I can’t wait to go through this same tedious bullshit all over again:
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner wants Congress to raise the debt limit again later this year “without drama, pain and damage.”
House Speaker John Boehner has other ideas.
In remarks at the 2012 Peter G. Peterson Foundation, Boehner will erect the same requirements for raising the debt limit this coming winter that nearly led the country to default on its debt last August.
“We shouldn’t dread the debt limit. We should welcome it. It’s an action-forcing event in a town that has become infamous for inaction,” Boehner will say according to excerpts of prepared remarks provided by his office. “That night in New York City, I put forth the principle that we should not raise the debt ceiling without real spending cuts and reforms that exceed the amount of the debt limit increase…. When the time comes, I will again insist on my simple principle of cuts and reforms greater than the debt limit increase. This is the only avenue I see right now to force the elected leadership of this country to solve our structural fiscal imbalance. If that means we have to do a series of stop-gap measures, so be it – but that’s not the ideal. Let’s start solving the problem. We can make the bold cuts and reforms necessary to meet this principle, and we must.”
And, of course, tax increases are off the table. As well as cuts to the Pentagon.
Ash Can
This is awesome. Seriously, if the Republicans want to do this going into a general election, they’re more than welcome. It worked out so well for them the last time.
Mike Furlan
It is not “tedious bullshit”, it is the express will of the American people.
Who do you think keeps these knuckheads in office?
Calouste
You wonder who has been the source of a lot of that inaction.
David Koch
looks like boner is resigned to Mittens impending defeat, cuz they never want to cut the budget when the pugs are holding the WH.
waratah
Please not again.
kdaug
Eisenhower.
92%.
Just sayin’.
maya
Looks like Dancin’ Dave has a guest for next Sunday’s Press The Meat.
Ben Franklin
Peterson doens’t pay payroll taxes on 99.99999% of his income, and Boihner certainly doesn’t have any stake in SS.
Who are they concern trolling for?
Jester
When the limit was raised last time, the understanding was that this was enough to get through the election. What changed? Who didn’t set the increase high enough?
I know the Republicans are insane, but seriously, who the fvck dropped the ball on our side?
trollhattan
Sweet Weeping Ronnie Reagan on a giant onion, Orangeman is like the king of the swamp castle (“The third castle burned to the ground, then fell into the swamp…”).
These fucks don’t care one bit what they do to the country.
AA+ Bonds
Haahha okay dude whatever
AA+ Bonds
You totally do that because everyone loves it when you do that
Raven
@Mike Furlan: Morons?
PeakVT
Maybe we should try to push “the debt limit is unconstitutional” idea out there before this failparade gets moving. It probably wouldn’t go far, but you never know…
jwb
@PeakVT: There were all kinds of good crazy ideas last time. I was particularly fond of the minting of trillion dollar platinum coins.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Fix’t & fix’t.
Villago Delenda Est
The sooner an orange smear is found on the fast lane of the Capital Beltway, the better.
dr. bloor
…the fuck? They haven’t even finished reneging on their first oh-so-principled “deal.”
Villago Delenda Est
@trollhattan:
“Don’t like her? What’s wrong with her? She’s rich, she’s beautiful, she’s got huge….tracts of land.”
mk3872
I will guarantee you this time that the Obama admin will not make the same mistake: The WH WILL let them GOP shutdown the gov’t or he they will enact a measure to go around the Congress to pay the bills.
This is a lose-lose for the GOP.
Bostondreams
@Jester:
There was a deal agreed to that would kick in automatic defense cuts if the budget issues weren’t addressed. Apparently, honesty and keeping their word is not a Republican virtue.
PeakVT
Taxmageddon is the new -mageddon neologism of the month.
Villago Delenda Est
@Bostondreams:
Even if those WERE Republican virtues, the fact of the matter is that Boner does not have control of his caucus. He has been stripped of plenipotentiary powers by the Teatards. They have him by the short hairs.
gene108
@trollhattan:
They only care up to the point, when they can wield absolute power in America.
What is sadder are all the states that LOVE the Republican Party.
We basically have switched parts of the South from yellow-dog Democrats to yellow-dog Republicans. On top of that throw in places like Utah and Wyoming, who will never vote for a Democrat in statewide elections or Presidential elections and you have a large enough chunk of Republicans, who are safe and secure and in a position to make as much mischief as they want, until they can gain absolute power.
