It's been a scorcher of a week in Washington. A huge dome of hot air moved over the eastern seaboard and camped itself right over the nation's capital. Ambient and perceived temperatures have increased dramatically, turning everyone cranky, making the blood boil, and melting brains and clouding critical thinking skills. It's been going on for what seems like forever, and recent reports suggest it may stay that way for some time to come.
What's needed is a refreshing breeze of facts to clear away the choking dome of hot air over Washington.
Warning: this article contains adult themes and language that some viewers may find offensive. Adults in the room should use their discretion.
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1) The most serious economic problem facing America today is not the federal budget deficits, but is instead widespread JOBS deficits. The greatest danger currently to our financial well-being is high unemployment, not high levels of spending.
2) The best way to resolve our budget deficits is to widely increase employment. High employment increases revenues to the government, giving us more money and long-term strength to pay down our debts.
3) In their campaigns for office in 2010, conservatives ran on a platform of JOBS JOBS JOBS. Since taking office, conservatives have not proposed a single legislation aimed at broadly increasing employment. They HAVE proposed a lot of legislation that cuts spending on employment programs across the US, making finding a job even more difficult..
4) The conservative idea of allowing the government to default on our debts (advocated by some TEA - The Enemies of America - Party members as a way to reduce the size of government and government spending) will result in a down-grading of America's credit rating, higher interest rates on money we already owe, and would therefore result in GREATER debt.
5) Raising the debt ceiling does NOT mean the government will spend more. Raising the debt ceiling is necessary to pay for legislation that the congress has already approved (wars, tax breaks, veteran's benefits, etc). If congress wants to make sure the government does not spend MORE today, tomorrow, and into the future, they need to make sure that any future legislation they pass is revenue balanced. Not raising the debt ceiling today is the equivalent of sitting down in a restaurant, eating a big meal, and then refusing to pay the bill.
6) A “deal” or “grand bargain” on cutting spending or raising the age for Medicare eligibility or increasing taxes is not necessary to raise the debt ceiling. In order to raise the debt ceiling, all congress has to do is raise the debt ceiling, exactly like they did SEVEN TIMES during the Bush administration WITHOUT any debate about cutting spending or increasing revenues.
7) A quick simple bill to raise the debt ceiling does NOT prevent congress and the White House from discussing and debating reductions in spending, cuts to entitlement programs, revenue increases or any other business they feel is important and pressing.
8) John Boehner can not pass his deficit plan through the HOR. He doesn't have enough votes to pass even his own proposal in the HOR. Even if he could muster the needed votes for his plan, it would surely be DOA on reaching the senate.
9) Standard and Poor's rating agency has release a statement saying the Boehner deficit plan would cause the rating agency to mark down the US credit rating.
10) Conservatives have NO credibility on budget deficits and balanced budgets. The last time a conservative administration passed a balanced budget was in 1957, over FIFTY YEARS ago. NOT IN MY LIFETIME has a conservative administration passed a balanced budget (See the excellent article by Laurence Lewis on this topic here: http://www.dailykos.com/...). If conservatives in congress get their wish to pass a balanced budget amendment, the very next thing they would proposed regarding the budget would be a bill to ignore, nullify, or somehow break the balanced budget law.
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May cooler heads prevail.