Probably like many others I’ve been amazed to see the speed and scope of the scandal which has already destroyed The News of the World and threatens to engulf Rupert Murdoch’s entire global News Corp. empire. Today, if you hadn’t heard already, that former PM Gordon Brown was also a target and that other Murdoch papers in the UK (The Sun and The Sunday Times) also participated in these illegal practices.
Now though there are reports that at least The News of the World used its phone hacking practices against American 9/11 victims, which would for the first time give the scandal a clear nexus into the United States. CREW is now calling for an immediate congressional investigation.
There are many things I do not understand about the progress of this so-called debt negotiation. But of many here’s one that perplexes me the most. If Hill Republicans will not allow the government to continue borrowing money beyond the current statutory debt limit, I think there’s probably a decent constitutional argument that the president must shut down parts of the government and many government payments before defaulting on the country’s debt obligations. I’m not saying there’s any force that can compel him to do that. But I can’t see where the constitution doesn’t provide pretty clear guidance on the question. There’s enough money coming into the Treasury to service the payments on the current debt. But if you don’t borrow more money you have to shut down vast amounts of federal outlays. And the most logical places to start are with Social Security payments and Medicare reimbursements. Stuff like cutting Social Security checks in half starting the following week. Read More
Give me a minute to sketch out for you the current state of negotiations on raising the debt ceiling, courtesy of Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), who spoke yesterday with our Brian Beutler. It’s worth your while.
Republicans are insisting that any deal must include spending cuts equal to the additional borrowing authority they grant in raising the debt ceiling. How much is that in dollars? Well, it depends on how much you raise the debt limit.
President Obama wants to raise the debt ceiling enough to give the federal government breathing room into 2013, that way he doesn’t have to face this issue again before the 2012 election. When you do the math, or more precisely when the budget wizards do the math, it turns out you need about a little more than $2 trillion increase in the debt ceiling to last until 2013. So that’s how much in spending cuts Republicans are demanding: a bit north of $2 trillion.
With me so far? Good, because here’s the rich, hair-pulling, you-got-to-be-kidding-me part: Read More
TPM Reader AS:
Why is there anything dumbfounding about the actions of the GOP? It’s the perfect way for them to achieve their policy goals, plus it has a political bonus.
What are their policy goals? They want to eliminate Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. They want to eliminate all discretionary spending: no more EPA, no more Department of Education, no more NIH, etc etc.
They’ve never been able to realize these goals through legislation because when it comes down to it these programs are all very popular. But they might be able to realize them as a matter of fact just by allowing the country to go into default.
Rep. Ron Paul’s 2012 presidential run may be his last hurrah. He’s announced he won’t seek re-election to Congress.
Speaker Boehner says increasing the debt limit is Obama’s problem, not his.
President Obama tells CBS he can’t guarantee Social Security checks will go out August 3rd if Republicans refuse to pass a debt ceiling increase. More in a moment.
Crocodile Tears from Van Hollen over the Boehner defenestration (from this morning’s Morning Joe) …
I don’t want to get the Speaker in trouble. But clearly he was willing to make some tough decisions, some compromises, which is what’s going to be necessary in order to get the deficit and debt under control and get the economy moving again. He clearly had his legs cut out from under him by members of his own caucus. We’re going to have to leave those politics to their caucus. But it’s a huge missed opportunity. I hope they will reconsider. The President made clear that he’s willing to meet them more than half way. This is a time for them to step up and demonstrate some leadership because, as you said, what’s going to happen on August 2 is not a scare tactic. It’s very real.
Here’s the sort of bizarre and funny story about how Jon Huntsman bought back his website URL from some random anti-Huntsman dude who had the bright idea of registering jonhuntsman.com before Huntsman himself thought to do it.
President Obama warns government checks may stop on August 3rd …
“This is not just a matter of Social Security checks. These are veteran’s checks, these are folks on disability and their checks. There are about 70 million checks that go out each month. I can not guarantee that those checks go out on August 3rd if we haven’t resolved this issue. Because there may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it.”
See the video here.