Fear-mongering works, why not try again? This must be the thinking behind Obama's latest attempts to manipulate the new Congress. Austan Goolsbee, chairman of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers, trotted out before the camera's this week to threaten the Republican Congress, saying that if they don't raise the limit on the USA's debt ceiling, the "impact on the economy would be catastrophic."
Goolsbee spun the new lines cooked up in the White House communications office on ABC's "This Week": "If we get to the point where we damage the full faith and credit of the United States that would be the first default in history caused purely by insanity."
The real insanity is to continue to roll up debts we have no hope of paying. Goolsbee's comments are part of a coordinated preemptive plan to blame the new Tea Party Republicans as the economy sputters. When fear reaches high levels, people don't think clearly and this is exactly what Obama is counting on.
The current legal limit on borrowing is $14.3 trillion, and unless the new Republican Congress adopts Obama's proposed higher limit, across the board spending cuts will result. How tragic, if the debt ceiling doesn't pass, politicians will actually have to begin budgeting like adults in Washington.
This is a big test for candidates supported by Tea Party and anti-spending activists. Will they hold to their pledges to rein in government spending? Or, will they adopt the ways of Washington and blink because of Democratic attempts to vilify and marginalize them with their dire threats.
America has only two choices: stop the insane overspending, or dramatically raise taxes to pay for the free spending lawmakers' excesses. There are some great alternatives to raising the debt ceiling. Congress should hold votes to eliminate farm subsidies, abolish the Department of Education, close the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), shut down the Department of Energy, repeal Obamacare, and bring our troops home from places like Japan and Europe.
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America will still have farming with no subsidies. Our communities will still have schools without the Department of Education, not one bureaucrat working there is in a classroom. HUD hasn't built as many homes as Habitat for Humanity. Power plants and oil companies produce energy and they don't depend on the Department of Energy. Obamacare hasn't started yet so we can avoid that new spending hole, and Japan and Germany aren't threatened by the Soviet Empire and the Red Chinese.
If Congress adopts these recommendations we can avoid the need to raise the debt ceiling.
The U.S. has a $1.3 trillion federal budget deficit. Not expanding the debt ceiling is the fastest way to keep Obama from spending us into oblivion and the US dollar from extinction. President Reagan said it does a disservice to drunken sailors to name Congressmen so; at least sailors spend their own money.
Goolsbee said he believes Obama will find common ground with Republicans. Republicans beware.
If they find common ground with these spending maniacs they will find a lack of support in home districts next time they run in a Republican primary. Feeling comfortable in their jobs just because they won in November, they could just as easily be the subject of continued voter backlash if they fail to change the culture in Washington. By changing the culture in Washington, voters mean not voting yes every time the power elite in DC want to increase their deficit expansion powers.
The alleged recovery is a mirage. It comes with the price of trillions of interest payments in the future. Payments Americans cannot afford.
Yes, the suburbs of Washington DC are the most prosperous in the country, but the rest of America is done paying the bills to fund it. This is where most of the "stimulus money" ended up in the hands of government. What meager GNP growth exists is due to this orgy of government spending. Let's hope Congress shows some backbone and stops spending.
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