Ben Carson apparently has no idea what the debt limit is:
Ryssdal: All right, so let’s talk about debt then and the budget. As you know, Treasury Secretary Lew has come out in the last couple of days and said, “We’re gonna run out of money, we’re gonna run out of borrowing authority, on the fifth of November.” Should the Congress then and the president not raise the debt limit? Should we default on our debt?
Carson: Let me put it this way: if I were the president, I would not sign an increased budget. Absolutely would not do it. They would have to find a place to cut.
Ryssdal: To be clear, it’s increasing the debt limit, not the budget, but I want to make sure I understand you. You’d let the United States default rather than raise the debt limit.
Carson: No, I would provide the kind of leadership that says, “Get on the stick guys, and stop messing around, and cut where you need to cut, because we’re not raising any spending limits, period.”
Ryssdal: I’m gonna try one more time, sir. This is debt that’s already obligated. Would you not favor increasing the debt limit to pay the debts already incurred?
Carson: What I’m saying is what we have to do is restructure the way that we create debt. I mean if we continue along this, where does it stop? It never stops. You’re always gonna ask the same question every year. And we’re just gonna keep going down that pathway. That’s one of the things I think that the people are tired of.
Ryssdal: I’m really trying not to be circular here, Dr. Carson, but if you’re not gonna raise the debt limit and you’re not gonna give specifics on what you’re gonna cut, then how are we going to know what you are going to do as president of the United States?
Carson: OK, let me try to explain it in a different way. If, in fact, we have a number of different areas that are contributing to the increasing expenditures and the continued expenditures that are putting us further and further into the hole. You’re familiar I’m sure with the concept of the fiscal gap.
Refusing to raise the debt limit is not the same as cutting the budget, and it is painfully clear that Carson does not understand this at all. Since Republicans love the “run government like a household” bit, here’s what Ben Carson, head of household is proposing. He’s stating that if he became President, after his family had run up all the credit cards, owed thousands in utilities, mortgage, car payments, plumber and electrician bills, school tuition, medical bills (because, no doubt, he would not sign on to ACA), he’d go to the people he owed money and tell them “Look, I’ve decided to be fiscally responsible, and I need to make some cuts. So I’m not going to pay you. Toodles.”
At least when the idiots were making the debt ceiling threats the last time around, they understood the concept of the debt limit creating a default and global tumult- they just dismissed it. Carson doesn’t even seem to understand that default would even happen.
After seeing Ben Carson as a candidate, I’m re-evaluating my usage of the phrase “It’s not brain surgery.”
Corner Stone
John Cole, sometimes I love you.
Not That Guy
The whole GOP is now Full Metal Palin. It’s not good.
the Conster
He left a sponge in one of his patient’s brain. I can’t link right now but TPM has his response to a question about it which is equally incoherent. I wonder if he practiced on himself? TBogg wonders if he has Aspergers. He definitely ain’t right in the head.
Doug Gardner
I can’t help but wonder if he suffers from some cognitive deficit (yes, ironic, given his alleged brilliance in pediatric neurosurgery). If this is the extent of his undamaged intellect, it boggles the mind that he was able to get INTO medical school in the first place. The stream of nonsensical comments he has made recently are shocking and give pause to my intuition that surgeons are generally bright people. Is he simply incredibly adept at the physical aspect of neurosurgery?
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Corner Stone: Dude, you act like people should read threads before posting. I never do. Or, more accurately, I read them and then comment about whatever topic is of interest, as a beloved fellow commenter taught me. “Every thread is an open thread.”
JPL
When the Social Security checks don’t get paid.. Ben Carson can call retirees Patriots. I just don’t think team building is going to work for those on Social Security.
Urban Outfitters Inc. has asked salaried workers at the company’s home office to “volunteer” for extra weekend shifts at a new fulfillment center in the town of Gap, PA. Volunteers would work six-hour shifts in exchange for lunch and transportation, if required. The email advises participants to wear “sneakers and comfortable clothing” to prepare for this “team building activity.”
Thoughtful Today
…
You can imagine how Ben would respond to a patient, after receiving extensive medical care, who said, “to cut back on expenses I’ve decided that I don’t have to pay your medical bills.”
Republiconomics: Indebt the nation > refuse to pay the bills > profit!
can’t.make.this.shit.up
shell
Im starting to understand WHY this guy is retire d from surgery.