What worries me about 2012 is how are Democrats going to do in state wide races in VA and NC. The Democratic Party in those states hasn’t quit folded up, unlike the rest of the South, but I get a feeling the voter backlash in 2010 hasn’t run its course in North Carolina.
I know Gov. Perdue isn’t running for re-election, but I still think the hangover from the Easley corruption charges hasn’t run its course. Plus I don’t know, if the state Dems have been able to replace a political heavyweight like Marc Basnight.
I was hoping someone like Elaine Marshall could step up as the leader of NC Dems, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.
If anyone in the great North State has some info on statewide politics, I’ll be curious to find out if my assumptions are right or wrong.
Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)
There was something on another thread about how conservatives are as bad at being funny as communists are, but there’s another way they’re alike, and that’s that they both believe what they believe utterly, and nothing, not facts, not logic, not even their own eyes, will ever sway them from those beliefs.
I’m no expert on communism, but I’ve read a few bigraphies of Lenin and Stalin, and it’s striking how unwilling they were to change what they believed, no matter how baldly the facts in the U.S.S.R. showed them that what they believed didn’t work. Kind of like modern conservatism, communism could never fail, it could only be failed. If they lost a harvest and 100,000 people starved that year, it wasn’t because their brilliant plan to terrorize and kill all the farmers who grew the country’s wheat was nuts; it was because “saboteurs” and “wreckers” had fucked everything up. When the nazis overran the country and wiped out everything they saw and slaughtered millions of unready soviet troops, it wasn’t because Stalin’s purges of all the good officers was a dumb thing to do; it was because “spies” had helped the nazis. So, naturally, they had to kill thousands of random Ukranians for being “spies”. There were times near the beginning of the war when, if I recall rightly, the Red Army was busier killing its own “disloyal” citizens than fighting the nazis.
In the same way, nothing will convince these nutball Republicans that there is ever any good reason to raise taxes. Jesus Christ could come down out of the sky tomorrow and tell these clowns that they need to raise taxes on millionaires, and George Will, Grover Norquist, Charles Krauthammer and John Boehner would be all over the op-ed pages the next day, asking how the hell that socialist in the White House managed to buy off Jesus–and that they never really liked or trusted that weird, bearded hippie guy all that much to begin with.
trollhattan
@Villago Delenda Est:
“Someday son, this will all be yours.”
“What, the curtains?”
jl
I probably shouldn’t post this, it might cause the BJ crew make a run on the liquor stores, and I feel like the urge for a few months of frequent and stiff drinks coming on.
Looks like Mitt listened to the pitch and signed off on this idea for a campaign season reality show.
Mitt Romney: ‘Prairie Fire’ Of Debt Threatens America
“When the men and women who settled the Iowa prairie saw a fire in the distance, they didn’t look around for someone else to save them or go back to sleep hoping the wind might blow another direction,” Romney said, according to prepared remarks. “They knew that their survival was up to them. A prairie fire of debt is sweeping across Iowa and our nation and every day we fail to act that fire gets closer to the homes and children we love.”
2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/05/mitt-romney-praire-fire-of-debt-threatens-america.php?ref=fpa
Story also says the debt is like a ‘melancholy song’.
I dunno, but no particular song comes to my mind. How about the famous ‘Melancholy Prairie Fire Song’ by the GOPpers? the name rings a bell but I can’t quite place it.
Jay C
@David Koch:
Isn’t the Federal budget pre-planned and appropriated about a year (or at least six months) in advance? Even if (Dog forbid) there is a new Pres next January, the G has to run on Obama’s last budget (and under the applicable “controls” – debt limits, etc) for at least half a year until a new one is passed and signed.
trollhattan
@Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.):
Another bit of historical understatement comes to mind, also, too.
geg6
@mk3872:
Agreed. Obama’s team cannot fail to see this as big an overreach as that seen during 1994-96. In fact, they are correct. I am not yet willing to concede that the majority of the electorate has completely lost their minds. They paid attention when the GOPers tried this bullshit last summer and hated them for it. But Boehner is such a wuss that he is throwing himself all in with the crazy in the House, even though I’m sure that knows better deep down. You’d think the loathing shown toward Gingrich in the primaries would have taught him a lesson, but apparently not. Say what you will about Newt, but I never thought of him as weak as the leader of his caucus (dishonest and gritting, surely, but not weak). Boehner will go down in history as the weakest Speaker in modern history, with extra points for being weak while in the majority.
gene108
The Republican strategy, from what I’ve seen, seems to be a death-by-a-thousand cuts.
