Obama Warns Against Another Debt Ceiling Fight.

[elleng]

Source: nyt/ap

President Barack Obama warned Republicans on Wednesday against picking another fight over the nation's debt ceiling, telling business leaders that it's "not a game that I will play."

Obama said in remarks to the Business Roundtable that he was aware of reports that Republicans may be willing to agree to higher tax rates on the wealthy as a way to avert the looming "fiscal cliff" and then come back next year with more leverage to extract spending cuts from the White House in exchange for raising the government's borrowing limit.

"That is a bad strategy for America, it's a bad strategy for your businesses and it's not a game that I will play," Obama said, recalling the "catastrophe that happened in August of 2011."



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2012/12/05/us/politics/ap-us-fiscal-cliff.html?hp&_r=0

[Yupy]

1. IF GOP CONTINUES, THEY WILL CONTINUE TO PAY, PLEASE PROCEED!

[kaspar411]

2. President Continues To Out Flank Republicans

The GOP Is So Predictable And Stupid!!!

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/12/05/1167376/-Obama-makes-fiscal-cliff-debt-ceiling-case-to-business-leaders

[pscot]

3. Who is this guy?

And where has he been for the last 4 years?

[John2]

4. Ok

I think that I can read the fig leafs here. I don't think President Obama is joking with the GOP. We are going off the cliff if the Republicans don't quit testing us. Go ahead and let Grover Norquist fool you. The Republicans need to quit being delusional.

Lets see if they can understand the environment they are really in. There was an election, that they thought the country was behind them. They miscalculated that election by listening to people like Norquist. Those CEOs on Wall Street told them that too. The pundits told you that too, but they were wrong.

Here is what they are wrong about, Tax cuts for the wealthy like Mitt Romney, does not create jobs. President Obama proved his case and that is why he was re-elected and your man lost. President Obama also made the case, your Policies for the last ten years wrecked this country. Those Policies were Bush Tax cuts and two Wars, Included was deregulation and irresponsible decisions by the people you want tax cuts for. Lets not have Romnesia what the Election was about.

If the public agrees, then why would we choose to implement the same old Policies? Your candidates moved towards the center when Social Security and Medicare came up and actually accused President Obama of cutting Medicare. Boehner was right out there campaigning for Romney\Ryan in Ohio too. So what does this fool take us for? The Election was a mandate period! You are delusional if you don't think so, just like you were delusional on November 6! The country is behind this President and when you disagree with his Policies, then you are messing us! So if Clint Eastwood would say, Make our Day!

[DallasNE]

5. Is There Really A Debt Ceiling

The history of the debt ceiling traces back to a law passed in 1917 placing a limit on the dollar amount of Liberty bonds that could be sold to finance World War I. The language is very specific. Obviously, we are no longer issuing Liberty bonds to finance World War I so what legal basis is there for this law in the changed world of today?

While Congress has full control of the expenditures of the United States in the form of the appropriation measures it passes it also must abide by the provisions of the 14th Amendment that says, in part:

Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, ... shall not be questioned. ...
Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

What does "shall not be questioned" mean? To me it would mean that Congress cannot take measures that place the public debt of the United States in default and that Congress has the power to enforce that that event never takes place and not the other way around.

It just makes me wonder why the 1917 law has not been challenged in the courts for these many decades when the basis looks so weak. Any Constitutional lawyers out there?

[TomCADem]

6. Republicans want to use the debt ceiling threat to try to renege on any concessions

The corporate media, of course, tries to portray President Obama as being unreasonable for not allowing Republicans to set him up to be extorted with the threat of default.