Redshift
I think you’re giving them too much credit. Reading those quotes, most of them seem to have no more idea than Ben Carson what the debt limit is. Hell, a lot of them got elected on the idea that it’s just another club to try to force somebody else to cut spending.
Sherparick
@Not That Guy: Yep. We are in deep doo-doo. The Gohmerts, Websters, and Labradors are about to give the Tea Party what they been asking for, good and hard. Except for the fact that millions of innocent people who never voted for these A-Hs are going to get hurt (including yours truly), it would be kind of amusing to see all the Masters of the Universe who funded these guys the last six years suddenly discover what Krugman means that G and Average Guy’s spending is their income.
Sherparick
@JPL: I guess that is called “indentured servitude.”
Arclite
Ben’s favorite song, by Sam Cooke:
Don’t know much about history
Don’t know much biology
Don’t know much about science book
Don’t know much about the French I took
Arm The Homeless
@JPL:
Dated a woman who loved Anthropologie. Have you ever seen what those clothes cost? Their business model was, “off the rack, for 6x the price.”
How could they not go belly-up?
Sad news, I just heard today Sir Harry Kroto was leaving FSU. That’s a large loss for a D1 research school still looking for their academic footing. I wish him the best as he finishes retirement back home in the UK.
Death Panel Truck
The Debt Limit Explained
father pussbucket (fka gnomedad)
Firstly in my normal voice and then in a kind of silly high-pitched whine.
dmsilev
Probably the most asinine thing Carson said in that entire interview. And yes, there’s some stiff competition. The concept of ‘the fiscal gap’, in rightwingerese, says that if you take Social Security and project out current demographics to roughly the time that the Sun becomes a red giant and swallows the Earth, you get $BIG_NUMBER.
Oooh, scary.
They of course conveniently forget to include projected growth of the economy over those same billion or so years, not to mention the inherent lunacy of projecting out economic behavior to infinity and beyond.
catclub
Thread title is a little too apt.
jl
So, looks like something might actually happen in the House even if the GOP caucus cannot get its shit together. Boehner has to provide a list of House members to the House Clerk at the beginning of each term. If no Speaker for some reason, the first name on that list becomes Speaker. And that name may well be one McCarthy from Bakersfield.
That is educated guess on what might happen. I would guess that procedure was designed in case the Speaker became incapacitated, not sure how the decision to go the list would be triggered if there were no Speaker because crazy GOPers were having tantrums and conducting political purges among their caucus.
I guess Boehner could hang on until it became clear the chaos was intractable, and he would give the House Clerk order to read off the first name from the list after he resigned? So, that is one hypothetical way it could go.
I imagine that public pressure in their districts would force enough of the GOP yahoos to relent and agree to participate in an organized government, but who really knows?
The House May Be Too Divided To Elect A New Speaker. If So, Here’s What Happens Next.
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/10/08/3710470/the-house-may-be-too-divided-to-elect-a-new-speaker-if-that-occurs-heres-what-happens-next/
Villago Delenda Est
Outside his narrow specialty, Ben Carson is an utter idiot.
Redshift
And all of their debt ceiling/deficit chicanery really gives away the game. They insist they’re for smaller government on principle, and that vast portions of the population, and probably an outright majority, agrees with them.
But if that were actually true, and they actually believed it, they could make cuts without fearing a political backlash. They’d do it proudly, and take credit. Instead they play stupid games designed to force somebody else to make the cuts.
Corner Stone
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Why is it got to be all love shaming, and shit? Why can’t it just be a declaration of my feelings?
Villago Delenda Est
@JPL: I do believe what they’re asking them to do is utterly illegal, at least in civilized states, which I assumed Pennsylvania was one. After all, it’s not fuckin’ Kentucky, now is it?
Calouste
@Villago Delenda Est: Quite a few times I have heard Pennsylvania described as “Pittsburgh and Philadelphia with Kentucky in between”, so…
JMG
The debt ceiling will either get raised (most likely) or Obama will cite the 14th amendment and raise it unilaterally by de facto abolishing it. The Supreme Court isn’t gonna be the ones to take away Grammie’s Social Security and Medicare, so the House will go berserk and impeach the President, since it worked so well last time.
Redshift
@jl:
These would be the same districts that elected yahoos who declared that “government is the problem” and promised to keep it from doing anything except bomb brown people, right?
I can’t muster much optimism for that public pressure…
Schlemazel
The comments on the NPR site are fun too, some shmuck who also had no idea what the debt ceiling is was posting all over about how unfair it was that he got asked the same question 3 times in a row!
