. I’m suggesting that it wouldn’t come into play until there’s nothing left but mandatory spending, at which point the validity of the debt would indeed come into doubt, and when Obama could say ‘this debt limit business is no more’.
Mark S.
@Felanius Kootea:
Thanks!
LosGatosCA
Beltran to the Giants. NFL lockout ended. Entire meltdown of the American political system.
On balance it’s been a good week.
wrb
Martin @ 111
Problem is, Treasury is saying they can’t.
The most plausible proposal I’ve seen is based on creating more money.
Sasha
Gotta say, the Speaker really Boehned this one.
And not being able to secure the votes for your own plan while turning down one that would make and GOPer wet, a total Boehn-headed maneuver.
patrick II
@hilts:
I just saw Ron Paul interviewed by Anderson Cooper (11:20 eastern time). I was going to write something about what he said, but it was so incoherent it is unrepeatable. Something about we are already bankrupt, inflation is the real problem, fiat money, the treasury will just continue to pay with fiat money anyway so the vote is meaningless, but he will vote no. He is just daft. And a congressman.
scav
@Canuckistani Tom: I should so not usually be the one to trust, but I think it all started with (wait for it) Old Man McCain calling some of his loonier coparty-ists Hobbits and then somebody called him Lord of the RINOs and somebody tweeted a picture supposedly of a troll only it was Gollum . . . in other words, just your average day governmenting.
Punchy
Wont stop them from trying again and again and again to repeat this line over and over, since the media is pathologically unable to correct or point out the myriad lies.
Comrade Kevin
@patrick II: “fiat money” – that is a nice phrase to look for when identifying kooks.
Lancelot Link
Followed immediately by impeachment proceedings, no doubt. Is that the plan?
Amanda in the South Bay
Well, what do you propose then? There’s simply no good backup plan that doesn’t have some problems with it. Besides, impeachment is as good as dead outside the House.
trollhattan
Okay, this is pretty funny.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14320229
Sad thing is most Republican congress critters will have no idea what just happened.
Danny
@OzoneR
Sure, and thats one of the many reasons I dont subscribe to the theory of magical bully pulpits. The republicans and their allies in the village will frame it as both sides do it, Obama being discourteous, partisan, angry black man and blowing his shots.
My thought though was that it’s easier to kick folks when they’re already on the ground, and maybe this is such an occasion on account of the clownery. And do the teajihadis really have as many village allies as republicans or conservatives do? Wedge them some more, call on moderate house republicans to defect for the good of the country?
artem1s
@Tonal Crow:
that was awesome and worthy of master samwise!
celticdragonchick
I think they must worship Khorne…
jwb
OzoneR: That was a lousy speech, and I really didn’t understand what Obama thought he was doing with it. It was an example of exactly how not to use the bully pulpit.
Martin
@artem1s: Pell grants are a total of $35B per year. Not a huge amount, not nothing either.
Honestly, I’m not married to them. I think they encourage universities to suck students into programs that aren’t in their economic best interest, and they’re welfare to for-profit and frankly, shitty universities like Liberty.
I’d rather see it replaced with two programs:
1) A smaller grant program that targets specific disciplines of study that are nationally in demand. If we need more chemists, provide grants for students studying chemistry, and carry it to graduate study. If we need GPs, put money to med students to stay in that speciality.
2) A zero interest student loan program that otherwise targets the same population as the Pell Grants do now, no restriction on discipline. The money needs to be paid back, but at zero interest, it’s still a discount on paying up front. Further, the government can back other programs into it to forgive that debt – head start, etc. This program could be much larger than the current Pell Grant program, and while it’d cost more up-front, it start to balance out after about 5 years.
It’s not that I think the budget needs to be cut there, rather that I think the current system is somewhat counterproductive and could be replaced with something that would help more people in a better way.
Jeffro
I know they’ve had their differences, but the book(s) that will come out in a few years about Pelosi, Reid, and Obama’s joint 11-dimensional chess playing re: ACA and the debt ceiling are going to be EPIC.
The Repubs are gonna be like, “Wow…and here we were, just knee-jerking away…”
Martin
@wrb:
But they aren’t doing that. All the things I just listed are mandatory spending. It’s spending authority that exists in legislation outside of the budget. Whereas the regular budget authority could be viewed as a guideline (since it’s discretionary) mandatory spending isn’t – it’s firm legislation. What SS pays out is guaranteed and defined by set laws as passed by Congress. Same for all of the other things I listed.
It’s not picking and choosing – it’s saying ‘we’ll meet mandatory obligations, and dismiss discretionary’.
