Credit Bill Too High? Don’t Pay!
George Clooney on democracy
You buy an expensive computer on credit and later think, “That cost too much, so I won’t pay.”
Really?
That’s what anyone who refuses to raise the US debt ceiling is saying.
They are confused.
They think that not raising the debt ceiling means not raising the credit limit. They are actually refusing to pay a debt we’ve already incurred.
If the US refuses to pay their debts for the first time in history, chaos will erupt.
No one will trust us anymore.
And instead of saving money, interest rates will rise, and we’ll end up spending even more. One-month Treasury bill rates are already spiking.
(And, just one week of government shutdown — another matter — cost us $1.6 billion. Yet the deficit-phobe GOP doesn’t care?)
Still, more than half of Republicans think the US can miss the debt-limit deadline without serious trouble.
Most likely, these are the same folks who believed FOXNews reports that Romney would win the White House.
Meanwhile, the refusal to pay our bills is being pushed by economic terrorists.
Elections won’t go your way? Threaten to blow up the economy unless you get what you want.
Al Qaeda once sought to decimate our financial system. Now it’s right-wing extremists.
It’s the far right doing hostage-taking this time. Could be the far left next time.
We should not give terrorists “a win.” Lest we leave democracy and enter a new era of political terrorism.
Tom Friedman at the New York Times worries that what is at stake
is nothing less than the principle upon which our democracy is based: majority rule. President Obama must not give in to this hostage taking… because the future of how we govern ourselves is at stake.
Don’t negotiate with terrorists. It only encourages them.
Related Posts on BroadBlogs
No Longer Blinded by the Right
Right-Wing Hearts Bleed for Kids
Share this:
Posted on October 11, 2013, in politics/class inequality and tagged economic terrorism, government shutdown, hostage-taking, politics/class inequality, Thomas Friedman, US debt ceiling. Bookmark the permalink. 11 Comments.
BroadBlogs 
It is true, the Government Shutdown is a frighteningly large red flag that something is wrong with our system of government. The health care bill had already passed, and the budget in question was unrelated to the healthcare bill. It was simply a way for republicans to get attention and force their side of the issue. The main motivator seems to be avoiding allowing the Democratic Party the feather in their cap during the next election. It is as though the Republicans waged war, refusing to loose a battle and the country shut down and increased debt as casualties. The idea of mutual success and considering the best interests of the country appear to be completely absent from the highest elected leaders. As an American, I find this to be of great concern.
It’s crazy because I had just finished passing my political science class last quarter and my teacher had warned us that something was going to occur by the fall & no one would really know about it until it hits home..
This event clearly hit home, My mother works for USGS and since the govt shut down she’s been home waiting for work to begin again. It’s just saddening to see that we “seemingly” can’t really do anything about it until they figure out what the hell is going to happen over there in the Government. Makes us feel pretty useless and yet we pay the taxes which put all the money in their pockets. It’s becoming a big signal to all the other countries in the world that we are too busy fighting ourselves and putting ourselves in debt, making us look that much weaker in a national power type of way.
The modern GOP is a frightening but sadly real case of extremism and disregard for reality. They shut down the government because they believe that our free market system of healthcare is superior to government coverage (despite the fact that our citizens are less healthy than those in countries with universal healthcare), and they kept it shut down because they believe, as you said, that refusing to raise the debt ceiling is somehow the same as raising the national credit limit. These yearly anti-debt ceiling spiels are particularly ridiculous given that the Republican’s patron saint of small government, Ronald Reagan, raised the debt ceiling 18 times and taxes 11 times (http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-new-party-of-reagan/2011/07/19/gIQAuckfOI_print.html).
The American right wing is growing farther and farther disconnected from reality, and this 17-day national hostage situation is simply the wake-up call the public needed–even Republican voters disapprove of their party’s recent Congressional actions (http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/10/disapproval-of-gop-peaks-in-blame-for-the-budget-crisis/).
I’m glad Obama stood strong against the economic terrorists threatening to blow up our economy unless they got their way.
I believe that our government has made bad decisions and this one of not paying debt interest is definitely one of them. The politicians may feel that this is for the better of the country, but it is just for their personal agenda. We have seen it time and time again where one political party makes decisions in order to stall another and it has made our government a bit of a joke when it comes to making decisions that will affect the citizens the most. It is with the citizens that this decision to not pay, where the consequences will be seen. While the politicians of today retire to their lavish lives set up by them after years of back door deals from the actions they took in office, the average american will be the person with on going financial struggles from the U.S. debt. How can our nation grow and become a better entity in the world of today and tomorrow if we cannot seem to fix the problems that continue to plague us, like this debt crisis?
First off — when corporations and government sleep in bed together ‘we the people’ suffer. And we are suffering. Those in government should absolutely not be receiving pay checks, which by the way, our tax dollars are paying for. Some of us are on furlough, others depend on that social security check as an only means of income and our children need food on the table. Our parks are closed, the streets are not safe, public education is an oxymoron.
Is this really about the debt ceiling or about a primarily male dominated government who wants to see who can piss farther.
A small minority of bullies (tea baggers) are holding this country hostage. Bet they sleep well at night.
Make your voices heard and tell government to get to work and end this lunacy!
Absolutely! Thanks for your perspective.
It’s scary stuff, the whole world will be affected if this isn’t worked out.
Yes. By a mere 40 crazies and a few more who won’t confront them.
President Obama has spent 1.15 times every other President in history – combined. His campaign focused on working with Congress on both sides of the aisle, but all we have heard from him lately is that “nothing is negotiable”…
You must get your news from the same sources that declared Romney would win the election.
Since your information isn’t very good I couldn’t see the point in posting it all, but here is a rebuttal from Forbes:
The Best Kept Secret In American Politics-Federal Budget Deficits Are Actually Shrinking!
Bloomberg News is out with a new poll that reveals an amazing piece of data.
Here is the question that was asked in the survey-
“Let’s turn to the federal budget deficit. This is the amount the government spends that is more than the amount it takes in from taxes and other revenue. Is it your sense that this year the deficit is getting bigger or getting smaller, or is it staying about the same as last year?”
The results?
(a) Sixty-two percent of Americans believe the deficit is getting bigger this year,
(b) twenty-eight percent believe the deficit will remain about the same; and
(c) six percent believe the deficit will shrink
What is the right answer?
If you guessed (c) in the belief that the deficit has shrunk this year, you are one of the six percent who got the answer correct.
[BroadBlogs here: if you look at a graph on this post, you will see that the deficit rose very little under Obama, compared to past presidents. Even the sharp spike at the beginning of his presidency was created under Bush. And a good thing Bush did that, too, since we would be in as bad of shape as austere Europe if we hadn’t spent.]
read more here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2013/02/27/the-best-kept-secret-in-american-politics-federal-budget-deficits-are-actually-shrinking/
Also a Princeton professor and Nobel Laureate in economics demonstrates why getting the deficit down to nothing would actually hurt the economy. The United States didn’t go with austerity but much of Europe did. The parts of Europe that went with austerity did much worse than the United States: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/24/the-depressed-economy-is-all-about-austerity/?_r=0
And as I wrote in my post: don’t negotiate with terrorists. It only encourages them.