Debt Ceiling Crisis

The Debt Ceiling Issue: A “Waterloo” For Both Republicans And Democrats In Office?

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The Debt Ceiling Crisis is rapidly becoming a potential “Waterloo” for both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party.

For the Republicans, their split on strategy, and the possibility that the Mitch McConnell plan to drop the issue of spending for now and give the President veto power three times in the next 18 months to avoid default , but allow the raising of the national debt, has bitterly divided the party, with the Tea Party people up in arms against the Establishment Republicans represented by McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner.

On the other hand, if the McConnell plan ends up as the temporary solution to the crisis, it will force Democrats to vote THREE times on raising the national debt, and that will be used by Republicans against Democrats in the congressional campaigns of 2012, and is seen as likely to cause the defeat of many Democrats, something that Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, a traditional moderate swing state, was screaming about to high heaven to reporters!

The whole issue could neutralize the political combat, but what would seem likely is that INCUMBENTS of both parties could suffer in the upcoming election, while Barack Obama could benefit in a major way!

So it could seem to many that the President might be in good shape, but with his party possibly lying in tatters, alongside fellow Republican officeholders.

We could end up with a more rebellious Congress of critics of the handling of the whole issue, and make compromise between President Obama or even a President Romney having a literal nightmare dealing with the legislative branch! And we could end up with only a few votes margin in both Houses, making progress on ANYTHING extremely difficult!

The Coming Implosion Of The Republican Party: Congress And The Presidential Race!

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Just as Barack Obama shows evidence of great fund raising, an all time high, and the Republicans show weakness in fund raising, the Republican Party is facing an implosion on both the Congressional and Presidential campaign level!

The Debt Ceiling Crisis has shown chinks in the armor of the Congressional Republicans, as the leadership of John Boehner and Mitch McConnell has split the Republicans on Capitol Hill, into the predictable split between Establishment Republicans and the Tea Party Movement freshmen in the House and a few in the US Senate!

Boehner has been pressured by his deputy, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who is obviously trying to overrule Boehner and push him out, as everyone in the know is aware of Cantor’s personal ambitions to be Speaker of the House!

McConnell, convinced that no deal on the debt ceiling extension can be reached, has come up with a plan he thinks will help the Republicans win control of Congress and the White House in 2012, declaring he cannot work with Obama. His plan is to allow three votes of disapproval on extensions of the debt limit–one now, one in the Fall and one in the Summer of 2012, assuring an extension of the debt but with only Democrats voting for it, giving Republicans a campaign issue to be used in the upcoming election, and avoiding the financial uncertainties of NOT raising the debt ceiling.

Tea Party freshmen are furious at McConnell, and Boehner who has backed him, so a rebellion within the party is in evidence, with Eric Cantor leading it in the House and Jim DeMint and Rand Paul in the Senate!

The thought that the Republicans will somehow be able to use this debt issue as a way to win control of the executive and legislative branches in 2012 is a real long shot, as it is not as if the Republicans did not raise the debt ceiling SEVEN times under George W. Bush! It is much more likely to reverberate against them, and with a split party in Congress, actually cause them to lose seats in both chambers and likely lose control of the House of Representatives, where a switch of 25 seats gives Democrats control, not all that hard to attain!

And with Michele Bachmann surging as the real threat to Establishment Republicans and Mitt Romney, we could see Bachmann become the nominee, and end up as the Barry Goldwater of 2012, as to imagine her winning the White House and helping her party to win control of both houses of Congress requires hallucination on a major scale!

To top it off, IF Sarah Palin or Rick Perry, or both, end up running for the Presidency, still hard to imagine or conceive, it will only complicate the situation even further, and undermine GOP hopes for control, so it is now more likely that they will go back to minority status, through their own ineptness and incompetence, and failure to recognize the needs of the American people in the midst of the aftermath of the Great Recession!

Keith Olbermann: Brilliant Statement About Progressivism And Meaning Of Life!

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Keith Olbermann, in his closing commentary last evening on his CURRENT channel show, truly expressed the argument for progressivism, and the true meaning of why we are here on earth.

Troubled by reports that President Obama seemed ready to sacrifice the social safety net of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid for a deal on the Debt Ceiling controversy that is raging right now in Washington, DC, Olbermann made it perfectly clear that such an eventuality would be a deal breaker for him and many progressives.

As Olbermann stated, the point of life, since we all die and eventually are only remembered by those who have been affected by our life on this earth, is to have concern about others, not just those we personally know.

Is life designed only to acquire wealth, fame, power and publicity, or is life meant to have an effect on other people’s lives?

Olbermann said that our impact on other people matters much more than the acquisition of wealth and power for its own sake, as it is what we do for others that will make us memorable after we are gone from this earth.

Therefore, to help the needy, the poor, the disadvantaged, is being the best we are capable of. To concern ourselves with our fellow human beings, not just our own selfish selves, is the point of life. To help eradicate poverty, suffering, and disease is the purpose of our existence.

Our common humanity is what should drive us in our daily lives, not just how we can become wealthier and more powerful, and to gain more publicity and a heightened ego.

What Olbermann stated is the true meaning of what it is to be a progressive or a liberal, and as the author listened to him, he had tears in his eyes as it really hit home that true evil is the concern only about oneself, and demonstrating selfishness, greed, and lack of concern of others. It is exactly what Christianity condemns, and yet there are so many “good Christians” who claim these as virtues, the height of hypocrisy!

