Oklahoma is pushing for a special drone aircraft empowerment zone, an 80 mile airspace corridor for drones.
As we move closer to intentionally jettisoning the full faith and credit of the United States and eyeing the pulse of the bond market, we shouldn’t forget one salient fact. The centrality of debt holders in our constitutional order isn’t a bug, it’s a feature. Indeed, the national debt — created through the federal assumption of state war debts — was created to do precisely this: get the holders of bonds, necessarily wealthy and powerful people, to have a vested interest in the fixity and stability of the federal government.
Oregon Democratic Rep. David Wu has announced his resignation amid allegations against of sexual assault, but he says the resignation won’t be effective until the debt ceiling crisis is resolved. Who knows how long that might be.
Through the morning we’ve had endless commentary about last night’s speeches on both sides of the aisle, and a litany of supposedly disinterested pundit commentary, largely amounting to nonsense. But through the morning we’ve also had repeated reports of overwhelmed congressional phone switchboards and websites. Seemingly email boxes too. And yet we’ve had relatively little clarity on who’s calling, emailing and pinging who and what they’re saying. That sounds to me like the big story. But no one has a clear answer. So there’s little discussion of it.
It’s been said many times. But it’s never enough: the conventions of journalistic ‘objectivity’, as currently defined, frequently make journalists violate their biggest duty, which is honesty with readers. The top headline running now on CNN reads: “They’re all talking, but no one is compromising, at least publicly. Democratic and GOP leaders appear unwilling to bend on proposals to raise the debt ceiling.” Read More
GOP demands President Obama pay all Social Security, Defense expenditures and debt payments during default.
Not that it could ever get through the Senate and even the House is in doubt. But President Obama says he’d veto the Boehner plan debt bill if it ever came to his desk.
Why the Boehner plan will have to fail in the House (or even just the Senate) before the debt crisis end game becomes clear.
Assuming this whole debt ceiling doohickey gets worked out soon, we immediately shift to the next government shutdown. Remember the near-shutdown in the spring was over the short-term budget to finish out the fiscal year ending in September. The big budget, the one that really, really matters, still isn’t hammered out yet. So the fun is only just beginning. What a way to run a country.