Debt Debate in Congress

[heironymouspasparagus]

Like as if it had been handed to me...

No, I understood the reference to the radical Weather people.  It is the ignorance of the people that put out that BS about Obama and Ayers being 'pals' that I refer to - but you know that, too.  (Much like the Swift Boat BS from several years ago - lies, misinformation, misdirection about a topic that had NO basis in fact or anything approaching reality, but was spread by the people misrepresenting themselves as the "moral compass" of America.)  The RWRE, led by the Murdoch/Cheney/Rove cabal.  Which they are not - the moral compass, of course.  As can most recently be seen by the little Murdoch newspaper in England.


PDS?  I don't know anything about the Pearl District Sluts, but I haven't been to Portland area in a long time.  Perhaps you could enlighten us?

[Hoss]

Like as if it had been handed to me...

No, I understood the reference to the radical Weather people.  It is the ignorance of the people that put out that BS about Obama and Ayers being 'pals' that I refer to - but you know that, too.  (Much like the Swift Boat BS from several years ago - lies, misinformation, misdirection about a topic that had NO basis in fact or anything approaching reality, but was spread by the people misrepresenting themselves as the "moral compass" of America.)  The RWRE, led by the Murdoch/Cheney/Rove cabal.  Which they are not - the moral compass, of course.  As can most recently be seen by the little Murdoch newspaper in England.


PDS?  I don't know anything about the Pearl District Sluts, but I haven't been to Portland area in a long time.  Perhaps you could enlighten us?

It's his defense mechanism for all things Mama Grizzly kicking in...

[nathanm]

That increase puts the government already remarkably close to the new debt limit of $14.694, which means one day's new borrowing ate up 60 percent of the $400 billion in space Congress granted the president this week.

We had been in a debt issuance suspension period since May 15th. That means all the money that goes into retirement accounts and normally gets converted into government debt didn't have that happen. Did you expect them not to make the trust funds whole? It'll be interesting to see in the weekly release exactly how much is public debt and how much is intragovernmental.

[Conan71]

Rep. Boehner, WHERE ARE THE JOBS!

Racial Wealth Gap Worst in 25 Years

http://boycewatkins.wordpress.com/2011/07/26/new-study-racial-wealth-gap-worst-in-25-years/

"The evidence clearly shows, without question, that black people are not better off under Obama."

"The great Republican hero, Ronald Reagan, is the one who sent our nation into the tailspin of deficit spending and greed that puts our country on the brink of its first default in history."

I've seen what you've done here.  If we had a Repiglican Prez, you'd blame him, instead you blame the highest ranking Rethug so you can give cover to the man who has no clue how jobs are created.

[Conan71]

We had been in a debt issuance suspension period since May 15th. That means all the money that goes into retirement accounts and normally gets converted into government debt didn't have that happen. Did you expect them not to make the trust funds whole? It'll be interesting to see in the weekly release exactly how much is public debt and how much is intragovernmental.

The new credit cards arrived!!! Time to go to Macy's!!!!

[nathanm]

The new credit cards arrived!!! Time to go to Macy's!!!!

Uh, do you even understand what a debt issuance suspension period means? And were you aware that it's unconstitutional for a President to not spend appropriated funds? (unless that appropriation is specifically meant to be at the executive's discretion, of course)

Normally, when Treasury receives money destined for one of the trust funds, Treasury issues a nonmarketable security and deposits that instead (thanks, Reagan!). These securities count toward the debt ceiling. When the debt ceiling is reached, nothing can go into the trust funds because, by law, Treasury has to give them debt instead. When the Secretary of the Treasury declares a debt issuance suspension period, Treasury gets to temporarily stop doing that, but they have to make the funds whole once said suspension is over. Looking at the intragovernmental holdings, it looks like we were over $100 billion behind with trust fund investments, and that's just what matured and didn't get replaced. That's not including any new contributions that should have been made in the last 3 months.

So yeah, $113,662,607,204.02 was due to the rearranging of the deck chairs that allows Treasury to remain under the debt ceiling longer, while $124,683,694,907.85 was new borrowing. It just goes to show that one ought not to read Sun Myung Moon's paper if you want to actually be informed.

[Conan71]

Lighten up Francis.  Use your credit card to go buy a sense of humor. 

[nathanm]

Lighten up Francis.  Use your credit card to go buy a sense of humor. 

I've long been told that's something that can't be bought.

