« The Milibands, The BBC And The ProletariatHaitian Cholera Victims Sue for Redress »

At our expense

October 15th, 2013

Michael Collins

The drama of the government shutdown and threatened default on government obligations is entirely unnecessary. It is also harmful to the people of the United States. Government workers and contractors are idle and without income. Their communities feel the economic impact. The threat of a default is stalling investment and hiring across the country. And, the world watches and judges as Congress engages in its dangerous games.

The overarching threat is an incremental shutdown of all government services beginning on October 17. Either the debt ceiling is raised, something that's been done 78 times since 1960, or the Treasury department begins paying debts from government funds on hand until that money runs out. It's not that we lack the money. This is a tantrum, pure and simple.

The impact of a formal default is unknown but the consensus opinion is that its somewhere between a continuation of the dreadful recession and something much worse. The head of Deutsche Bank described a default as a "rapidly spreading disease." A group of leading bankers asked the German banker how to deal with a default. He responded: "I have no recommendations for this audience about putting band aids on a gaping wound.

The United States dollar is the dominant world currency. U.S. Treasury Bonds are viewed as the safest investment in the world. A threat of default on bonds and action that destabilizes the dollar is incompatible with our special status in the world financial community. The last time Congress had a debt-ceiling crisis, 2011, the barely noticeable economic recovery was stalled and stocks dropped 20%.

Over the past two weeks, we've seen the pathetic dramatics of a collection of con artists known as the House Republicans. They know that they've voted on bills to purchase goods and services and that raising the debt ceiling is the only way to pay the bills. Now, they are saying they won't pay by refusing to raise the debt ceiling. This is bait and switch - promise to pay for something and, once you get it, refuse to pay. It's fraud, pure and simple.

Worse yet, the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, created a House rule that makes Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) the only member who can break the logjam.

The Democrats share some of the blame. President Obama was so busy trying to play warrior king by bombing Syria, he neglected to make the case to avoid this crisis. House Democrats brought up a discharge petition but need Republican signatures to have an impact. Already, several of the twenty or so Republicans who claimed they wanted to end the deadlock have backed away from the petition.

The outcome of this disgraceful, deceitful, degrading behavior will all be at our expense.

The members of Congress won't lose a thing. They'll have their salaries, their health care, and their free travel. Their retirement will be untouched. They will raise funds to pay for their campaigns. They'll sit fat and happy in their homes collecting favors from their donors and dispensing benefits from those donors to their friends and family.

They don't care. They don't have to.

The mess we're in and the failures to follow due to the gross incompetence and corruption of our (s)elected representatives are all at our expense.

END

Creative Commons 3.0

No feedback yet

Voices

Voices

  • By David Swanson, World BEYOND War Switzerland got that way through NEUTRALITY Remarks at Neutrality Colloquium: A Call to Action for Active Neutrality & World Peace, June 26-27, 2025 in Geneva, Switzerland. I grew up in a town in the United States that…
  • Fred Gransville I. The Fluoride Question For decades, fluoride has had an uncontested official story: it is a beneficial, even benevolent substance—vital to healthy teeth. In toothpaste tubes to water supplies, fluoride has been presented as a dental…
  • Tracy Turner #SCOTUScorruption #FascistAmerica #EndCitizensUnited Bush started it. Obama enabled it. Trump perfected it. And the Court? It never checked power—it built it. I. Opening Jab: The Judicial Illusion "They wear robes to appear impartial. But…
  • Dr. Vladislav B. Sotirovic Carl von Clausewitz The focal questions about war In dealing with both theoretical and practical points of view about war, at least six fundamental questions arise: 1) What is war?; 2) What types of war exist?; 3) Why do wars…
  • By Tracy Turner What begins as an assault on immigrants ends as an assault on the Constitution itself. The Constitution Is Not a Loophole Come the summer of 2025, the sitting president of America is pushing the limits of constitutional tolerance yet…
  • By Tracy Turner I. The Faustian Bargain “Kids can’t eat pronouns. Families can’t pay bills with gender-neutral bathrooms.” Somewhere between Occupy Wall Street and “Latinx Heritage Month,” the Democratic Party lost the plot—and with it, the nation. In…
  • Fred Gransville 1. Russian Summer Offensive Advances on Multiple Axes Cutting-edge drone warfare Russia is deploying "unjammable" fiber-optic–linked drones across Donbas, Sumy, and Kharkiv, allowing coordinated tactical advances. These UAVs have enabled…
  • Fred Gransville I. Introduction The Lungs of the Earth Are Being Stabbed from All Sides In June 2025, the Amazon and Orinoco basins—twin arteries of South America's ecological soul—are hemorrhaging under a coordinated assault. These are not isolated…
  • Fred Gransville How Politicians and Corporations Are Sacrificing the Arctic—And Our Future—For Profit "Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a…
  • by Dr. Althea Mentes I. Introduction In the ever-evolving pharmacopeia of modern medicine, few substances have traveled from criminalized taboo to mainstream therapeutic darling as rapidly as cannabinoids. Once dismissed as the intoxicants of the…
July 2025
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
 << <   > >>
    1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31    

  XML Feeds

Build your own website!
FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted articles and information about environmental, political, human rights, economic, democratic, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. This news and information is displayed without profit for educational purposes, in accordance with, Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law. Thepeoplesvoice.org is a non-advocacy internet web site, edited by non-affiliated U.S. citizens. editor
ozlu Sozler GereksizGercek Hava Durumu Firma Rehberi Hava Durumu Firma Rehberi E-okul Veli Firma Rehberi