The same right wing ideological forces attempted to overthrow FDR's government in 1933.

[seafan]

These same forces and their descendants are at work today.



If there is a better scenario for abolishing the New Deal and the Great Society than ramming it through under the cover of the debt ceiling fight, I cannot see it. If these traitors to our democracy are successful, there will be a windfall for their plans for more wars, bailouts, tax cuts and privatization of the public commons.


Meanwhile, the US AAA credit rating has been put on notice by S & P in the wake of the debt ceiling uncertainty. The dollar's value is going down and the price of gold is going up.


Will this be enough to 'soften up' the public to accept these draconian cuts to their social safety benefits? If not, it will be revisited in 6 months in another fight over the debt ceiling. Count on it.




It looks as if the only way out of this is for the president to use the powers given him under the 14th Amendment to raise the debt ceiling, before August 2.


It is very troubling why he is so resistant to using this power.

July 22, 2011

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Friday he discussed with White House counsel whether the 14th Amendment offered an alternative to raising the $14.3 trillion debt limit, and they concluded it did not.

"There is a provision in our Constitution that speaks to making sure that the United States meets its obligations and there have been some suggestions that a president could use that language to basically ignore that debt ceiling rule, which is a statutory rule," Obama told a town hall meeting.

"I have talked to my lawyers, they are not persuaded that that is a winning argument," he said.

We are beyond trying to "win an argument", Mr. President.


We are facing national collapse.

[robertpaulsen]

1. K & R to the greatest page!

:kick:

[kentuck]

2. This pisses me off.

"My lawyers are not persuaded that that is a winning argument."

Screw your lawyers! You are the constitutional lawyer.

It was foolish to take the 14th Amendment off the table. Like you have so many weapons that you don't even need it? Do what you must do and let the Repubs take it to Court. The worst that could happen is that you buy time and enlighten the people.

But there are your people on TV Sunday morning saying that the 14th Amendment is not an option. It doesn't fucking matter. It is an asset to put the issue into the courts. Go on the offensive. Stop crouching in the corner.

[seafan]

3. "I Would Use Constitutional Option To Raise Debt Ceiling And "Force The Courts To Stop Me"

Geithner, et. al., on the weekend talk shows prevaricating that Clinton's lawyers 'didn't think he could use the 14th Amendment when he was president', are outright lying to the American public.

Citing the Fourteenth Amendment, which some interpret to give the president authority to raise the debt limit on his own, Amanpour asked Geithner if Obama would avail himself of this dubious constitutional power.

“It is not a workable option,” Geithner replied.

“But President Clinton says it can be done,” Amanpour contested.

Geithner insisted, “We’ve looked at this very carefully — as had President Clinton and his lawyers when he was president — and this is not a workable option to limit the damage to the American people that would come from Congress not acting to avoid a default crisis.”

.....

This is an absolute LIE.


The reason President Clinton never used the 14th Amendment was that Gingrich & Co. never used the debt ceiling as a weapon in the budget battles.

Geithner is a first-class traitor.




Exclusive Bill Clinton Interview: I Would Use Constitutional Option To Raise Debt Ceiling And "Force The Courts To Stop Me" ----Link

Tue, 07/19/2011 - 12:03am —
Joe Conason

Former President Bill Clinton says that he would invoke the so-called constitutional option to raise the nation’s debt ceiling “without hesitation, and force the courts to stop me” in order to prevent a default, should Congress and the President fail to achieve agreement before the August 2 deadline.

Sharply criticizing Congressional Republicans in an exclusive Monday evening interview with The National Memo, Clinton said, “I think the Constitution is clear and I think this idea that the Congress gets to vote twice on whether to pay for it has appropriated is crazy.”

Lifting the debt ceiling “is necessary to pay for appropriations already made,” he added, “so you can’t say, ‘Well, we won the last election and we didn’t vote for some of that stuff, so we’re going to throw the whole country’s credit into arrears.”

Having faced down the Republican House leadership during two government shutdowns when he was president -- and having brought the country’s budget from the deep deficits left by Republican presidents to a projected surplus -- Clinton is unimpressed by the GOP’s sudden enthusiasm for balanced budgets. But he never considered invoking the Fourteenth Amendment -- which says “the validity of the US public debt shall not be questioned” – because the Republicans led by then-Speaker Newt Gingrich didn’t threaten to use the debt ceiling as a weapon in their budget struggles with him.

.....

This is the end game for the corporatists, and they know it. Their heist is almost complete.


We as a people must push back against these absolute THIEVES of our democracy, because the alternative is unthinkable.