[Red Arrow]

I've long been told that's something that can't be bought.

It's too difficult to tax.

[nathanm]

It's too difficult to tax.

Tell that to Jay Leno.  

Oh, wait..that proves your point perfectly.

[Gaspar]

The new credit cards arrived!!! Time to go to Macy's!!!!

Already did.  Spent 60% of the increase on the first day!

Pace yourself Mr. President.

[Conan71]

Already did.  Spent 60% of the increase on the first day!

Pace yourself Mr. President.

Get with it Gassy!

Uh, do you even understand what a debt issuance suspension period means? And were you aware that it's unconstitutional for a President to not spend appropriated funds? (unless that appropriation is specifically meant to be at the executive's discretion, of course)

Normally, when Treasury receives money destined for one of the trust funds, Treasury issues a nonmarketable security and deposits that instead (thanks, Reagan!). These securities count toward the debt ceiling. When the debt ceiling is reached, nothing can go into the trust funds because, by law, Treasury has to give them debt instead. When the Secretary of the Treasury declares a debt issuance suspension period, Treasury gets to temporarily stop doing that, but they have to make the funds whole once said suspension is over. Looking at the intragovernmental holdings, it looks like we were over $100 billion behind with trust fund investments, and that's just what matured and didn't get replaced. That's not including any new contributions that should have been made in the last 3 months.

So yeah, $113,662,607,204.02 was due to the rearranging of the deck chairs that allows Treasury to remain under the debt ceiling longer, while $124,683,694,907.85 was new borrowing. It just goes to show that one ought not to read Sun Myung Moon's paper if you want to actually be informed.

[Gaspar]

Get with it Gassy!

Sorry, I didn't realize I was dealing with Moonies.

[Gaspar]

Hey here's some more hilariousness.  When asked about how the president intends to work on the jobs crisis now that the debt crisis is over Jay Carney replies "The actions that [Congress] can take could create more jobs right now, if it passed the patent reform, if it passed the free trade agreements." 

Both, part of the Republican jobs agenda, but not as important as making more realistic changes, and neither would make it passed Senate Democrats. http://majorityleader.gov/Jobs/HRP_JOBS_SUMMARY.pdf

It's like he was completely unprepared for reporters to ask him about jobs.  Then the best he could do was to pull something obscure out of his @ss?

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/08/04/tapper_peppers_carney_what_is_obama_doing_to_create_jobs.html

That tells me that not only do they have no idea how to handle their jobs, but they also have no intention of addressing the issue at hand.

We are really in trouble.

Read this exchange, it's frightening:

JAKE TAPPER, ABC NEWS:  I believe the Dow has gone down -- obviously, the day is not over -- but I believe the Dow's gone down now more than during that controversial TARP vote.  And analysts are saying that the reason that this is happening is because of uncertainty about the American economy, that we are entering a double-dip recession, or at the very least, a period of real softness and weakness for the U.S. economy. What is the administration doing about that?

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE:  Well, the analysis I saw today did not -- was not about the American economy, particularly, in terms of what's happening.

TAPPER: I'm talking about analysis from the last 20 minutes.

CARNEY:  But there are obviously -- there are a lot of global issues that affect the global economy and that obviously affect the American economy. We strongly believe, as I've said, that we will continue to grow and we will continue to create jobs, and we need to take the measures necessary to do that.

We have encountered in this calendar year a number of economic headwinds that could not have been foreseen:  the tsunami -- earthquake and tsunami in Japan that disrupted global supply chains; the unrest in the Middle East, which has an impact on oil prices; and the situation in Europe.  So, you know, obviously that has hurt the economy globally and has slowed growth and job creation, but we believe that growth and job creation will continue.

My interpretation:

Gaspar: What steps are being taken to address the weak economy?

Carney: Yeah, there's like a lot of global stuff, and other stuff, that like we don't know about, and it's all really complicated, and there are tsunamis and earthquakes and stuff, and disruptions in global supply chains that like make stuff hard to do, and we need to make it easier for people to get patents and like sell stuff and that's not our fault, it's like congress that needs to do stuff.  The President is going to have some meetings and talk to some people about what can be done to like make jobs happen and stuff.

[Conan71]

Is Jay Carney banging The Poodle now?  Holy crap!

That's all funny though, issues like that were totally irrelevant to the Jay Carnies of this world as barriers to new jobs when President Bush faced them.

"We don't know how to fix this so we will just blame someone or something else."