Rational Nation USA
Purveyor of Truth
Is anybody, and I mean ANYBODY in either party really serious about controlling the explosive rate of debt growth we have experienced since the 2008/2009 meltdown? I really think not.
Mitch McConnell talking to Chris Wallace about raising the debt ceiling.
Below the fold THINKPROGRESS weighs in. Content as expected from a far left publication.
Meanwhile, over at CBS and Bob Schieffer's FACEtheNATION Ted Cruz chimed in and actually made a bit of sense. Assuming of course he, and anyone else is really concerned with debt control or reduction.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, now, just a minute. Just a minute. The government is approaching another deadline February 7, when it will run out of money unless Congress agrees to raise the debt ceiling. Will you agree to raise the debt ceiling, or will you demand something in return.
SEN. TED CRUZ: Look, of course, we should do something. We shouldn't just write a blank check. Five years ago, the national debt was ten trillion dollars. That took 43 presidents over 200 years to build up ten trillion dollars in debt. Today, it's over 17 trillion dollars. It's grown nearly 70% with one president in five years.
And if you ask any American outside of Washington, "Should we just keep raising the debt ceiling while doing nothing, to have fundamental structural controls on spending to get Washington's spending problem under control," it doesn't matter if you're talking to a Republican, a Democrat, an independent, a libertarian.
Anyone outside of Washington says, "Of course." And it's worth noting in the past, the debt ceiling has been the most effective lever point for real structural reforms, whether it was Gramm-Rudman, which did a great job of restricting government spending, getting it under control or whether it was the Budget Control Act.
Both of those came through the debt ceiling. And what the president is saying is he just wants a blank credit card to keep growing and growing the debt, and I think that's irresponsible. I think it's irresponsible to our kids and grandkids to stick that debt on them because we can't live within our means.
We'll just have to wait and see. Both the dems and the repubs are certainly going to paint it in a way that makes their opposing party look bad. It is after American politics and these days the nation herdly ever seems to be the top priority. Of course there is lots more below the fold.
On a most telling note top Presidential advisers are telling the media and the people that the President will work with the Congress when he can but will do an end run around them if he must. Translation, the president will work with Congress when they agree with his agenda but will circumvent Congress when they don't agree with his agenda.
Nothing new there folks, and as noted above, really, no one is concerned about controlling the debt explosion much less in reducing the debt. Certainly not the President.
abcNEWS - President Barack Obama will work with Congress where he can and circumvent lawmakers where he must, his top advisers warned Sunday in previewing Tuesday's State of the Union speech.Sure seems like the battle lines have been drawn, again. It also sounds like the President is in the mood to try the Imperial Ruler route and he may actually try it this time as he and his advisers probably believe he has enough public support to pull it off. You know, to hell with the Constitution and all.
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"I think the way we have to think about this year is we have a divided government," said Dan Pfeiffer, a longtime Obama adviser. "The Republican Congress is not going to rubber-stamp the president's agenda. The president is not going to sign the Republican Congress' agenda."
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"The president sees this as a year of action to work with Congress where he can and to bypass Congress where necessary," White House press secretary Jay Carney said.
"The president has sort of hung out on the left and tried to get what he wants through the bureaucracy as opposed to moving to the political center," said Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the GOP Senate leader.
Added Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.: "It sounds vaguely like a threat, and I think it also has a certain amount of arrogance."
Anyway, there is more below the fold. One thing is certain, the SOTU Address should be interesting and the republican response even more so.
It is truly unfortunate that we exist in the political environment we do today where the interests of the parties and their agenda are continually put ahead of the greater interests of the Nation.
Via: Memeorandum
Via: Memeorandum
Via: Memeorandum