First they came for the welfare mothers
and I applauded them
Then they came for the school teachers
and I said nothing
Then they came for the public sector unions (except firefighters and police)
and I did nothing
Then they came for me
and there was no one left to help.
I honestly think we’ll reach a point, where we’ll have blood in the streets again.
It happened in the 1960’s, 1970’s, 1980′ and early 1990’s. The prosperity of the 1990’s sort of mellowed people out, but I can see disgruntled folks, who don’t have opportunities anymore getting violent again.
Sort of like the Rodney King riots or the riots in Cincinnati a few years later or the white folk in Boston going nuts over integration, in the 1970’s.
If things keep going like they are look for those angry days to return.
mdblanche
@Jester:
@Bostondreams: The deal from last year covers everything through the end of this year. Thinking of
Lockheed Martinthe children, the Grim Weeper is trying to weasel out of it but he won’t be able to unless he can get the Senate and the President to go along. I wouldn’t call what he’s doing now a smart strategy for that. This new threat is about raising the ceiling for next year. It may be necessary to handle this during the lame duck session but the Treasury is working to prevent that being necessary.jl
@gene108:
” What is sadder are all the states that LOVE the Republican Party. ”
Many of those red states live off federal Uncle Sugar bucks from blue states. If the GOP wins, they will continue to get those bucks. The problem of the deadly prairie fire of debt will be confined to people who do not or are not longer allowed to vote, and it will be all good.
The ‘Cheney View’ will be re adopted for all deficits that go to people deemed worthy.
I can see the rationale of those red states who are working this racket.
Corner Stone
@Jay C:
What Obama budget?
Amir Khalid
Check this out: Boehner might get his bluff called on this threat.
From the link:
Corner Stone
@jl: “The world is a vampire!”
k488
@trollhattan: We’re coming with you!
Suffern ACE
@geg6: I believe they’re running on the “vote for me or the whole country gets it.” platform.
jl
@Corner Stone:
Marty Robbins Prairie Fire
youtu.be/2theVkJGHp0
jl
Irresponsible DemoocRAT film making light of the prairie fire of debt commin’ t’ burn ip yer wimmin folk, chillin’ ‘n’ mules.
Prairie Fire!
youtu.be/PXXINFdkPoY
‘natural occurrence on the prairie’, my ass.
Stuck in the Funhouse
John Boehner can go fuck himself. He is about as in charge of the House wingnuts as I am for getting Kate Beckensale to come over and sit on my face. There is no one running that asylum, unless the dems can win it back.
Corner Stone
@jl: Smashing Pumpkins
Bullet with Butterfly Wings
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
Stuck in the Funhouse
I think the raising of the debt limit is Obama’s call till 2013, or at least till after the election. Boner is just blowing smoke out his arse, to make it look like he’s leading something, rather than a high level messenger boy.
Corner Stone
Oh, word press word filters…why do I love thou so?
geg6
@Suffern ACE:
Yeah, that’s a winning strategy.
I honestly don’t think it’s hyperbolic to say that we are faced with a constitutional crisis, one not all that different from the nullification crisis in the nineteenth century. Which, IMHO, was the start of the Civil War. YMMV.
Corner Stone
Personally, I’d just as soon see some wackaloon punch Timmy Geithner right in the fucking snot locker as take his advice on just about anything.
Heliopause
And just think, there’s a non-trivial chance* that Mitt Romney and the GOP will have the White House and both houses of congress next year. Ain’t America grand?
*Note to the knuckle-draggers; no, this is not a prediction.
Stuck in the Funhouse
@Stuck in the Funhouse:
Though I do believe the temporary funding bill for running the government, runs out at the end of September. I don’t think Mcconnell wants any part of another debt ceiling standoff, as he is the personal envoy of the plutocrats for their dealings with congress.
lacp
A prairie fire of debt? Is that like a gaggle of geese? A pack of wolves? A murder of crows? A wank of Republicans? What?
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Jay C: Some Republican the other day was bragging about how there hasn’t been a budget in over 1000 days.
Corner Stone
@Heliopause: While I think Obama losing the WH is a stretch, I absolutely feel the House will stay R and the Senate is in real danger of going R or being 51-50 D at best.
pj
The very first thing Romney did in a Bain takeover was set a prairie fire. He took on debt, and plenty of it. Then, he threw the workers in the fire.
Stuck in the Funhouse
@Jay C:
Budgets are but suggestions, and the passed ones do have some rules for final appropriations based on such a passed budget. I don’t think we are anywhere near doing stuff in regular order, and will continue for some time on an ad hock basis with temp spending bills to keep the government running, whilst the wingers play chicken with the devil.
