Obama Caved On The Budget Problem When He Named The Simpson Bowles Commission

Run time: 13:57 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1qDslvg3xU   Posted on YouTube: June 29, 2011 By YouTube Member: MOXNEWSd0tCOM Views on YouTube: 76   Posted on DU: June 29, 2011 By DU Member: democracy1st Views on DU: 1017

 
Jeff Madrick

Obama Caved On The Budget Problem When He Named The Simpson Bowles Commission,notice that every establishment budget balancing plan has more spending cuts than tax increases...

14th Amendment: Democratic Senators See Debt Ceiling As Unconstitutional

WASHINGTON -- Growing increasingly pessimistic about the prospects for a deal that would raise the debt ceiling, Democratic senators are revisiting a solution to the crisis that rests on a simple proposition: The debt ceiling itself is unconstitutional.

"The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law... shall not be questioned," reads the 14th Amendment.

"This is an issue that's been raised in some private debate between senators as to whether in fact we can default, or whether that provision of the Constitution can be held up as preventing default," Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), an attorney, told The Huffington Post Tuesday. "I don't think, as of a couple weeks ago, when this was first raised, it was seen as a pressing option. But I'll tell you that it's going to get a pretty strong second look as a way of saying, 'Is there some way to save us from ourselves?'"

By declaring the debt ceiling unconstitutional, the White House could continue to meet its financial obligations, leaving Tea Party-backed Republicans in the difficult position of arguing against the plain wording of the Constitution. Bipartisan negotiators are debating the size of the cuts, now in the trillions, that will come along with raising the debt ceiling.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said that the constitutional solution puts the question in its proper context -- that the debate is over paying past debts, not over future spending.

"The way everybody talks about this is that we need to raise the debt ceiling. What we're really saying is, 'We have to pay our bills,'" Murray said. The 14th Amendment approach is "fascinating," she added.

The White House referred questions on the constitutionality of the debt ceiling to the Treasury Department. Treasury declined to comment.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/28/14th-amendment-debt-ceiling-unconstitutional-democrats_n_886442.html



Jeff Madrick is Senior Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and blogs for New Deal 2.0. He is director of policy research, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis, The New School, and editor of the long-standing economics magazine, Challenge. From 2000 to 2005, he was contributing economics columnist for The New York Times. He is also a regulator contributor to The New York Review of Books, and visiting professor of humanties, The Cooper Union.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-madrick

http://current.com/

It was a sure signal that he was ready to throw Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid under the bus. And sure enough. . .

I hoped for better.

n/t