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Tag Archives: US Economy

A Government Shutdown has been averted, but the Debt Ceiling has not been raised

01 Friday Oct 2021

Posted by michelinewalker in The Debt Ceiling, United States

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

an Assault on Democracy, Charles Schumer, debt ceiling crisis, Mitch McConnell, politicking, US Economy

© Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer walks to the Senate floor following Senate passage of a stopgap funding bill to prevent a government shutdown in the U.S. Capitol Washington, D.C., Sept. 30, 2021.
© Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell walks into the U.S. Capitol ahead of a vote on a continuing budget resolution in Washington, D.C., Sept. 30, 2021.

—ooo—

Opinion by Jennifer Rubin (The Washington Post)

“We are supposed to avoid questioning our political opponents’ motives. We are supposed to credit them with loving the United States as much as we do. We are supposed to assume they are patriotic and rational. But what if a high percentage of Republicans care more about destroying a Democratic president than avoiding a debt debacle? What if they care more about conjuring up fear of “tyranny” than protecting the lives of children? What if they care more about returning their cult leader to power than they do preserving the sanctity of elections?”

The above is an excerpt from an article written by journalist Jennifer Rubin and published in the Washington Post on 29 September 2021.

A Funding Stopgap

The Republicans have agreed to fund the government until December.

“The funding stopgap sustains federal agencies’ existing spending until December 3, at which point Congress must adopt another short-term fix, called a continuing resolution, or pass a dozen appropriations bills that fund federal agencies through the 2022 fiscal year.”(The Washington Post)

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stated that lawmakers should abolish legislation that constitutes a “potential threat of a U.S. default.”

“Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday said lawmakers should abolish the legal limit on how much treasury can borrow to meet the federal government’s payment obligations, pushing lawmakers to eliminate the potential threat of a U.S. default.” (The Washington Post)

“U.S. default this fall would cost 6 million jobs, wipe out $15 trillion in wealth, study says.“ (Washington Post)

Lawmakers should indeed eliminate legislation that can be used to jeopardize the economy of the United States and divide an administration, Republican or Democrat. The Republican Party’s opposal to a rise in the debt ceiling allows a profound erosion of a President’s ability to protect the people of the United States. The campaign is over. Joe Biden is the duly-elected President of the United States, but the Republicans are tying his hands.

The United States cannot default on its debt. So, yesterday’s events seem a game.

Republicans oppose debt limit hike after supporting increases under Trump (washingtonpost.com)←video

What is the debt ceiling and why is Congress arguing over it again? (washingtonpost.com)←video

RELATED ARTICLES

  • A Government Shutdown has been averted, but the Debt Ceiling has not been raised (1 October 2021)
  • Politicking the Welfare of a Nation (28 September 2021)
  • Mostly Covid-19: the Sleep of Reason (25 September 2021)

© Micheline Walker
1 October 2021
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The Art of Destructiveness

06 Thursday Oct 2011

Posted by michelinewalker in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on The Art of Destructiveness

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anti-tax extremism, commonality, democracy, G. K. Chesterton, nationhood, obstructionism, social programs, The Tea Party, US Economy, WordPress

Occasionally, WordPress suggests topics to blog about.  Destructiveness, or something to that effect, is one of these topics.

What I am seeing at the moment is a nation, namely the US, who has a fine administration, but where Tea Party members and hardline Republicans are putting obstacles in the path of this administration in the naïve expectation that getting rid of the Democrats will magically eliminate America’s economic woes.

First, the current administration had nothing to do with the debt.  That debt was incurred by a former administration (who had inherited a surplus by the way) and it would still be there the morning after a Republican administration might, to the consternation of most of the rest of the world, be voted into office.

It appears to most observers that the world would prefer not to deal with a parochial and intellectually weak Republican administration.

So pay the debt and support President Obama’s stimulus package.  Republicans messed up America and should be charged to pay for the clean-up.

But, don’t expect miracles.  Given the size of the problem; given also anti-tax extremism, the problem will not be fixed overnight.

Second, Tea Party members and hardline Republicans don’t really care about the people, and, by extension, about their country.  They only care about the rich citizens who fund their election campaigns. If they cared for the nation, anti-tax extremism would disappear.  If they cared, the US would have a comprehensive social program.  If they cared, these elected officials would repair the harm caused by natural disasters and rebuild New Orleans.  If they cared, there would be food on every table.  If they cared, at least certain jobs would be repatriated and many more would be created.  If they cared, veterans would be employed and suitably housed.  If they cared, they would respect the duly-elected President of the United States and work with his administration at improving the lot of the common man instead of making the rich richer. Finally, if they really cared, America might actually be a genuine democracy.

G.  K. Chesterton (1874-1936) writes that in a democracy, first, “the things common to all men are more important than the things peculiar to any men.”  Second, in a democracy “the political instinct or desire is one of these things which they hold in common.” [1]

But they don’t care.  Obstructionism is a game and, given what is at stake, the survival of America and the health of global markets, it’s an unacceptable game.

Where could I find a better example to shed light upon destructiveness?

