Debt Talks in Disarray as House Balks

".......A day that was supposed to bring Washington to the edge of resolving the fiscal showdown instead seemed to bring chaos and retrenching. And a bitter fight that had begun over stripping money from the president’s signature health care law had essentially descended in the House into one over whether lawmakers and their staff members would pay the full cost of their health insurance premiums, unlike most workers at American companies, and how to restrict the administration from using flexibility to extend the debt limit beyond a fixed deadline.............."

An interesting piece in the American Spectator "Return to Ruby Ridge - Could it happen again? We all know it could." From Ben’s Diary...

Further down in Stein's piece in the section "Sunday":

Sunday
"ANOTHER GLORIOUS DAY here in Sandpoint. By the way, I hope people have realized who got us all screwed up over Syria. It was our next president, Hillary Rodham Clinton. She was secretary of state when the Syrian rebellion started. She was the one who told Obama to butt out when U.S. intervention in even a small way would have meant victory by moderate rebels. She made sure the struggle got so intense that at the end it was only the two last rats standing—Assad and al Qaeda—so that no choice was a good choice for the U.S. Hillary Clinton, architect of Benghazi, major liar before Congress, always looks a bit under the weather. The thought of her as president is terrifying. Obama is like Marcus Aurelius compared to Hillary....."

However, if we yield to the rats, there will be an instant Constitution Crisis. Of course the Constitution means nothing to Herr Obozo and his facist cabinet and insiders:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3079233/posts

Congressman: ‘Constitutional Crisis’ if GOP Caves on Debt Ceiling
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Go ^ | 15 October 2013 | Matthew Boyle

Posted on Tuesday, October 15, 2013 10:34:02 AM by 11th_VA

On the House floor on Monday, Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) argued that President Barack Obama’s activities during the government shutdown over Obamacare are a sign to him that Obama would act nefariously to attack the full faith and credit of the United States of America by taking the country into a default in a debt ceiling crisis if the president does not get everything he wants in negotiations.

“Given the ruthless and vindictive way the shutdown has been handled, I now believe that this president would willfully act to destroy the full faith and credit of the United States unless the Congress acquiesces to all of his demands, at least as long as he sees political advantage in doing so,” McClintock said in a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives. “If the Republicans acquiesce, immediate crisis will quickly vanish, credit markets will calm and public life will return to other matters. But a fundamental element of our Constitution will have been destroyed. The power of the purse will have shifted from the representatives of the people to the executive. The executive bureaucracies will be freed to churn out ever more outlandish regulations with no effective congressional review or check through the purse. A perilous era will have begun in which the president sets spending levels and vetoes any bill falling short of his demands. Whenever a deadline approaches, one house can simply refuse to negotiate with the other until Congress is faced with the Hobson’s choice of a shutdown or a default. The nation’s spending will again dangerously accelerate. The deficit

The reality of a real debt limit:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3076090/posts?page=1

The Debt Ceiling is the Law of the Land
redstate.com ^ | 10/6/13 | Daniel Horowitz
Posted on Monday, October 07, 2013 6:07:28 PM by cotton1706

Over the past few weeks, Democrats have indicated that they have no intention of negotiating over Obamacare, opting instead to shut down the government. They are justifying their obstinacy by asserting that Obamacare is the law of the land. Well, if that is the game they want to play, we should return the favor with the debt ceiling. The debt ceiling, pursuant to the Second Liberty Bond Act of 1917, is the law of the land. And it has been so for far longer than Obamacare.

Throughout this debate over funding Obamacare in the budget bill, House GOP leaders have stressed how the debt ceiling was the more appropriate means of fighting Obamacare. After all, it was “the next fight.” But as if on cue, some Republicans are already using the same Democrat talking points about the risk of default.

We are going to hear this erroneous talking point propagated by both parties over the next few weeks, so let’s put the myth to rest. The only way we default on the debt is if we fail to pay the interest on the public debt. According to the updated budget projection from the CBO, interest on the debt will be roughly $237 billion for 2014. Thanks to the short-term revenue benefits of the fiscal cliff and Obamacare tax hikes, the federal government is expected to rake in a record $3.042 trillion from the private economy this year.

Let’s engage in a simple math exercise. $3.042 trillion – $237 billion = $2.805 trillion. As long as the Treasury pays the first $237 billion in revenue to the shareholders of our debt, there will be no default, and we will have $2.805 trillion left to spend. Again, default is taken off the table. Discussion over.

What do you do with the remaining funds? You start funding core functions of government and those programs that people are already dependent on.

Social Security (retirement and disability) – $848 billion
Medicare – $505 billion
Medicaid – $298 billion
Defense – $582 billion
Veterans – $83 billion

Those expenditures account for roughly $2.3 trillion. The remaining half trillion can be prioritized as needed for other functions related to homeland security, national parks, or any other limited function.

Hence, the debt ceiling is a built-in balanced budget mechanism. If Democrats want to fund other functions of government, they need to commit to a balanced budget. If they want to fund the HHS and the IRS, they need to get rid of Obamacare. If they want to fund the EPA, they need to get rid of the war on coal.

The power of the purse manifest in the House of Representatives, in conjunction with the debt ceiling law, reflects democracy at work, especially with divided government. It’s time we stop peddling the myth of default, and start using our leverage to restore constitutional government and bring relief to those who are losing jobs and suffering from the high cost of living engendered by the harmful activities of the unconstitutional aspects of government.

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