Motley Moose – Archive

Waiting for the someone to take the ball and run with it.

UPDATE Wednesday, 10/16 at 10:20pm Eastern:

House votes to reopen government and raise debt ceiling:

The bill passed 285-144; 144 Republicans voted against it. The Senate had previously passed the bill 81-18. It now heads to the White House, where President Obama has said he would sign it.

Upon Obama’s signature, the first government shutdown in 17 years will end after 16 days.

UPDATE Wednesday, 10/16 at 5pm Eastern:

Speaker John Boehner (R-OH): “… blocking the bipartisan agreement reached today by the members of the Senate will not be a tactic for us.”

Chamber of Commerce: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced Wednesday that it supports the new Senate plan to end the shutdown and raise the debt ceiling, and it will include the measure as a key vote.

Clown King Ted Cruz (R-TX): Cruz told a gaggle of reporters that he has “no objections” to the Senate holding a vote

The much ballyhooed Senate bill (re-open the government until January 15th, raise the debt ceiling through February 15th, conference on budget) which was  to be voted on and sent to the House of Representatives was held after the House floated their “counteroffer”: a bill festooned with poison pills ornaments including big sloppy kisses to the Catholic bishops and medical device lobbyists.

The White House was quick to reject what it called the latest “ransom demand” (take that whiney White House reporters!!) and the ball is back in the Senate’s court.

This afternoon President Obama and Vice President Biden will meet with Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. The Fitch warning will likely be one of the topics:

“Fitch continues to believe that an agreement will be reached to end the current political impasse and raise the U.S. debt ceiling,” the agency said in a press release. “Even if the debt limit is not raised before or shortly after 17 October, we assume there is sufficient political will and capacity to ensure that Treasury securities will continue to be honoured in full and on time.”

While Fitch said that it remained confident Congress would ultimately reach a deal to raise the debt ceiling ahead of the Oct. 17 deadline, future ratings of U.S. holdings would be dependant on the “manner and duration of the agreement and the perceived risk of a similar episode occurring in the future.”

Translation: “We are looking around desperately to see if there are enough adults in Congress to justify our belief that the United States is credit worthy”.

The rough parameters appear to be as follows:

– Government reopened with a continuing resolution that runs through January 15th when the next round of sequester cuts is scheduled to take effect.

– Clean debt ceiling increase through February 15th.

– Budget conference will meet with a deadline of mid-December to come up with a budget.

There are rumors that some concessions related to the Affordable Care Act are in the mix and possibly limitations on extraordinary measures that Treasury can take the next time we approach the debt ceiling.

This morning Senate Republicans will meet at 9am Eastern to consider the deal.

Senate leadership is looking for unanimous consent to get the bill to the House quickly because the government can no longer borrow money to pay its obligations as of Thursday. Emperor Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) has not yet decided if he will allow the Senate to vote.

House leadership has been silent. Some individual House members have said that they think there aren’t 20 Republican votes for such a deal and there is still the Cantor Rule to overcome.

Dare we hope?

We stand on verge of re-opening govt and avoiding default. In your face Brokaw for history will know us as truly The Greatest Generation.

— pourmecoffee (@pourmecoffee) October 14, 2013

BREAKING NEWS Thursday, October 10, 2013 10:36 AM EDT

House Republicans Discuss Plan for Short-Term Increase in Debt Ceiling

House Republicans gathered Thursday morning to discuss a plan to lift the government’s statutory borrowing limit temporarily to allow for negotiations on a package of deficit reduction and tax reform proposals that could lead to a reopening of the government and an end to the threat of government default.

House Republican leaders jumped on the plan, presented on Wednesday by Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, chairman of the House Budget Committee. Meantime, a group of Republican senators has begun meeting with Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, to find a bipartisan solution to the twin fiscal impasses.

The senators are examining a year-long resolution funding the government at levels that reflect automatic spending cuts known as sequestration, but with added flexibility to help government agencies and departments deal with the tight budgets. The debt ceiling would also be raised.

