House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) held his weekly press conference this morning, most of which was devoted to ongoing fiscal talks. At one amusing point, the Republican leader complained that President Obama has failed to propose specific spending cuts, and 20 seconds later, said he wouldn't provide specific spending cuts.
But to my ear, the most important moment came at the 7:51 mark in this clip.
For those who can't watch clips online, Boehner was asked about a debt-ceiling increase.
"As I told the president a couple weeks ago, there's a lot of things I've wanted in my life, but almost all of them had a price tag attached to them. And, uh, if we're going to talk about the debt limit in this, then there's going to be some price tag associated with it.... I continue to believe that any increase in the debt limit has to be accompanied by spending reductions that meet or exceed it."
It's important to understand how insane this is, and the extent to which the Speaker of the House is, once again, holding the economic health of the nation hostage.
Let's briefly recap what happened last year, because it offers important context -- and offers a blueprint for where we're headed.
Almost immediately after being elevated to Speaker, Boehner clearly wanted no part of a debt-ceiling fight. He explained in November 2010, "I've made it pretty clear to [my caucus] that as we get into next year, it's pretty clear that Congress is going to have to deal with [the debt limit]. We're going to have to deal with it as adults. Whether we like it or not, the federal government has obligations and we have obligations on our part."
By April 2011, under pressure from the far-right, Boehner proclaimed, "There will not be an increase in the debt limit without something really, really big attached to it." He didn't name a price at the time.
As the crisis began in earnest, the Speaker named his "really, really big" price: for every dollar in debt-ceiling increase, Democrats had to give him a matching amount of spending cuts. It was an arbitrary decision -- for nine decades, every increase in the debt limit had passed in clean bills -- but Boehner made up his own standard and stuck to it.
The result was a scandal for the ages. Every congressional Republican -- literally, all of them -- threatened to destroy the economy on purpose and trash the full and faith credit of the United States unless Boehner's made-up standard was met.
And now, as of this morning, the Speaker is creating the same crisis for the same reason, relying on the same arbitrary standard. This profoundly stupid fiasco caused enormous damage to the nation's economy, debt rating, and international standing, and Boehner is making a conscious decision to do all of this to us, again, on purpose.
If you missed Rachel's take earlier in the week, it's well worth your time.
For those who can't watch clips online:
"We can have disagreements on matters of policy. We can disagree on the ideological tales we tell each other about how to get to the best outcomes for the country. We can even disagree about basic values about exactly what kind of country we ought to be.
"But the thing you can generally assume about everybody who is in public service is that they are public servants, right? They want the country to be better off. No matter how you want to get there. Whether or not some people think you're wrong or whether or not some people even think you're dumb or misinformed, there's a general assumption that if you're involved in American politics, that at least means that what you want is a good future for America.
"You're out to help America, not hurt America. You want America to be stronger and better and healthier. Hurting the country on purpose when you know that's what you're doing violates the most basic thing that we think we can assume about why people go into public service, why anybody would go into public service. I think it means that what you're doing can't even be called public service."
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AS a military vet I swore to protect this country from all invaders ,domestic and abroad. It is my personal thoughts that the !% and the legislator are guilty of TREASON and should be treated as such with extreme preduce. this is America and it did not get to be the greatist country with this Bull that you and yours are doing. Do your job for the all the people of this country.
The French once had a solution to all this. It was called, a guillotine.
Let the tax cuts for everyone expire Jan. 1, 2013, then present a bill to reduce tax rates for people with income under $250,000 and let the republicants try to explain why they won't pass it. Would the automatic cuts under sequestration be any worse than what the republicants are trying to cut from Medicare/Medicaid and possibly Social Security under their so-called "deal"?? And can everyone stop calling them "entitlement programs", please?
Boehner is in a difficult position right now with his Tea Party caucus. Boehner knows that Congressman Cole from Oklahoma said the House should take the Senate bill for extending the middle class tax cuts and pass it now. We are still seeing the denial of reality going on in the GOP right now. Speaker Boehner should not be saying he will hold the country hostage over another debt limit ceiling crisis that is artificially contrived. The GOP can not survive as a viable party in this session of Congress if they obstruct all spending bills.