BTW – anyone heard about the alleged affair between McCarthy and a Congresswoman from NC? Thats good news for Ted Cruz!
Thoughtful Today
“They of course conveniently forget to include projected growth of the economy over those same billion or so years…”
And don’t forget about interplanetary trade … ’cause … Matt Damon and Mars!
SiubhanDuinne
@Arm The Homeless:
All Things Considered had an interview with him. Very interesting.
ETA: Interview with Kroto, not Carson!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
OT: I called this, but I thought Newton Leroy would try to be more subtle about it
HRA
I believe he may have corrected it today on CNN with Blitzer. I hide from the TV when my R husband is into the R politicians appearance in the parlor. So no I am not 100% positive.
I do have the R man come into my woman cave to let me know some of what he watches. Latest is Rubio scores no points in not doing his job and his reply of why he is missing the session makes him an idiot.
:)
redshirt
Do you think Cole knows this exact same topic was posted a few hours ago?
dmsilev
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Someone apparently was floating the idea of bringing Mittens out of retirement.
Mike in NC
@Arm The Homeless: My wife liked to browse the store at Tysons Corner back in the day, but I’m pretty sure she never bought anything there, like the $300 ripped jeans.
CONGRATULATIONS!
Carson is a good craftsman. That’s what good surgeons are. They work in blood, bone, muscle and skin, instead of wood or stone, but the principles and a lot of the techniques are not very different.
And he is very good at what he does. But nothing else.
Sadly, he hasn’t even taken Econ 101. He’ll get slaughtered in any debate because now everyone knows what his weak spot is.
Bobby Thomson
@Redshift: as I commented this morning on Zandar’s thread, Carson is hardly alone in his ignorance. It’s actually rare for the journalist to understand well enough to ask good follow ups.
Thoughtful Today
…
“Carson On Whether He Left Sponge In Woman’s Brain: ‘Sometimes There Is A Reaction’ (AUDIO).”
Oops?
Stuff happens?
Right-wing ethics?
Bobby Thomson
@redshirt: not a chance.
Mike in NC
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: As the saying goes, “You can’t keep a good man down”. Nor, apparently, a bad man like Newt.
jl
‘ After seeing Ben Carson as a candidate, I’m re-evaluating my usage of the phrase “It’s not brain surgery.” ‘
In search of silver linings to this mess, both GOP presidential and GOP House, I have to tell myself that it is good that the crazy GOP primary voting base has elevated the likes of Trump, Carson, and Fiorina to the top of their polls. Longer these lunatics represent the preferences and world view of the GOP, the worse 2016 will be for that party.
That is the best I can do.
Roger Moore
@Thoughtful Today:
It’s actually slightly smarter than that. The goal is to refuse to pay some of the bills so there’s enough money left to pay the rest of them. Gold star if you can guess which programs get cut and which ones don’t.
redshirt
@Bobby Thomson: lol. He’s like a poster that comes in at the end of a 200 comment thread, answering a question from comment 1.
It’s hilarious.
JPL
@jl: If I was in that position, I’d gather the freedom to destroy the government caucus for a meeting. They would get two options, one you support the nominee or two I deal with Pelosi.
hells littlest angel
The expression “idiot savant” has become politically incorrect, so I’m sure Carson will be delighted to have it applied to him.
David Koch
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: so he would like to have an “open relationship”.
RSA
“What’s the difference between a doctor and a brain surgeon?”
redshirt
Hey John, a link: https://balloon-juice.com/2015/10/08/the-carson-show-rolls-on/
bystander
Every time I see Newt Gingrich, I marvel at how prescient W.C. Fields was in limning the fat, louche grifter who would haunt our days.
I love MSNBC’s coverage of this debacle. They keep referring to the “conservative” wing of the repubs, unlike flaming libbies John Boehner and Kevin McCarthy. Anything to avoid calling the wild eyed crazies running the repub party what they are.
Mike in NC
@jl: GOP yahoos are dedicated to broken government, not organized government. Doing away with the IRS, for example, is a stated goal for these nuts.
Mike in NC
@RSA: Sleepy Ben is clearly not a rocket scientist.
Mike in NC
@bystander: There’s a Moderate Republican on display in the Smithsonian, right next to the stuffed dodo bird.
David Koch
@dmsilev: Just last month Mittens was secretly polling NH. The secret was blown when they accidental called a NH reporter. So he’s definitely trying to find a way to slither back into the race.