Splitting Image
Paul is a fairly decent bloke for a guy of his age and background who happens to know jack shit about economics. This is why he’s frequently the only Republican able to talk sense about some of the culture war issues the G.O.P. likes to demagogue.
Slacktivist once wrote an essay about how when he was younger he was convinced that it was immoral to have any kind of banking system at all, because the Bible explicitly condemned charging even 1% interest for a loan. Someone smarter than him had to talk him down by showing how low-interest loans can benefit poor people by giving them access to money that they otherwise wouldn’t have.
Paul basically has the same mindset as Slacktivist did, but he never got talked down by someone when he was younger. Trying to explain that his concept of “bankrupt” is absolutely wrong in the financial world as it exists won’t work because he’d rather that entire world was completely destroyed.
Martin
@Lancelot Link:
And if he doesn’t pay the mandatory obligations, he’s impeached. And if he raises debt without declaring the ceiling unconstitutional, he’s impeached.
All paths theoretically lead to impeachment at this stage. OLC will recommend the safest legal path and Obama will balance that against the best political and humanitarian path. Problem without a solution. They happen.
Texas Dem
So Boehner cannot find 216 votes to pass a symbolic piece of crap bill that everyone knows is DOA in the Senate. Poor man. Allow me to express my sorrow: HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA……
UPDATE: I’m feeling a great disturbance in the force. As if 216 plus House Republicans suddenly cried out in terror and proved to the country and the world they are either stupid, crazy, or both.
Gian
flipping around google news today I saw one plan that seemed too clever by half. there’s a loophole for minting coins. so Obama orders the minting of say 2500 $1 billion dollar coins and sells them to the fed.
cash in treasury to get past 2012
read that and thought, wow, that sounds as cool as a unicorn ride through the jelly belly factory.
market will crash tomrrow. the house speaker is essentially powerless. more crashes coming monday unless the baggers back off.
thing is people like limbaugh know their lies are lies. the baggers believe and don’t know the lies are for other people
Linda Featheringill
Nikkei was down only a little before [their] lunch break. The announcement of no vote tonight in the House occurred during the break. When the break was over, Nikkei really dipped.
jwb
Martin: If it does get to impeachment, nothing will come of it since the Senate won’t convict. But I’ve thought since June impeachment was almost certain if the ceiling wasn’t raised, because crazy denied is going to have to go somewhere and impeachment will just be too tempting a target, even if it’s even more idiotic than not raising the debt ceiling.
Dennis SGMM
No one could have anticipated that decades of whipping up implacable hostility toward the government would result in a House loaded with Reps who harbor an implacable hostility toward the government. Boehner, McCain, and the other establishment Republicans stood by the sidelines and giggled while the loonies gained power because, hey, the loonies pissed off liberals and they were good for intimidating any waverers in the GOP. I suspect that those same Republicans thought that when it came down to it they would bamboozle the loonies in the same way that they’ve bamboozled the religious right for years.
The phrase “hoist with his own petard” comes to mind.
Roger Moore
@Martin:
I think you’re misunderstanding the distinction between mandatory and discretionary spending. The “mandatory” spending is stuff where we’ve made long term promises, while the discretionary is stuff where we set a budget every year. But that doesn’t mean that discretionary spending is optional or just a guideline. The budget and the individual appropriations bills that put it into effect are laws just as surely as the acts that created Social Security and Medicare, and the President is no more free to ignore them.
Ripley
Man, their petards have got to be plenty sore by now.
Martin
@Roger Moore: No, I understand that, but the discretionary budget tends to be less proscribed to reflect that revenues and expenses will change, and tend to be less specific with respect to the timing of things, which matters in this situation. I think there is some discretion with when certain expenses get dealt with, unlike with most mandatory spending which is more specific and part of the legislation. SS checks go out on certain days, etc. But I don’t think the IRS is required to issue refunds on certain days, or within a certain period. I think that’s something that can remain on the books and shoved back at the discretion of the Treasury. Surely there are provisions written into defense contracts to deal with government shutdowns and the like, which would kick in at a time like this (once we reach that point, that is).
Lancelot Link
@Amanda in the South Bay –
That’s not what I meant; I was wondering if that was part of the Repug’s election plan.
bjacques
Debt Ceiling Cat is watching Eric Cantor masturbate.
Yutsano
@Martin:
Certain days, no. A certain period, yes. Holding a refund makes the IRS liable for interest for any amount not refunded to a taxpayer in a timely manner (usually anything longer than 30 days, although the exact statute is escaping my brain). So we get that money out the door as fast as possible. Plus a refund is not bonus play money for the Treasury. If that were true we could dip into excess collections and probably buy some more time here.
