(Senator Patrick) Leahy: “I’m not happy with [the Reid/McConnell debt ceiling bill currently being voted on] at all and I’ve made that very clear to the leadership and to the White House. But I also realize what the alternative was and I was pragmatic enough to do that. The easy thing would be to say, ‘Look, I’ll vote against this because it’s not good enough for me.’ Well, the fact is it’s this or default. It’s not the choice one would like but it’s the choice we have.”
Disagreement is one thing. We are entitled to our own opinions, after all – but we are not entitled to our own facts. It is not a fact in any sense of the word that “it’s this or default.” There are numerous other options being floated: unilateral action under the 14th amendment, printing of currency offset by the Fed’s “qualitative easing” activities to make it currency-neutral, the running of an “overdraft” account with the Fed, effectively transferring the debt – and more. Any one of these may or may not work, but that’s the point. What Sen. Leahy dubs a “fact” is anything but.
Not to mention that if it’s really that cut and dried, what is he effectively saying about Senator Sanders and Representative Welch, who oppose the deal? Try and tell them they are choosing default and ingnoring the “facts.”
Need a more knowlegable authority than me? A more qualified economic mind than Sen. Leahy? Here’s economics Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman:
And even now, the Obama administration could have resorted to legal maneuvering to sidestep the debt ceiling, using any of several options. In ordinary circumstances, this might have been an extreme step. But faced with the reality of what is happening, namely raw extortion on the part of a party that, after all, only controls one house of Congress, it would have been totally justifiable.
At the very least, Mr. Obama could have used the possibility of a legal end run to strengthen his bargaining position. Instead, however, he ruled all such options out from the beginning.
But wouldn’t taking a tough stance have worried markets? Probably not. In fact, if I were an investor I would be reassured, not dismayed, by a demonstration that the president is willing and able to stand up to blackmail on the part of right-wing extremists.
I blame in part the “impartial” media who have fostered the idea that somehow both Democrats and Republicans were behaving equally badly in the conflict.
Just this morning, CNN was running a poll as to whether or not “Congress” had acted like children. The obvious answer coming back from the poll was that, yes, they had acted like children.
If the simple facts had ever been represented clearly to the public by the media (whom most trust more certainly than politicians), they would know who it was that had complicated the whole debt ceiling issue unnecessarily by first introducing extortionary add-ons to what should have been simple legislation to resolve a finite issue. Those were the members of Congress who acted like children. All that ensued was in a desperate effort not to yield even more ground to the huge inequities that have eroded our middle class.
This kind of false equivalency has become so commonplace that it actually has begun to further distort the dynamics in real terms. The cart actually is beginning to lead the horse. Only it seems to be just the Democrats who dance to the equivalency-blame tune. The Republicans, as always, don’t care if they appear irrational, juvenile, even primitive. They proudly spurn proven science and proclaim their conversations with God on national television, so they are immune to being labelled childish.
Democrats on the other hand, value reason and sanity so highly (and assume everyone else does, too) that they bend over backwards to demonstrate their rationality. They want so desperately to be perceived as the “grown-ups;” but we all know how badly grown-ups come out when confronted by seriously disturbed children.
Then CNN and the like lump everyone together and encourage their listeners to think they are all being equally intractable to equally valid positions.
But not surprised. Well, we’re batting .667 with our delegation, anyway. And they can’t all be winners every time.
It’s all about the election next year. I read somewhere that Americans really loathed these debt follies–I mean negotiations. That only 2% of Americans approved of the way things were done–and, I’ll bet dollars to doughnuts, it was the richest 2%. Obama could have used the 14th amendment, printed more money, etc., but I think he WANTED this circus. Maybe I”M even considering that, although he caved, the Republicans’ behavior is what folks will remember come next year. We should look at analysis days from now on who gets the bad marks.
IT’S ALWAYS ABOUT THE NEXT ELECTION.