Now that the government shutdown was averted at the last minute this past Friday, April 8, a much more dangerous deadline is looming: May 16.
Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner has declared that by that date it is essential that the Congress extend the borrowing limit, the federal debt ceiling, beyond the present $14.25 trillion limit, or face the inability of the government to pay its bonds and debts on time, an action which could trigger world wide economic repercussions, and make it impossible for the US government to borrow money, because of a technical state of bankruptcy!
Geithner has informed Congress that if federal accounts were moved around, the doomsday scenario could be delayed to July 8 at the latest!
For the government to fall into default would be extremely damaging, both short term and long term, and yet there are the Tea Party radicals in the House of Representatives, and lunatics in the Senate such as Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida who are, seemingly, willing to risk the nation’s future in their ideological struggle against the federal government!
With the ability of the Republicans to filibuster in the Senate, and the Tea Party members of the House unwilling to bend, the battle over extension of the debt limit will center around the Obama Health Care plan, the environment, abortion rights, and other GOP demands that the Democrats have been able to avert in the most recent battle over shutting down the government.
So the likelihood of the economic revival going on smoothly seems less likely over the rest of this year, and then the 2012 budget plan presents the next crisis, if we ever resolve the debt limit crisis now facing us in the next month to three months!
The only lunatics are the Congressman who let the privately owned Fed continue to loan funny money while charging it to the Tax payers, and running up insane give-aways to every nut-so thing. Social Security Medicare and grants to counties must remain.
But continuous war, houses for kangaroo rats, money for Puerto Rican Rum, farm subsidies to the rich and corporate welfare must stop. Tobacco subsidy is a crime. And Democrats are infantile people who know nothing about business.