JCJ
Neurosurgeons are an interesting bunch. A friend of mine once said he went into neurosurgery because he wanted to get paid to put holes in people’s head. Not sure if he was joking. A few years ago another neurosurgeon described what it is like to use the ultrasonic aspirator to remove a brain tumor (glioblastoma) – you turn on the sucker and watch what comes out until you see normal brain, then you realize you should have stopped. He was kidding but partially serious. It is interesting working with different neurosurgeons doing stereotactic radiosurgery. There are four different ones that I work with and they are quite demanding of the staff. Maybe it is just the arrogance of being a specialist myself, but I have never understood the reverence some people have for neurosurgeons.
Elizabelle
PBS Snooze Hour just said “Republicans in disarray.” It’s their top story.
And calling it “the Freedom Caucus”? I think they should truth in label: the Republican Freedom Caucus or the Orwell Freedom Caucus.
Talking about an outside the House caretaker speaker. Mitt Romney is mentioned! Judy Woodruff: “Sounds like a Hollywood movie.”
Caretaker?
Jager
My niece is married to a brilliant young doc. He finished his 2nd residency a year ago and got a great job for big money. They were looking at houses, the house he fell in love with was 800k. My niece said, “We can’t afford it.” (she handles the money and has for as long as they’ve been married) Young doc said, “We can too, I make $$$$ now.” My niece said, “Yes you do but we have 200k in student loans to pay off.” Young doc didn’t get it at all. She emailed the other day and told me “Ben Carson’s idiocy doesn’t surprise me at all.” Of course she’s a dirty little hippie girl.
Chris
The bottom line: Republicans have spent forty years or so convincing themselves and as many people as they can that they live in a world that has no resemblance whatsoever to the world they actually live in, and this is a head-on collision between dream-world and real-world.
Would that members of the media did this more often and on more topics. I’d love to see Republican budget-cutters cornered in front of a chart of the entire federal budget, and explain how the fuck they’re going to do the kind of massive budget cuts they’re promising when foreign aid and food stamps are barely a drop in the bucket instead of the enormous drain they portray it as. So, Doctor Carson, which will you be cutting? Social Security, Medicare, or the beleaguered, underfunded Defense Department which no one’s allowed to cut because Teh Troops are Keeping Us Safe and Why Do You Hate America, Anyway?
SFAW
@redshirt:
We got it the first three times, in case you were wondering.
Elizabelle
@redshirt: No.
A guy
Lol! Carson doesn’t know the debt limit. Neither do any of the current folks in dc
MomSense
This song is too good for the Republicans but it’s perfect for the rest of us.
Here’s to the US blue in 2016 and the Republicans lonesome.
ETA link didn’t work. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhm_R6NrAhI
gene108
@Sherparick:
Reading up on the Masters of the Universe during the financial crisis, they basically view being American as an accident of birth and if the USA is no longer convenient they can move elsewhere.
The only thing is a U.S. debt default will be felt around the world and there’s nowhere to hide.
But I guess they feel it is better to rule in a ruined system than “serve” in a functional one, which is why they abandoned Democrats after giving Dems their support in 2008, when things were spiraling out of control.
Edit: And pulled the support in 2009, when Democrats proposed reforms to protect them from themselves.
redshirt
@SFAW: Which three times?
Elie
The neuro or any surgeon is a technician. Having patients do well is a team effort. Successful neurosurgery of course requires tremendous technical, manual operative skills but it would all be for naught without a skilled anesthesiologist and other neurosurgical assistants including (ta-ta) damned good nursing. The chief rarely opens the patient or closes, but comes in for specific parts (obviously the parts requiring the most delicate dissection and surgical manipulation). Once things are “in control” they not infrequently step away and break scrub (obviously patient has to be doing well). They live in a narrow world and really do not get out much into the real world. Physicians have not infrequently been infamous villains in history. There was one in Hitler’s top leadership and there was a Serbian during the Serbo-croation war who was considered a war criminal. Don’t we have a right winged psychiatrist (name escapes me), who spews all kinds of drivel?
Bill Arnold
@Roger Moore:
Does Congress get to chose what bills don’t get paid if they refuse to raise the debt ceiling?
Elizabelle
Vin Weber just told PBS viewers there is no big philosophical divide in the GOP caucus. It’s just strategy. Some of them want to engage Obama more directly.
