Obama’s Debt Ceiling Doublespeaksnip
Hudson: ....I think the whole argument in Congress is a charade that was pretty much set up two years ago, when the Obama administration first took office and Mr. Obama appointed the reduction commission of Republican Senator Simpson and Clinton manager Bowles. When Mr. Obama went on television two days ago, he said he’s hoping to reach a compromise, which is pretty much what this commission said. And the people he appointed to the commission to head it were the people who said, number one, cut back Social Security. If you have to choose between paying Social Security and Wall Street, pay our clients, Wall Street. And secondly, cut back Medicare. But most especially, cut back Medicaid to the poor. You have to give money to the job creators, mainly the financial managers who are closing down firms, downsizing, and outsizing–outsourcing on labor. They’re called job creators instead of–to the people who actually get work and spend money on goods and services, which is what’s keeping the market going in business.
JAY: Now, somebody who defends the Obama administration would probably say, number one, Obama was dealing with the political reality in America that public opinion and the press and the media were heavily on the side that government needs to be cut. And they would also probably make the argument that there are inefficiencies that could be cut. I mean, Obama did at least early on in his administration say–talk about the need for stimulus. So that certainly his waned. Do you think there’s any merit to some of that defense?
HUDSON: I think that words–Mr. Obama’s great with words. He says one thing, and he does the opposite. Here’s basically the charade that’s happening when he’s trying to be reasonable. In order for him to move way to the right and to continue the Bush administration policies, he needs the Republicans to move even further to the right. They have to be so extreme that they’re perceived as the crazies. And then Mr. Obama can say, look, they will give Mr. Obama room to move way to the right, because he’ll say, I’m not as crazy as Michelle Bachman. I’m not as crazy as Boehner. I’m not as crazy as the Republican leaders. But they were going to close down the government, and that would have really hurt us. And we have to–we do have to cut what’s inefficient. What’s inefficient? Paying for people on Medicaid. Got to cut it. What’s inefficient? Medicare. Got to cut it. What’s inefficient? Paying Social Security. What is efficient? Giving $13 trillion to Wall Street for a bailout. Now, how on earth can the administration say, in the last three years we have given $13 trillion to Wall Street, but then, in between 2040 and 2075, we may lose $1 trillion, no money for the people? That is absolutely crazy. So when we talk about public opinion, we’re talking not about public opinion that watches your Real News Network; we’re talking about the public opinion of Fox TV and sort of the echo chamber that says–that presents the financial sector as job creators rather than job destroyers.
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HUDSON: It’s not about the abyss at all. It’s not about the debt ceiling. It’s about making an agreement now under an emergency conditions. You remember what Obama’s staff aide Rahm Emanuel said. He said a crisis is too important to waste. They’re using this crisis as a chance to ram through a financial policy, an anti-Medicare, anti-Medicaid, anti—selling out Social Security that they could never do under the normal course of things. They’re using this to stampede the Democrats.
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http://michael-hudson.com/2011/07/obamas-debt-ceiling-doublespeak/*******************************************************************************************
A World Upside Down? Ferguson and Johnson Take on Deficit HysteriaJuly 2011
Thomas Ferguson and Robert Johnson, Roosevelt Institute
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Key findings:
· Claims that economic growth falls off at anywhere near current US levels of debt to GDP are untrue. Neither is it the case that cutting deficits magically stimulates the economy. And stories about 90% limits are untrue.
· The CBO August 2010 budget revision implies that the U.S. is less endangered than most analysts claim.
· Private oligopolies in health and defense spending, along with the possibility of another banking crisis, are the real threats to the deficit, not entitlements.
· Social Security is in essentially no danger for decades and does not require any fix.
· It would be easy to stimulate the economy with a program of public investment that would substantially reduce public debts in the long run.
http://www.newdeal20.org/2010/12/02/a-world-upside-down-deficit-fantasies-in-the-great-recession-thomas-ferguson-and-robert-johnson-expose-unnecessary-deficit-hysteria-28658/ *********************************************************************************************
Hawk Nation: A Guide to the Catastrophic Debt Ceiling DebateMonday, 07/11/2011 - 2:13 pm by James K. Galbraith
President Obama’s proposed debt ceiling deal is a disastrous solution to an imaginary fiscal crisis, but the pain it causes will be all too real.
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The debt ceiling was first enacted in 1917. Why? The date tells all: we were about to enter the Great War. To fund that effort, the Wilson government needed to issue Liberty Bonds. This was controversial, and the debt ceiling was cover, passed to reassure the rubes that Congress would be “responsible” even while the country went to war. It was, from the beginning, an exercise in bad faith and has remained so every single second to the present day.
Today this bad-faith law is pressed to its absurd extreme, to force massive cuts in public programs as the price of not-reneging on the public debts of the United States. Never mind that to force default on the public obligations of the United States is plainly unconstitutional. Section 4 of the 14th amendment says in simple language that public debts, once duly authorized by law and including pensions, by the way, “shall not be questioned.” ........
......What is going on in Congress at this moment already violates that mandate. It is an effort to subvert the authority of the government to meet and therefore to incur obligations of every possible stripe. It is an attack on the concept of government itself – as the “Tea Party” by its very name would no doubt agree. It therefore paints those deficit hawks who are using the debt ceiling to take budget hostages as enemies of the United States Constitution.
........The President, though supposedly a constitutional expert and though sworn to “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution, will not say this. Instead he appears to treat the Constitution as an optional matter, to which he will not resort, in the hope that by negotiating with the hostage- takers he can reach some reasonable outcome that will preserve everyone’s good name.......
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......Fiscal crisis? The entire thing is a figment, made up of wise-men’s warnings repeated endlessly and linked to the projections of technicians at the Congressional Budget Office and elsewhere.
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http://www.newdeal20.org/2011/07/11/hawk-nation-a-guide-to-the-catastrophic-debt-ceiling-debate-51211/
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