*   *   *

October 6, 2011


[1] Gilbert K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, “The Ethics of Elflandˮ (New York:  Dodd, Mead and Company, 1943), pp. 82-83.

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The Short Term and the Long Term

10 Saturday Sep 2011

Posted by michelinewalker in United States

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Al Gore, democracy, President Lincoln, President Obama's lucidity, putting bread on the table, rescue mission, stimulus package, the world is watching, US Economy, WordPress

Last night, I watched President Obama’s speech and I listened very carefully.

Allow me to underscore the importance of passing the stimulus package that President Obama is recommending and to point out that the funds he requires will be helpful not only in the short term, but also in the long term.  His proposal should be viewed as an investment in the US economy that will benefit future generations.

Let me explain.  If you could prevent the death of the 1,500 or more people who died when the Titanic sank, would you sit in complete inertia or would you enter into a rescue mission even if it meant taking risks?

So it is at present with the United States of America.  President Obama is asking his nation to engage in a rescue mission, in which he is doing his duty as President.  In the short term, approving another stimulus package may, to some, seem ill advised, but it truly isn’t.  This stimulus package is in fact necessary.  For instance, would Americans consider saving money by not providing former President Bush and President Obama with the personal security they will need during this weekend’s commemoration of the brutal events of 9/11.

There will be a cost surely, but protecting Presidents is part of running a nation.  And, as I have noted, one should look not only at the short term issues, but also at the long term benefits of the stimulus package that President Obama is requesting.  The  stimulus package will be an investment in the US economy and, at the moment, the US economy requires the biggest financial boost it has needed since the Great Depression or otherwise face a truly dreadful and unacceptable alternative:  perdition.  In fact, is there an alternative?

Under the previous Republican administration, the US sought “dominance” and now, to quote Al Gore (The Assault on Reason, Penguin Books, p. 160), it must seek the “preeminence” it once had and rally behind its leader.

Make no mistake, the world is watching, particularly China, and the world will not willingly allow the US to disintegrate because some narrow-minded Tea Party members are fabricating electoral opportunities engineered to sabotage President Obama’s upcoming re-election campaign.  The current Republican Congress dallies on passing necessary spending bills, hoping it can impute the harm they are causing on the current administration and, thereby, bring it down at the next election.  That is no way to seek power, if power is the appropriate term, and it will not work.  Not only is the nation watching, but, given new technologies, the world can tell easily and immediately that the Tea Party is obviously playing silly and frivolous Nixonian games.

In fact, as I have written in a previous blog, if the world still has any confidence in the United States, it is largely because the current administration can be trusted.  The world has little regard for the likes of Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, Arianna Huffington, Ann Coulter and their ilk.  They and other hardline Republicans are being ridiculed everywhere, except within the narrow confines of their dogmatic meeting places.

The world knows, in other words, that a previous administration dipped into the average American’s purse and that, when there was no money left, it made a hole in the bottom of the purse.  And the world also knows there was no need for two wars during which the United States of America saw fit to torture prisoners, in blatant violation of the Geneva Convention.  Most of the prisoners it tortured were apparently innocent of any wrongdoing.

There are times when Presidents must take extraordinary actions.  But former President Bush should have known “just how far one can go too far” (Jean Cocteau, quoted in a previous blog).  With all due respect, former President Bush went too far.

However, let former President Bush live out his retirement in comfort and dignity.  9/11 led to a great many short-sighted actions.  It was a horrible and destabilizing event.  But there were consequences, and one should think of the consequences.  As a result of the former President’s actions, America now has a staggering national debt.  Nevertheless, allowing this debt to impede proper stewardship in Washington would be injudicious, and not mildly so, but in the extreme.

Why should the current administration not do its work because a previous administration blatantly misappropriated the Clinton surplus it had inherited?  The stimulus the current administration is asking for is money needed to provide the services that the nation needs.  It is not money the current administration will use recklessly.  It is money needed to run a country, in other words, the money needed to put food on the table of American families, not only now but, hopefully, for a very long time:  i.e. the long term.

Therefore, please think of the long-term benefits of investing in the United States of America’s economy and pass this stimulus bill.  And also pass an extension of the Transportation Bill as well as an extension of unemployment benefits.

There are some fine Republican representatives.  Actually, I saw one rise and applaud during the President’s address, but there were far too many, the majority, who sat looking like wax museum versions of themselves.  The world saw these lifeless individuals, but it has been reassured that the President will now go to the people and the people need jobs and stability.  They will listen intently to him.

Democracy is not an easy form of government.  It requires vigilant and informed citizenship.  It requires citizens who will take their fate into their own hands and no longer elect into office representatives who do not care about the nation, self-serving representatives.  There has to be change and change there will be.

Let me quote Mr Gore once again.  Al Gore writes that “[w]hen Lincoln declared at the time of our [the fledging nation] greatest crisis that the ultimate question being decided in the Civil War was ‘whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure.’ (p. 159)”

President Abraham Lincoln, writes Gore, was “not only saving our Union, but also recognizing the fact that democracies are rare in history.  And when they fail […] what emerges in their place is another strong-man regime. (p. 160)”  Make it official:  the Civil War is over, there is no slavery nor segregation, the United States is leaving Iraq responsibly, and the United States has elected to the Presidency a gentleman who did not once look at notes when he addressed the nation?  Try it yourself.  President Obama’s lucidity is amazing.