READ MORE http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/11/us/politics/debt-limit-debate.html?emc=edit_na_20131010

President Obama held a press conference today where he discussed the shutdown and the impasse over the debt ceiling.

The President:

This morning I had a chance to speak with Speaker Boehner. And I told him what I’ve been saying publicly, that I am happy to talk with him and other Republicans about anything — not just issues I think are important but also issues that they think are important. But I also told him that having such a conversation, talks, negotiations shouldn’t require hanging the threats of a government shutdown or economic chaos over the heads of the American people.

Transcript of the president’s remarks follow.

Back on October 4, Vincent Reinhart wrote in The New York Times’ Deal Book that despite all the political maneuvering currently going in Washington the contingencies to prepare for a default are “a waste because the United States government is not going to default, ever.”

Reinhart argues that government officials will be forced to violate one of three laws or constitutional mandates:

1. The Second Liberty Bond Act of 1917 that establishes the debt ceiling;
2. The Federal Reserve Act that prohibits the Fed from lending directly to the Treasury; or,
3. The 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which holds that the debt of the United States government, lawfully issued, will not be questioned.

Finally, of the consequences, Reinhart writes:

An official anticipating stretching the law ranks alternatives by precedent, punishment as specified in the law and standing as to who can claim a violation of the law. Either a secretary of the Treasury who holds No. 3 as the overriding instruction or a chairman of the Federal Reserve who waives No. 2 saves the global financial system and, at most, risks being impeached or fired. That seems to be a reasonable risk and reward trade-off.

That, however, ignores the real nightmare that would happen immediately after any of those actions were taken to avoid default by the United States Government.

From the White House – Weekly Address

In his weekly address, President Obama says the economy is making progress five years after the worst recession since the Great Depression, but to avoid another crisis, Congress must meet two deadlines in the coming weeks: pass a budget by the end of the month to keep the government open, and raise the debt ceiling so America can pay its bills. Congress should vote to do these now, so that we can keep creating new jobs and expanding opportunity for the middle class.

Yesterday in a speech to the Business Roundtable, President Obama clearly labeled the teaparty Republicans as extortionists. And in doing so, he challenged their grasp of history and the foolishness of their insistence on holding the debt ceiling hostage to their ideology.

Despite pleas from the Chamber of Commerce and Republicans who are not 100% bat-guano crazy (not quite “reasonable” or “sensible” but somewhat left of “stark raving mad” on the crazy continuum), the House gave in to the demands of the Kamikaze Wing of the Republican Party, aka Ted Cruz.

Thank God. Finally. Having come to office with a promise of healing divisions, and being faced with an obstructionist opposition veering increasingly to the zero tax anarchy of the Libertarian Right, your President finally came clean. No he isn’t a corporate tool. (Hell, if he was, wouldn’t he have taken those Wall St job offers rather than a meagre community organisers job?). Yes, he went there, and picked on that 1% which Joseph Steiglitz has so graphically depicted as enriching themselves in the last two decades. For those who haven’t read it: here’s his opening premise:

It’s no use pretending that what has obviously happened has not in fact happened. The upper 1 percent of Americans are now taking in nearly a quarter of the nation’s income every year. In terms of wealth rather than income, the top 1 percent control 40 percent. Their lot in life has improved considerably. Twenty-five years ago, the corresponding figures were 12 percent and 33 percent. One response might be to celebrate the ingenuity and drive that brought good fortune to these people, and to contend that a rising tide lifts all boats. That response would be misguided.

While the top 1 percent have seen their incomes rise 18 percent over the past decade, those in the middle have actually seen their incomes fall. For men with only high-school degrees, the decline has been precipitous-12 percent in the last quarter-century alone. All the growth in recent decades-and more-has gone to those at the top. In terms of income equality, America lags behind any country in the old, ossified Europe that President George W. Bush used to deride. Among our closest counterparts are Russia with its oligarchs and Iran. While many of the old centers of inequality in Latin America, such as Brazil, have been striving in recent years, rather successfully, to improve the plight of the poor and reduce gaps in income, America has allowed inequality to grow.

My emphases