Wasn’t watching the screen, but assume he said it with a straight face.
Remember Vin Weber? Wasn’t he a close Gingrich colleague, one of the 90s radicals?
Chris
@gene108:
Reading the comments sections of a few right wing blogs in the aftermath of 2008, I saw quite a few commenters who said they were begging the rich to Go Galt, to leave this ungrateful failed American experiment to sink in its socialism like it deserved to, and take their brilliance to some other place where superhuman exceptionalism like theirs was still valued.
Yeah, the 2008 crisis and Obama’s election opened my eyes to quite a few things, among them just how far the serf ethic goes in much of the American public. (I mean, it’s one thing to be a cynical asshole who thinks the rich can’t be fought and trying will only make it worse. It’s quite another to be such a pathetic groupie for them that you think it’s right, that they’re virtuous and awesome, and are actually begging them to do destroy your world in divine retribution).
Elizabelle
Vin Weber admits the party is in a bit of chaos. Says people are angry; they want a change of the status quo. Says Trump is just a series of attitudes.
Now circles back: the Democrats aren’t in good shape either. They are the status quo.
Whatevs.
Loretta Lynch up now to talk about police involved shootings.
redshirt
@Bill Arnold:
Yes. Payments can be prioritized. One assume foreign and corporate debt would be paid first, with social security and the rest picking up what ever is left.
Elizabelle
Don’t have any tire rims and anthrax in the house at present, but would tip a glass to Sean Hannity for starting this whole McCarthy debacle. Or hastening it.
Cocktail time …..
Bill Arnold
@redshirt:
Are there prioritization laws in place for dealing with a failure to raise the debt ceiling?
MomSense
@Elizabelle:
Cheers!
redshirt
@Bill Arnold: Good question. I don’t know. I assume it’s organized like bankruptcy payments, with certain debtors ranked above others. I don’t know though.
John Revolta
@David Koch: Interesting. You got a source on this?
cermet
Sadly, this lack of real knowledge is far more common among so-called “doctors” (i.e. MD’s) than not from what I’ve seen. Tragically, surgeons are even worse (the few I’ve talked too.) Hope my experience is not the rule.
.
Brachiator
@Bobby Thomson:
True dat. As a presidential candidate he is hopeless.
But I have heard supposed veteran journalists confuse the federal debt and the federal deficit.
And once the ABC pundits, Cokie and somebody else got exasperated when Krugman tried to explain why spending on infrastructure might be a good thing. Finally, Cokie got fed up and spoke truth to power of ignorance, exclaiming that nobody on the Hill really cared about economics.
But Carson also speaks with and for many religious fundamentalists, who think that all the economics you need can be found in the Bible. Just tithe your 10 percent as a government flat tax, and everything will be OK. To this he adds the standard 19th century gold standard mindset.
As an aside, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were genius at political science, but were both morons when it came to political economy. Alexander Hamilton probably wanted to hit them upside the head.
Roger Moore
@Redshift:
I think they’re probably right. It’s just that people who like the idea of smaller government in the abstract don’t necessarily like smaller government when it gets down to cutting specific programs. It’s always somebody’s ox getting gored. So they talk about the need to reduce the size of the government in the abstract but never cut too much because they’ll get punished for it. Instead, they’re trying to foment a crisis that can be blamed on both sides, with stuff getting cut as a necessary step to getting out of it. The hope is that they can avoid the blame that way.
WereBear
Love it.
? Martin
@redshirt: Generally Congress doesn’t get to do that, rather the Treasury does. Presumably if Congress were able to issue a prioritization schedule (an active effort), they’d be able to raise the debt limit.
Unfortunately the problem with prioritization is that US Treasuries mature constantly, but we generally only collect revenue (taxes, excises, etc) on specific days. On the days that the bonds mature, we have zero cash, so nothing gets paid. The Social Security Trust Fund is invested in US Treasuries, so all investors are equally screwed.
It’s unlike a bankruptcy liquidation where there are some assets to distribute with a fight over who should be made more whole than others. There’s typically nothing to distribute in this case, so everyone gets nothing.
Alternatively – and this is what the Treasury does as part of their ‘extraordinary efforts’ – is they start juggling their bills and payments in such a way to defer things as long as possible. Congress presumably could step in and sort of pre-default, and tell Treasury to exclude some recipients (such as SS) during these exercises in order to keep foreign investors paid, but this presents two problems:
1) Again it presumes Congress could come to some agreement, which a debt limit suggests cannot be done.