I lost count but I believe 12 major spending bills that routinely get passed are sitting in the Speaker's calendar box. The Farm Bill also is sitting in the Speaker's calender box as well. The Farm Bill should have been passed this August when President Obama asked for it. The Senate passed the Farm bill but House Tea Party members want more cuts in SNAP/Food Stamps. This stupidity despite the fact that we are still in a serious economic downturn with 47 million Americans living in poverty and in need of SNAP/Food Stamps and other government assistance. What the Tea Party is asking for will never pass the Senate. More deep cuts in SNAP/Food Stamps would certainly get vetoed by the President. So what is the Tea Party thinking anyway? The dynamics of the Farm Bill are the same political circus surrounding all bills in the GOP House. The point is that radicals can not govern. John Boehner will have to forge a new coalition of House Democrats and about 30 plus Republicans to reach 218.
I am not sure Speaker Boehner realizes this but he is going to have to spend the next two years working closely with Leader Pelosi and Steny Hoyer on getting moderate centrist spending bills passed in the House. I predict that Senate bills will get passed first with bipartisan agreement. Then pressure from Senate GOP members on those 30 plus centrist Republicans in the House will join Democrats to pass the Senate's bill, perhaps with minor tweaking in a Conference Committee.
I am thinking that we will see this pattern emerge soon in 2013 because it looks pretty certain we are going over the fiscal cliff in January. Speaker Boehner needs to soften his views and learn to be more flexible by working with Democrats. He needs to rally enough votes in his caucus to pass bipartisan Senate bills. The GOP will lose the House in 2014 by huge margins if some type of flexibility does not return to the House. The America people are angry and frustrated with gridlock. If the GOP does not change its obstructionist ways it will destroy itself as a viable political party for years to come. The middle class is under too much pain right now to sit back while the GOP plays its Washington obstructionist games.
For the sake of the country, I hope they do not commit suicide and continue cutting while economy/unemployment is floundering.
The spending is what's keeping economy from falling further in the dumps.
People need to understand there's no quick fix and we should figure out how to call a truce and get out of this pattern of trying to blow up the New Deal, which is what they want to do.
Yes, more people need to understand this. Bush/Cheney were doing the dance that leads to this. They wanted to borrow and spend so they can say we HAVE TO cut the New Deal stuff. No, no, no I say. Cut elsewhere, raise tax rates and we probably will go into 2013 without the certainty that businesses so want. Hiring more folks would be the first priority. For the good of all. How can we get them to do that? Well, there will be tax credits for having employees insured for health care. Or are those the "loopholes" they want to close instead of tax rate increases for above $250K?
I have some R friends that mean well, but I don't think they understand that the New Deal is on the chopping block, BIG TIME, by their party.
T.P.ers just want to shoot something and think that will help them.
The tea party is nothing more than a dead animal smelling up the room.
Rachel, how about posting a three sentence summary of the essence of your article -- a summary that I can share with friends. Thanks
The Repubs remind me of the bratty, spoiled kid who comes over your house to play and then kicks over the board and destroy the pieces when he is losing.
He does not care if he ruins it for everyone.
The rest of the kids just shake their heads and wonder who invited "this guy."
They're not brats, they are evil hate mongers.
It's a pledge to the elite rulers of the country that stops all progress.
We have a bought and paid for Republican congress and they answer only to the 1%.
I'm a Republican and I'm sick of what this Republican party has become. They should be ashamed of themselves and some should be in Quantanimo with the other terrorists.
Let's go over the cliff and stop the privileged class from gettting any more money.
Obama should not give an inch to these bstrds. The caused the recession and did everything to make it worse.
Honest to God, put a 1" by 1/2" black mustache under Boehners nose and who and what does he look like. And his actions are no different.
OK Republicans please follow along with me:
--The debt ceiling has to do with the amount of money and if and when the US is approved to sell US treasury bonds overseas to foreign countries/bidders. If the US is going to need to issue more bonds than what the current issuing amount is rated at then the US debt ceiling is raised.
--The national debt has to do with the amount we owe (most of which is owed to ourselves) for the services we provide ourselves and/or other nations as part of international agreements.
While promising more services can invariably lead to us having to raise the debt ceiling the two are not the same simply because they both happen to contain the word "debt." Please re-adjust your talking points and/or policies accordingly.
Sheesh.
Maybe if you frame it as a "credit limit", like on a credit card, they would get it.