David Koch
republicans are now pushing the meme that “being a guy you’d like to have a beer with” diminishes the presidency.
HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHA
amk
@Stuck in the Funhouse: Yup. geithner is just yanking boner’s chains.
jl
Thinks look grim. So grim, ancient boingo songs are running through my head.
Only a Lad Oingo Boingo
youtu.be/lvLxnOx0tzw
Edit: dedicated to the boys will be boys of the GOP.
scav
Christ, if that robot wears a coon skin hat with a corn cob pipe and a brown bottle of (non-alcoholic) likker by next week, well, I’d not be surprised. Prairie Fire?
ETA: Yes, assemble those ingredients in any manner you choose, it only modifies the basic impossibility.
Calouste
@David Koch:
Well, Mitt, if no beer, a wine then? No wine either? What about a coffee? No? Tea? No? A coke? No?? So what do you drink? And at that point quite a few Americans are getting the idea “this guy is a bit weird”.
mdblanche
@David Koch: We are at war with
EurasiaEastasia, we have always been at war withEastasiaEurasia.The Dangerman
Don’t drink, don’t smoke, what do ya do?
Chris
@geg6:
I agree. I don’t see what the modern equivalent would be, though: call me optimistic, but I just can’t imagine a country a population as overall wealthy, secure and comfortable (comparatively) starting another civil war. Maybe I’m wrong. I just think most people have too much invested in America to risk that.
jl
Weird Science!
Why don’t people understand my intentions!
oooohh weird Science!
youtu.be/9_tVZFZ5PR4
Maybe a good idea for a Romney/Ryan campaign theme song?
Mike Furlan
@Raven:
I wish I could blame it on morons.
Mostly it is folks who look like me.
handy
@jl:
Anti-Romney jingle for the wimmin folk?
jl
@The Dangerman:
” Don’t drink, don’t smoke, what do ya do? ”
Something in the back rooms?
Corner Stone
Damn, who would have guessed FYWP hated Smashing Pumpkins so badly? Can’t a honkie get a youtube link outta purg?
mainmati
@jwb: Me too. You have to wonder who or what would be on the head and tail of those coins.
Stuck in the Funhouse
Well golly goose feathers
Well boll me over, looks like Kthug has got with the program. The whole enchilada of keynesianism.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Chris:
__
A constitutional amendment to break up the Union. Let the former CSA states go. They won’t be missed. And yes, I know we will end up having to pay higher taxes to deal with the humanitarian and financial costs of resettling the refugees from South Jesusfuckistan. I’m willing to pay that; it would be worth every penny.
handy
@Stuck in the Funhouse:
Peeps gotta start getting in line.
The Dangerman
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
Plus the costs of building fences on the Mason Dixon line when the economy in the South tanks.
jl
@handy:
OK here we go, the GOP/teabagger/Mitt theme song, which will all be ringing in our ears as they bring everything down.
Too much paranoias, Devo
youtu.be/Iq6bQBVG0tE
The far far distant future archeologists, the methodical and placid descendents of our humble cockroaches, will decipher the work of this Devo, and wonder how it all went wrong even though they warned us, and wonder why no one listened.
Stuck in the Funhouse
@handy:
yep
Way too much at stake to not fall in line. For all of us.
Corner Stone
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
Hey pro. Good luck to ya.
Hill Dweller
What the hell has happened to Sen. Wyden? He teams up with Ryan the fraud on Medicare, undermining a potent Dem talking point going into the election. Now he is talking about doing a ‘top to bottom review’ of green energy subsidies, should he become chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee next year. Once again, lending the wingers a hand with their horseshit narrative.
handy
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
Nothing could possibly go wrong with a plan like this.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Hill Dweller:
__
’twas said that every Senator looks in the mirror and sees the guy who should be President staring back at him.
Citizen_X
@scav:
Hmm. I’m having a hard time deciding which one of those three things I’d most like to see shoved up his ass.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@handy:
The Constitution we have now was drafted to deal with a weak, ineffectual and dysfunctional government unable to manage even the most basic functions of a sovereign state, including especially the major problem of being incapable of servicing the debt which we incurred fighting the American Revolution, because the central govt wasn’t strong enough to levy the necessary power of taxation and the states couldn’t agree on how do deal with the problem. If the GOP holds the House and gains the Senate this year, how far are we from that situation today?
freelancer
@geg6:
Aren’t all Speakers part of the Majority party? Otherwise you wouldn’t be Speaker, you’d be Minority Leader?