2) It broadcasts not just that the US is unable to pay bills, but is actively unwilling to because some body of elected officials took the time to pre-emptively default, even when there was money to pay out others. In other words, the mere act of doing this makes the problem much, much worse because it moves from what is presumably an unavoidable crisis to a deliberate, planned strategy. You could be assured that some investor would never return, which would drive your bond yields up. It’d cost us a lot in the long term.
SFAW
@redshirt:
You at 31
Bobby Thomson at 37
You again at 41
SiubhanDuinne
@redshirt:
Your comments at #31, #41, and #46.
ETA: Sorry, SFAW.
Schlemazel
@Elizabelle:
Vinny was considered a “moderate” he only stayed lone enough to get a fat consulting gig. He was ffrom the district of another famous brain surgeon, Batshit Bachmann!
Citizen Alan
@Elizabelle:
I made the comment earlier today in response to Charles Pierce listing off the bios of the membership that “Freedom Caucus” is what George Orwell would have called the Legion of Doom if he’d been a scriptwriter for the Superfriends.
David Koch
@John Revolta: of course I do – presto
SFAW
@Chris:
It wasn’t just wingnuts – I used to “suggest” that they take their self-important asses out of here, so that the rest of us could get some productive work done, without thinking the world owes us 100 times more than we put into it. (Or, for some MOTUs, 1,000,000X their generously-overestimated actual contribution.) There was one asshole I especially hated, I think he Youtubed under the name TigerHawk; his self-congratulatory bullshit – this was well before “makers and takers” became a common term – was such a load of horseshit that I couldn’t stand to watch him for more than a couple of minutes.
Anyway: there are very few – if ANY – MOTUs whose leaving would create a noticeable loss, never mind anything from which we couldn’t recover.
Bill Arnold
@? Martin:
Wouldn’t the (or some previous) President need to sign it first?
David Koch
It’s hilarious and at the same time sickening watching the media describe Darrell Issa and Jason Chaffetz as moderates because they’re not part of the
FreedomTaliban Caucus.SFAW
@David Koch:
Doesn’t mean it was Romney (or his staff) bankrolling it. Might be the Rethug equiv of the Third Way (or whatever those “centrist Dem” idiots call themselves).
SFAW
@SiubhanDuinne:
Don’t sweat it, young lady.
redshirt
@SFAW: @SiubhanDuinne: Cool. I’m glad folks are paying attention.
Brachiator
@Thoughtful Today:
How often does this happen after a surgery? How often is there a bad outcome to the patient? Not that oopsies are a good thing, but just wondering.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@redshirt: Nope. There are no established rules for what gets prioritized if the debt ceiling is breached. If Congress wants some, they’re going to have to actually pass them and not have them vetoed. There have been lots of claims by conservatives that the president would have to direct the money to this or that, but they don’t have any laws to cite to back them up, just vague hand waving at the Constitution.
? Martin
@Bill Arnold: Exactly. It’s not that there isn’t a process to do it, it’s that it’s impossible to see a way that process could actually play out.
Perhaps if you had the GOP in control of the WH and both branches it could happen, but even then I don’t see how the spending authorization could make it through the process but the debt limit raise be deliberately denied.
[Edit] Actually, the debt limit is a check against a rogue President and in that circumstance Congress could authorize a schedule for how the budget would be doled out, presumably with a veto-proof majority. At this point you’d have the same level of support for impeachment and removal from office, so even here I don’t see it happening.
? Martin
@Brachiator:
Too often. This is a non-story.
John Revolta
@David Koch: Lord have mercy.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Brachiator:
Fixed that for you. Hamilton thought that both Jefferson and Madison were dangerous (a sentiment that was mutual) and the fact that they both had no idea what monetary policy was, let alone how it worked, was one of the reasons.
Joel
@JCJ: applies to neurobiology, too: studying the brain makes you smarter, don’t you know?
Elizabelle
@MomSense: Cheers backatcha. Just walked a neighborhood dog and prepared a libation.
JustRuss
So, he’s taking a page from Carly’s senatorial campaign playbook?
WereBear
It is a compelling metaphor to equate it to the family budget and checkbook. It’s just totally wrong.
JustRuss
@Brachiator:
Can we get zombie Al Hamilton to pay Carson a visit?
Bill Arnold
@? Martin:
OK, I was gaming it out similarly and didn’t see a path (with probability significantly > 0) through it either.