Ok, lets cut spending. We'll start with closing all military bases, then we can eliminate the real reason for having an Army. Also, we won't need all those jets and tanks that are built in Republican states, I mean, that's just a welfare program anyway. And border patrol, I say who needs 'em, the illegals will just self-deport. Wow, this is easy. If we try a little harder I'm sure we can also determine that there is no need to be paying moochers like Boehner and McConnell with taxpayers money. Come on, America, if we cut enough spending there won't be any need at all for taxes. How freakn' Republican is that?
The vast majority of Americans sent Obama back to Washington for the expressed purpose of protecting us from over-zealous conservatives and extremists. Let's get on with the whuppin'.
"The next day, [after the election] the same people who had spent the night in frightened vigil in their houses poured out onto the streets like a crazed avalanche to storm the banks, demanding their money. Anyone who had anything of value decided to keep it under the mattress or send it overseas. Within twenty-four hours, property values had been halved and every available flight out of the count
ry was booked in the hysteria to escape before the Russians came and strung barbed wire along the borders. The people who had marched in triumph went to watch the bourgeoisie standing in line and fighting to get through the doors of the banks, and roared with laughter. In a few hours the country had split into two irreconcilable groups, a division that began to spread within every family in the land. [...]
The next day, when it was clear that there was no need to fear the festive crowds, he left his refuge and headed to a country house on the outskirts of the city, where a secret lunch was held. There he met with other politicians, a group of military men, and gringos sent by their intelligence service to map a strategy for bringing down the new government: economic destabilization, as they called their sabotage."
--Isabel Allende. "The House of the Spirits"
The members of GOP (Good Ole Punks) party should all be ashamed, but we know they're not. They are disgusting SOBs... never stop trying to obstruct, or make Obama look bad. They don't get it that no matter what they try to do against Obama, they make themselves look bad. At this rate, their approval rating will be down to -100. What a bunch of dirtbags!
He's right. Everything does have a price.
I think in this instance the price for a debt ceiling should be the end of GOP obstructionism and his leadership job.
The republican want to go off the cliff. Please see the video the GOP sent me. I am on their email list because i want to know what the enemy is up to : PLEASE WATCH
http://www.familysurvivalcourse.com/media/index.php
The republican want to go of the Cliff please watch the video the GOP sent me
http://www.familysurvivalcourse.com/media/index.php
Looks like something that Glenn Beck is proposing. What stupid paranoia!
I say we all go to John's Boehner's house Naked!!
At one amusing point, the Republican leader complained that President Obama has failed to propose specific spending cuts, and 20 seconds later, said he wouldn't provide specific spending cuts.
Re: Meaning: Boehner has nothing to offer and is part of the problem and not a part of the solution and is lying so in trying to cover his own . . . .
It's hard to believe that Bush could basically suspend the Bill of Rights in the War on Terra, but Obama doesn't have the power to tell Republicans to take the debt ceiling and shove it. If I were him, I'd put a stake through the heart of that zombie once and for all. Could Republicans sue him? I doubt it. And what other remedy might there be? Shutting down the government? Go ahead, Republicans. Make his day.
The problem with dogma running the show…
Why ever would we assume people in Congress have the best interest of the nation at heart? The last GOP administration deregulated voracious corporations so they could seize the wealth of the nation, went to war pursuant to their 1993 plan to use the American military to capture the world oil production and marketing, and--apparently not wiling to wait for their plots to pay off--made law rapidly moving the wealth of the nation from the poor and middle class up to the hands of the oligarchs. During this administration, one party and a corrupt Supreme Court have turned over economic and much of political control to 1% of the populace and collected less and less tax from them while stripping everyone else of savings and investments and pocket money and earned income.
And now they want the programs WE financed, WE paid premiums to our entire working lives so they would be there for our old age. Anyone not think this is embezzlement?
And, of course, we came too close to electing an administration that had run on a platform of taking everything away from us that our taxes bought and enriching the 1%. So, of course, we probably are too stupid for self government.
Doesn't hurt to remind those that vote for Rs that if they believe Rs want what's good for THEM, then that would probably NOT be the case to vote R and think that will help them.
If folks think "the country" is what Rs think about, they are surely deluded. Money, the candidate that ran was the perfect emblem for their party. Lies, deceit, putting "those people" in another category, make money and it doesn't need to include American workers, even put them into unemployed, then call unemployed lazy, calling their own policies bad when a D puts them into law… trying to incite fear and place people into margins with a label of unworthy and unequal.
I am glad you brought it up Fiona, that the Rs do not have the interest of the nation in mind, only those already in places of privilege.