In the short term, the amount of stimulus money the current administration requires to save the nation may seem high.  But in the long term, that amount of money will seem much smaller. History will put the stimulus package in the context that will give it its proper dimensions, and give it sense.

A good nation, the most powerful nation on earth, has to have a soul, a conscience, and must, therefore, ensure the country is operative.

September 9, 2011

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The Damage so far

29 Friday Jul 2011

Posted by michelinewalker in United States

≈ Comments Off on The Damage so far

Tags

confidence, Fareed Zakaria, hypocrisy, uncertainty, US Economy

CNN’s Fareed Zakaria is absolutely right.  The damage has already been done.

It’s a matter of confidence.   We have watched Republicans dither as America sits on the brink of a disaster that will also harm other countries.

I see hypocrisy, not to mention amnesia.  A Republican administration let the rich get away with paying little, if any, taxes and then created two wars.  They ran up a staggering bill.  So, on what grounds can they dither, creating a crisis, when they are the ones who failed to keep a balanced budget?

Indeed, the damage has been done.  The Republicans are creating uncertainty, thereby destabilizing global markets and worrying innocent citizens, some of whom are disabled soldiers, veterans of Bush’s wars.  If the fools among Republicans do not come to their senses, there will be greater hardship at a time when the nation was beginning to mend and to gain greater respect among nations.

Elected representatives who are senseless and insensitive should be driven out of Washington.  Moreover, it may be necessary to require that future candidates present their credentials before they run for office.  Washington does not need  incompetent decision makers and lawmakers.

Just in case, my reader doesn’t know, Congress has raised the debt ceiling seventy-seven times, mostly unnoticed.   So why should things be different?   Of all abominations, President Obama’s ratings are going down.  Yet President Obama is not to blame.

In other words, stop bickering, raise the debt ceiling and, if you are a senseless Republican, leave office promptly.   In the eyes of those who want Americans to live in a just society, a society that can be trusted, you cannot possibly disappear fast enough.  You are the “big government” you attack in an effort to blind people.

There are a lot of very competent Americans, Americans who put nation ahead of petty ambitions.  One of them is President Obama.   Don’t give it a thought, you can be replaced.

So raise the debt ceiling and contain the damage.

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A Great Favour

28 Thursday Jul 2011

Posted by michelinewalker in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on A Great Favour

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US Economy

How is it that Americans voted in individuals, i. e. Republicans, who are now hindering the very survival of their nation?  Look at them.  They are still politicking as the ship sinks and companies are taking their business elsewhere.

The world rejoiced when Americans elected as President a person who was intellectually prepared to face and fix the mess left behind by the previous administration and a person who was sensitive to the needs of the poor and of the rapidly vanishing middle-class.  Yet, no sooner was Obama in office that a group of US citizens started to listen to the likes of Sarah Palin and joined the Tea party.

Let us be realistic.  President Obama is not asking Congress to raise America’s debt ceiling so that he and fellow Democrats can put money in the pockets of the rich.  This is what someone else did.   If President Obama is asking Congress to raise the debt ceiling, it is because America is about to drown and injure others in the process.  The current economy is a global economy.

In short, if Congress does not raise America’s debt ceiling, it remains my opinion that President Obama should issue an executive order that will save the US economy. He would be doing you and us a great favour.  However, I am inclined to think that many do not deserve such a favour and that the world should henceforth distrust the “greatest nation on earth.”

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First things first: President Obama’s address

26 Tuesday Jul 2011

Posted by michelinewalker in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on First things first: President Obama’s address

Tags

nationhood, President Obama, Republicans, US Economy

In last night’s address to his nation and to the world, President Obama made it perfectly clear that the US could not default on its financial obligations.  One has to pay one’s debt and, in the case of America’s current debt, not raising the President’s debt ceiling might bring disaster.  Kindly remember the Great Depression.  Well, it could be that it will seem a mere dress rehearsal compared to the harm generated by defaulting on the country’s immediate financial responsiblities.

There can be no doubt that the US needs to make changes to its spending priorities.  Moreover, it must tax the affluent.  However, first things first.  The US cannot default on its debt.  We are looking at an impending economic crisis of such magnitude that it leaves little room, if any, for politicking.  The time has come for several Republicans to rethink the concept of nationhood.  If they fail to do so, let them leave Washington and suffer at leisure the consequences of their own ill-considered actions.

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On raising the debt limit

25 Monday Jul 2011

Posted by michelinewalker in Uncategorized

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

US Economy

I believe President Obama has no choice but to issue an executive order raising the credit limit in order to save his nation’s economy. If his country will not help him, let him help his country.
He will be in excellent company. President Lincoln and President Franklin D. Roosevelt, not to mention President Ronald Reagan, resorted to extraordinary measures when extraordinary measures were essential. They were white, which may have helped, but Americans knew whom they were electing when they chose Obama as their President.  They have now changed history, forever.

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