It’s pretty scary that more people aren’t freaking out about this.
azlib
@dmsilev:
I guess at that point in time, all those special SS Treasury Bonds would be worthless.
cmorenc
@John Cole:
In fact, it IS legitimate to do just that. It’s called filing for bankruptcy – but that move comes with some rather large downsides, such as – your credit is absolutely shot for several years, and you may find that some debts are not dischargeable and can’t simply be walked away from with the wave a magic want from a Federal Bankruptcy Judge. Consider also how several of your fellow GOP Presidential candidates are prominently using the 4x bankruptcies of various corporations controlled by Donald Trump as a sledgehammer with which to tarnish his image.
A guy
Lol at how scared u folks are of an educated black man who values life and is anti abortion.
Chris
@SFAW:
Well, I presume any plan to “go Galt” with these guys would take the form of gutting whatever companies they’re involved in running and jumping ship with a golden parachute made out of these companies’ profits and their employees’ retirement benefits. They’d find a way to cause damage. (Still, the simple fact of not having so many coddled, superwealthy sociopaths fucking up our political system might make it worth it all the same).
BobS
Several other surgical specialties — vascular, hand, ENT, maxillofacial, ophthalmology, cardiothoracic (especially peds) — have the reputation for requiring a higher degree of virtuosity than neuro. On the other hand, the neurosurgery residency is widely considered to be the most difficult.
Elie
@BobS:
The specialty with the most smarty pants (supposedly) are the ophthalmologists. Pretty technical, draws the smartest kids in med school classes. I personally liked scrubbing and circulating on ortho, maxillofacial and plastics (reconstructive). Personality wise, these were the most “normal” GU also (genitourinary) Neurosurgery and cardiovascular have long long long cases and though exciting in their way, had long periods of low activity (not unimportant times, but boy, could I get cold). Anesthesia – a critically important specialty, is characterized by some as 98% boredom and 2% pure terror. People have no idea how much their successful results are due to that specialty.
EthylEster
@redshirt:
no. sometimes he just doesn’t pay attention.
Elie
@Elie:
In neurosurgery, anesthesia has responsibility for controlling the swelling of the brain. This is YUGE because too much swelling not only can kill the patient, but makes it difficult to operate. They manage the patient’s ventilation, fluids and drugs to accomplish this. If the patient crashes, they largely run things. The 2% pure terror for them is that when things go bad during surgery, they are usually pretty harrowing …
Gin & Tonic
@Elie: A close friend is an opthalmologist. He said the key factors for him in selecting that specialty are that you operate sitting down, and your patients don’t die. He does happen to be a really bright guy.
celticdragonchick
@Sherparick:
An addiction demon with a giant metal dildo from American Horror Story?
Kay
I think it’s such a bad sign when people get away with things like this.
He’s a Presidential candidate and he’s simply not going to admit that he had no idea what he was talking about. It’s like one of those horrible experiences you have at work, where you realize a person who is supposed to know something has no clue and you wonder how it happened and how they get away with it. It’s just incredibly dispiriting even on that small scale because you’re thinking “is this just a fucking game and there are people who succeed by just brazenly denying, denying, denying?”
I think it’s weirdly bad for general morale, in some way. You’re thinking “okay, if this is the game then I’m playing it too, because, why bother?”
Elie
@Gin & Tonic:
LOL– sound like good reasons to me!
PurpleGirl
@Villago Delenda Est: When I worked for Matthew Bender (legal publisher) their warehouse was in New Jersey. One day a year the NYC office staff was bused to the warehouse to help take a physical inventory. They also provided lunch and a break at mid-day so we could sit outside and enjoy some sun while having lunch. It was on a day during the regular work week, so we were paid for it as it was a regular work day. Actually, it was interesting. They paired each office staffer with a warehouse staffer to help with the counting. My warehouseman was an older gentleman who treated me like his daughter. But it was a regular work day.
Elie
@Kay:
I agree with you, Kay. Its very – well – demoralizing. You would expect someone to be running for President to take it seriously as the impact on our national community is so big and important. Additionally, you expect a man of his reputation and stature, to, at the end of the day, show evidence of the esteem that we want to hold him in. That he insults us with literally showing disdain for holding an office that we respect and look to for inspiration as well as true leadership is just a slap in the face! They think (the Trumps, Bush, etc) that they can completely insult those of us who seek their leadership by demonstrating their contempt for the office and the process, but then, turn it around if elected to command our respect? It doesn’t work that way!