I agree, we are being embezzled. Fairness and equality is irrelevant to them. It has been a trick on the people to make them think if we don't give tax cuts to millionaires, they will fire people, etc. Fear. But don't worry, their Moms will tell you, "my son would never do anything to hurt me". But what about other peoples' Mom?
That is the point I have been trying to make for some time.
Isn't trying to keep the country from becoming Greece via reigning in spending in the best interest of the country?
yes because the US outsourced it's services to that of private companies who then sold that contract to 3rd party companies who then combined the insurance of those services with that of other companies participating in sub-prime loans and then when the global economy collapsed that robbed the US of it's currency value causing the US dollar to artificially be deemed defunct on the international trade market thus preventing the US from being able to pay off it's debts thus causing the US to engage in gross austerity measures that caused rioting in the streets and crippled the economy that was otherwise not in ruins. And we were then unable to fix this problem internally because we were participants in a regional currency as opposed to local currency.
Yes, yes, we must fear the US going the way of Greece /snark
Greece? We're nothing like Greece. Greece doesn't even have their own currency, they use Euros.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Greece
I believe the austerity being too severe caused ever worsening economic.
I find it odd that people would compare the U.S. to Greece.
Until there's any substance, Boehner's just fundraising.
Boehner's press conference was an exercise in circuity!!! He said NOTHING except "everything has a price." We've heard this before!! Boehner is threatening to trash the economy if he doesn't get his way about debt ceiling!!! "We the people" will hold Boehner PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE & ACCOUNTABLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO AMERICA'S ECONOMY!!!
I think it is time for anybody not aligned with the Norquist extremism, or who no longer wants to be, to start a campaign to make sure Boehner is not re-elected as Speaker of the House. Let's get somebody in there who can do the job.
I propose Nancy Pelosi! She knows how to get the job done.
President Obama could simply ignore the debt limit, if he had the political will. This is the very essence of separate but equal. He could ignore the Supreme Court as well, if they foolishly chose to get involved. The only reason any of this stuff applies is because we agree that it does, and the House is dangerously close to disagreeing. So call their bluff.
Absolutely right. Use existing law, 31 USC 5112(k) Proof Platinum Coin Seigniorage to issue $trillions in debt free legal tender.http://my.firedoglake.com/letsgetitdone/tag/proof-platinum-coin-seigniorage/
http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2011/07/28/282471/the-platinum-coin-option/?mobile=nc
So, if the Republican party is willing and deliberately looking to purposely put the full faith and credit of the USA on the line for strictly partisan purposes.....at what point do we look at....and I do not say this lightly....at what point do we look at charges for Treason?
Very good question. Are their actions to prevent the government from funding defense needs endangering our military? Would the President be justified in circumventing the House and using available legal alternatives to raise debt free legal tender to fund appropriations?
Rachel wrote, "It's important to understand how insane this is, and the extent to which the Speaker of the House is, once again, holding the economic health of the nation hostage."
The President's responsibility to maintain the economic health of the U.S. is implied in the following:
Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:--"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
President Obama's failure to do so would be capitulation to the hostage takers. He doesn't have to compromise on anything.
He simply has to press his advantage in knowing that America is a sovereign fiat currency issuer, and cannot run out of money. Taxing the rich marginally affects income distribution and does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO RAISE REVENUE TO PAY FEDERAL GOVERNMENT'S BILLS.
In our monetary system Federal tax revenue per se pays for nothing.
To assure the Congress does not inflict self-imposed political default the President can implement one or all of the following alternatives:
He has the 14th Amendment, Proof Platinum Coin Seigniorage (1996 law), and Presidential Executive Order instructing the Fed and Treasury to issue interest free notes to fund appropriations. These alternatives would not breach the debt ceiling and all are Constitutional.
Anyone who says the rating agencies will downgrade us as they did last year, doesn't understand that the U.S. dollar has never been as strong as it is today. Moreover, rating agencies cheat when the rate on fraudulent criteria, i.e., last year their decision was based on Congress' unwillingness to raise the debt ceiling when the decision should have been based on our ability to pay. The U.S. will always have the ability to pay any obligation denominated in dollars because it is the sole issuer of our currency and is not dependent upon revenue per se to spend.
Let's go over the cliff and then start anew to manage our monetary policy without the barnacles and remnants of the long abandoned gold standard serving as constraints on the President's policy space to lead this nation toward full employment and rising incomes.