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Showing posts with label brinkmanship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label brinkmanship. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

What's The Worst That Could Happen? ctd...

July 5th, 2011

Although I generally regard the NY Times' David Brooks to be a hack and an apologist for the Republican Party, there are some signs that reason is creeping into his analyses. He wrote earlier today about the games being played by the far-right in the debt limit debate:

"The members of this movement have no sense of moral decency. A nation makes a sacred pledge to pay the money back when it borrows money. But the members of this movement talk blandly of default and are willing to stain their nation’s honor."

I am in complete agreement with Mr. Brooks on this one.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Consequences, Ctd...

April 18th, 2011

A number of readers responded to my piece on today's S&P warning. Most agreed that the Friday afternoon vote in the U.S. House on Rep Paul Ryan's (R-WI) Path To Poverty was a primary factor. Many were correct in taking me to task for neglecting to mention the very dangerous game-playing by Republicans with regard to raising the debt limit ceiling leading up to the vote and continuing through the weekend. Some noted dryly that the Ryan plan itself would require raising it to well over $19 trillion from it's current level of $14.3 trillion. This does seem to render the rabid opposition to an increase by so many of the Path's supporters absurd. Particularly that of Rep. Ryan.

More than a few also thought it was a terrible omission on my part to look at Friday's vote as the last straw without the context of these revelations...
From Politico 4/13/2011:

"House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has had conversations with top Wall Street executives, asking how close Congress could push to the debt limit deadline without sending interests rates soaring and causing stock prices to go lower, people familiar with the matter said."

Speaker Boehner seems to have implied it's all a game. There are few examples of just how un-serious the GOP is that come close to this. However, one reader brought this gem from Investors Business Daily to my attention; The House GOP seems not to have reconciled the fact that Ryan's plan would be illegal under the equally fabulist Balanced Budget Amendment recently passed by their Senate counterparts.

Our national adventure in decline continues...