I know that they Republicans have been pretty successful in disrupting our political process to date. But they don’t offer anything worthwhile in the end, and the disruption they present will be rejected and despised.
Its still hard to accept for me — all this because a black man was elected. Really? Really.
Kay
@Elie:
I just find those episodes really awkward and reading that I get the same feeling. I want the person to admit they don’t know what they’re talking about, especially people with prestigious jobs, because I feel like they can afford to admit they’re wrong. The prestigious job gives them the leeway to do that, where someone who was a little lower on the ladder might be too vulnerable to admit error easily.
On Dr. Carson’s appeal more generally (and you and I have talked about this before) I am mystified. Nearly everything he says is nasty. Every quote I read from him is attacking an individual or a whole group of people.
I am baffled why people seem to believe he is this kind and gentle “healer”- ignore the soft voice and the calm delivery and he’s Sarah Palin, as far as content.
Elie
@Kay:
I have found that in my career, those with high prestige are never able to admit even any uncertainty, much less lack of knowledge. Worse, I have witnessed some of these folks take revenge on people in the team who were able to solve a problem, because it made them look deficient. Of course, that means that folks who witnessed that revenge would thereafter watch the ship go down on a project rather than say anything that could be construed as being “uppity”. Knowing what to say and how to say it to these very fragile egos was never something that I was good at… I had so much stress and anxiety that it literally made me sick. So my experience in corporate America was about survival in minefield of very insecure “experts”. Very few get promoted from within because you are a threat … best to get hired in from the outside.
Carson has a heart of ice. He is worse than Palin — less emotional… This man could run death camps and smile. Did you see/hear him laugh after he talked about having people rush a man with a gun — that at least some of “us” would live? Did you hear him recount the story of having a gun in his ribs at a Popeye and informing the gunman that the person he wanted was behind the counter? This guy “jes aint right” — I believe that the more he talks over the next weeks, the more that will be apparent. He is unable to see what others see, so he does not know how to “correct” his statements or prevent himself from saying bad things up front. He can only correct after the fact — after “normal” people tell him he fked up and needs to fix it.
Cervantes
@JPL:
Re Urban Outfitters: that’s just great.
Cervantes
@Schlemazel:
It is alleged, and they both deny it — but I will say that they (would) make a lovely couple.
jonas
At this point I’m not sure if Carson really is this stupid, or just afraid if he cops to “knowing” things, his base will write him off as too uppity with his fancy-pants booklarnin’ and all.
But seriously, the RWNJ version of this is that we don’t need to default if the debt limit isn’t raised, because Congress will then be forced to just cut other expenditures to the extent that we can pay our full debt obligations without actually borrowing more. Apparently it hasn’t struck them yet that suddenly slashing federal spending across the board by 20% might be a wee bit, shall we say, “Armagheddony,” economically, socially, and politically-speaking. But maybe that’s what they’re shooting for. They are batshit insane apocalyptic death-cultists, after all.
Cervantes
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Why on earth would you think that?
boatboy_srq
Late to the thread, I know…
… But it strikesme that Carson isn’t saying he wouldn’t pay the creditors, but that he wouldn’t approve a budget that didn’t fix the debt at what’s currently owed. In the family household model, he’d allow the cars to be repo’d, cease all food purchases besides ramen and mac’n’cheese, and cut the kids’ allowances (and suggest they find a paper route or something). And he’d cut up the cards so nobody could go out and charge more.
If this were an actual family, Carson would shortly be divorced and facing jail time for child neglect (if not outright abuse) – but since this is the federal budget we’re discussing he’s being “responsible.”
Paul in KY
I can’t believe this nimrod came out with his ‘Brave Sir Robin’ story about pointing to the food worker, when he was held up!! Man, he’s just given anyone a great campaign commercial to use against him.
This guy is not ready for prime time.
Paul in KY
@Roger Moore: Spend all of the money on ‘defense’, so there’s not any left over for the hippy stuff.
Paul in KY
@redshirt: Hey now, I can’t help it if you guys continually post good threads after I leave work!!! Surely you want to know my opinions on these momentous topics?!
Paul in KY
@A guy: Oh, I can assure you we’re not scared a bit of young-proud Mr. Carson. I think every day his opponents get less & less scared of him.
Paul in KY
@Elie: Think you are correct in your assessment of Brave Sir Ben.