Thank you, Keith Olbermann, for reminding us why we are progressives, and the pride I feel about my strongly held value system and beliefs!

Barack Obama And Medicare: Raising The Age Of Eligibility Is Wrong!

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In the midst of the debate and negotiations over the Debt Ceiling Crisis being raised, President Obama has reportedly suggested the idea of raising the Medicare eligibility age at some unknown point in the future to age 67 from age 65!

Hopefully, this is all a bluff, and will go nowhere, or is being reported incorrectly, as raising the Medicare age would be absolutely wrong!

For people over 55 now, it absolutely should not be considered as they are close to retirement age.

But even for those under 55, it would be wrong, as one forgets that not everyone has a low stress, or mental oriented job that they go to daily.

Many have physically challenging jobs of high stress, and the human body can start having all kinds of problems by the mid to late 50s, and even more so in those people who do not sit behind a desk or primarily use their minds at their workplace.

For a person 65-67 to attempt, if retired or not receiving health care coverage at work, to find adequate health care coverage at a delicate age such as the mid 60s, is nearly impossible, and an unnecessary stress on such individuals.

As we are trying to provide health care to millions more people through the Obama Health Care plan, this is not the time to make the gaining of health care for people 65-67 more stressful and difficult!

America’s workers have enough trouble staying above water economically, and if anything, what we really need is Medicare for all, instead of the more limited health care plan passed by Congress in 2010, and now being challenged all the way up to the Supreme Court!

The Torment Of John Boehner: Being Pressured By Tea Party Crazies And Eric Cantor!

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Speaker of the House John Boehner is under the greatest pressure he has ever faced in public life.

Having attained his goal of being Speaker, Boehner has been surrounded by Tea Party crazies, a group of 87 House Republican freshmen, most of whom came to the chamber with an attitude of hating government and wishing to destroy it in their quest to prevent ANY tax increases EVER, and to tear down the social safety net of the New Deal and Great Society, epitomized by Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid!

Surrounded by overly ambitious House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, and Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, all being at least a decade younger than Boehner, they have made it clear that they back the looney freshmen, and are making Boehner’s ability to lead, and at the same time be responsible, nearly impossible!

Boehner used to say that the raising of the debt ceiling was not essential by a certain date, but now he is agreeing with President Obama on the importance of raising the debt limit by August 2, realizing the long term economic damage that would occur if the Congress were so reckless as to refuse to raise the debt ceiling, something that has been done without controversy numerous times over many years!

Obama is winning the public relations battle, while Boehner is mightily squirming, as to how to get his caucus of loonies to do what MUST be done!

If he fails to get them to do what MUST be done, he will go down in history as responsible for a very damaging economic collapse!

But IF he does, somehow, get the mission accomplished in some form, he will most certainly face a rebellion within his party ranks, led by Eric Cantor, and will lose his Speakership!

Which is more important, the national economy or the Speakership of John Boehner? These next few weeks are the true test of courage and leadership, and if Boehner is a good patriot, if need be, he should sacrifice his future leadership for the greater good of doing what is right about the American economy and future!

Death Of Alexander Hamilton On This Day In 1804: What Would He Think Of The Debt Ceiling Crisis?

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On this day, 207 years ago, in 1804, former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton was killed in a gun duel with Vice President Aaron Burr!

The tragedy of this bright, intelligent, brilliant man, who made such a dramatic difference in our history, dying at the young age of 47, still reverberates through our nation, as we desperately need a financial genius such as Hamilton to resolve our financial difficulties, where we are on the brink of default of our debt payments by August 2, unless cooler heads prevail and a compromise is reached!

Would Hamilton be proud of the Republican Party refusal to consider any tax adjustments, reforms, or increases, when the tax rate is the lowest it has been since the 1940s, and our greatest prosperity came during the Eisenhower and Kennedy Administrations, when the tax rates were as high as 91 percent under Eisenhower, and were dropped to 70 percent under JFK?

Hamilton, who believed in the power of the federal government, would be appalled at the states rights emphasis reviving today, as if there was no Civil War to resolve that matter!

He would be shocked at the ignorance of Republican leaders and supporters who feel no loyalty to the country, but only to their own selfish, greedy personal desires!

Hamilton revived the American economy 220 years ago when it was in desperate circumstances, making certain that all debts were paid!

It would be ironic if now we saw our nation declare bankruptcy, which will damage the nation and its citizens for generations to come, all over refusal to promote what the definition of politics is, that it is “the art of compromise”!

Barack Obama, The Democratic Party, And The American People: On The Way To Separation Or Divorce?

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President Obama is alienating his progressive base, due to indications that he is willing to negotiate cuts in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, as part of a deal with the Congressional Republicans to avoid a default of the government, as we face the August 2 deadline of the need to raise the debt ceiling.

Various groups, including labor unions, the National Organization For Women, The Alliance For Retired Americans, and Moveon.Org are furious with the President. Senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi have all made it clear that such concessions are totally unacceptable.

The question is whether President Obama has the courage to stand up to the Republicans and possibly help to cause a default on the national debt, or instead is willing to antagonize his base and sacrifice the support of the Democratic Party’s heritage–the New Deal and Great Society programs that have become our safety net!

It means that either President Obama will cause a “separation” or “divorce” from the American people 16 months from now, or cause a similar “separation” or “divorce” from his party loyalists as he enters the campaign for re-election in November 2012!

One could say that Obama has the choice between the “devil and deep blue sea”, and what he ultimately chooses to do will reverberate in the long run for the nation and his historical reputation!