Stuck in the Funhouse
Ha ha ha ha!
Message fail
jl
@Hill Dweller:
TPM Poll tracker says that Wyden has a big lead, but Huffman has made gains recently. Maybe that is the problem.
Click on ‘OR Senator’ and then on ‘poll points’ button in lower right hand corner of the next screen.
Person of Choler
Get the Democrat majority in the Senate to pass a budget and help put a stop to this debt ceiling nonsense. Of course, this might be difficult since the administration has no plan except disliking Representative Ryan’s proposal. They lead from behind, I guess.
lacp
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: So it isn’t the Constitution that the Teapartiers lust after: it’s the Articles of Confederation.
jl
@Stuck in the Funhouse:
But it was for assaulting a (probably union) peace officer. Maybe a plus with some of the ‘baggers.
Yutsano
@Person of Choler: Uh-oh. Civics fail. Budgets originate in the House. But of course you knew that.
gbear
Prairiefire Crabapple. Really beautiful blooms.
Mnemosyne
@Yutsano:
Now now. Apparently the House did pass Paul Ryan’s “Cut Taxes On the Rich and Magical Fairies Will Appear!” budget, but the Senate hasn’t stopped laughing long enough to vote on it.
After all, the deficit shrank this year, and Republicans have to put a stop to that nonsense ASAP. How will they convince even congenital idiots like Choler to vote for them if the Democratic president is able to shrink the deficit by sticking to his policies?
Heliopause
@Corner Stone:
I agree that all this is the most likely scenario, just trying to pre-empt the idiots who don’t distinguish between saying something is possible and saying something is likely.
Hill Dweller
@Stuck in the Funhouse: That is hilarious. The Willard campaign really does suck.
That said, the media is carrying their water in hopes of effecting a horse race. Anything even remotely negative for Obama gets the breaking exclusive treatment. While Romney can’t open his mouth without lying, but it gets ignored.
Even the polling is weird this week. Does anyone actually believe Romney is leading Obama with women?
Hill Dweller
@Mnemosyne: The Senate is voting on the Granny Starver’s budget tomorrow. Reid agreed to a handful of votes in exchange for a vote on the import/export bank(which miraculously passed tonight).
Stuck in the Funhouse
@Hill Dweller:
No shit. And speaking of carrying Romney water, this segment from CNN with Ashley Banfield back on cable news, will blow your mind in the water carrying department. I used to like Ashley, and thought she got a bum rap over comments she made about the Iraq invasion. That said, This clip was beyond pathetic.
Corner Stone
@Heliopause: Yes. They fucking hate that shit.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@The Dangerman: Mason Dixon line isn’t the right place for the fence. Maybe somewhere along the Rappahannock between Virginia and Occupied Virginia.
But then, what will my brethren in South Pennsylvania do, once they realize they’re on the wrong side of the line? What about the People’s Republics of Chapel Hill and Austin?
We’re gonna have a whole lot of refugees and resettling.
jl
With Every Failure, David…
youtu.be/rGt08GUUz1g
TenguPhule
Boner shouldn’t dread being lynched by a mob either. He should welcome it.
SiubhanDuinne
@Bostondreams:
Go on with you!!
PIGL
@Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.): I wonder in which biography or biographies of Lenin these events are reported?
robertdsc-iPhone 4
Round up every Republican & send them to Gitmo for economic terrorism.
Calouste
@Chris:
Nothing that some additional austerity can’t solve. See Greece.
David Koch
hard to believe it’s been 2 months since Obama killed Breitbart.
abo gato
Speaking of tedious bullshit….world nut daily is pushing the trope that Obama will declare martial law and stop the election and rule forever. Didn’t these assholes get tired of that with Clinton? I guess not.
Lurking Canadian
@Stuck in the Funhouse: Since Krugman has said exactly that roughly half a dozen times in the last three weeks, it’s not so much Krugman getting with the program as it is you finally reading him.
Stuck in the Funhouse
@Lurking Canadian:
Okay then, if you say so, he got with the program three weeks ago, instead of yesterday. If that makes you happy.
Patricia Kayden
@mk3872: Hope you’re right.
tybee
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
don’t be like that. i HATE shoveling snow.
Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor
@abo gato:
I’ve frankly reached the point where I wouldn’t protest.
Am I a bad person?
chopper
@Calouste:
he’s locked up the straightedge vote is what he’s done.