Caz
The worst bill in American history?? The stupidest group of legislators in American history?? You really are one ignorant, arrogant, idiotic hack, aren’t you? People like you shouldn’t even be allowed to vote. Along with a balanced budget amendment, they ought to get an Educated Voter Privilege amendment to prevent brainwashed idiots like you from voting. It’s one thing to have a difference of opinion; it’s quite another to be so brainwashed that you think the current R’s are the worst legislators in history, that the tea party R’s who want 1) adherence to the Constitution, 2) limited govt, and 3) fiscal responsibility are revolutionary anarchists, and that the D’s are somehow genuine, honest, patriotic Americans. It must be nice living in your fantasy world.
cthulhu
The sum of 175 comments seems to be that we are headed for some sort of Constitutional crisis that will require SCOTUS to sort out IF things continue unresolved much into August (as anything the Admin might do without Congressional action could easily be called into question). As to the economic effects, that seems to be more unpredictable depending on the direction things go in the short term. So it is very likely to be a bumpy ride this fall. And there’s still the f-ing budget for FY2012!
IMHO, if the Dems can get through this with an agreement that squares everything beyond the 2012 election, I think we’ll see a D swing back in the House and perhaps retention of the Senate such that we are back to the “good ole days” of the dysfunction being in the Senate but at least some semi-decent legislation slipping through (plus some nice Executive branch action). A boy can dream can’t he?
Yutsano
@Caz:
Herr Hitler called. He’s proud you are continuing his ideology.
SRW1
As I am sure there will be a question about what the German word for a spectacle like this is:
Schmierentheater.
Lojasmo
@caz
Worst. Troll. Ever. Drink bleach*
*bleach is poisonous, dumbass.
Jebediah
@Caz:
Aw, does Caz have a sad? You’re kind of flailing, even more than usual. I assume you are frantic because you live entirely on government assistance and will be boned when the checks stop.
Xenos
@Caz:
We think that because the teapartisans and Republicans who say they stand for these three things are lying. Consistently lying. Or are so corrupt or cognitively impaired that they don’t understand that they have it completely backward.
kay
Caz, they want a balanced budget amendment to the US Constitution.
There is no balanced budget provision in the US Constitution. It’s not in there.
Stop saying they want “adherence to the US Constitution”.
They want to rewrite the US Constitution.
It’s three fucking words. Balanced Budget Amendment. One, two, three. Just read them. What do they mean? Do they mean “adherence to the US Constitution”? No, they don’t.
If you want to radically alter the US Constitution and radically alter the powers of Congress and the Presidency, and you do, admit it.
Stop hiding behind meaningless phrases like “adherence to the US Constitution”. That’s bullshit.
The Constitution isn’t some abstract theory, and you can’t utter the incantation “the constitution” and make us stop thinking. The constitution a set of rules, and Tea Partiers want to change the rules in a profound way. They keep telling you that, but you won’t listen.
Drop the phrase “adherence to the US Constitution” from the Tea Party vocabulary, or drop the balanced budget amendment, because both things can’t be true.
kay
You know, Caz, when other groups and movements wanted to amend the US Constitution they didn’t lie about it. They didn’t run around insisting they were “adhering to the Constitution” while trying to change it.
But those groups were honest actors, instead of Frank Luntz programmed marketing drones.
Why do conservatives want to amend the US Constitution? What will happen if conservatives succeed in amending the US Constitution? What does it say about “conservatives” that they think the budgetary and spending powers outlined in the US Constitution aren’t sufficient to meet their goals? How will this radical change affect Congress? The Presidency?
Have the fucking courage of you convictions. Answer those questions. Every other revolutionary or radical group in history did. Why do conservatives get a pass?
chopper
neither does anything regarding the treasury having the power to borrow money on its own.
looking only at the constitution, the power to borrow is reserved solely for congress. congress has ceded some of that power over the years solely for the purpose of issuing treasuries to pay for their own appropriations, but that’s it. the original debt ceiling legislation (and major changes since) are pretty clear that the treasury may not issue bonds unless our debt is below the ceiling.
this is one of those situations where congress has legislated itself into a corner and there’s no simple solution. if obama starts unilaterally issuing bonds he’s in clear violation of federal law and likely the constitution.
damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
chopper
yeah, when we’ve been hovering just outside the event horizon of a liquidity trap for years; interest rates are already as low as they can get and the fed has been dumping money out of a helicopter in a sad unsuccessful attempt to pump the economy back to life; and all macroeconomic signs point to ‘deflationary pressure’; and now we’re facing a crisis that will skyrocket interest rates and seize up the entire economy and chuck us right into the black hole; i sure know inflation is the big worry.