The First War of the Next Congress: The Debt Ceiling

The Atlantic via Yahoo Finance ^ | 4th November , 2010 | Derek Thompson, contributor

[Candor7]

What message did voters send on Tuesday? .......

The GOP needs to do something that demonstrates measurable success in cutting spending. At minimum, it must prevent an increase in taxes -- for anybody. In general, they'll want to put a break to administrative activities. Block the appropriation process.....

Clamp down on implementation of Obamacare, and EPA rule making. Perhaps the Department of Labor deserves some scrutiny. Obamacare is the headliner, but how would you defund it? The popular insurance regulations rely on the mandate. The mandate relies on funding. You kill the funding, and you kill the popular regulations. They have to tackle the day to day process that goes on inside HHS and Treasury and other agencies to implement various parts of the new law as it comes on line in the next few years. You want to repeal Obamacare, one month at a time, not letting funds be appropriated. Republicans have won both the House and many state legislatures. Work with the states setting up these exchanges, and stop the funding. Will Republicans support the deficit commission's recommendations? Not if it has tax increases in it. .......

[paul51]

they should also justify their existence under the constitution. an agency may serve some useful purpose but that shouldn't be the determinant for what gov’t does or doesn’t do.

[kosciusko51]

I thought about that. Many of these agencies are created by laws that need to be defended by congress and not the agency heads. Perhaps the laws that created them should be debated and repealed because of no constitutional basis.

Anyhow, I would like to see all the bureaucrats be required to explain why their jobs are necessary. Make them squirm for once.

[ClearCase_guy]

Reagan won the Cold War by building missiles. He went toe-to-toe with Gorbachev, rather than showing fear the way other presidents had. Reagan won the war without a shot -- although many people thought it was madness.

Look, on a political spectrum of extreme rightwing craziness to extreme leftwing craziness, if I take a position of dead-in-the-center-perfect-reasonableness and then negotiate with an extreme leftwing crazy, I know which way that conversation is going to go. It will drift to the Left. We've been doing that for decades. Our country is a right-of-center country, but our government is basically a socialist government. That's because Republicans start from a moderate position, and then negotiate with extreme Leftwing crazies.

I want to deliberately take a crazy rightwing position and start from there, and I think it's worth it. Gingrich blew it in 1995, because he blinked. Reagan won the Cold War because he made the other guy blink.

I'm not reasonable on the issue. I think being reasonable on this issue is stupid.

[IamConservative]

I think the debt ceiling issue should be wrapped around getting a budget passed. Make the dems be seen as the ones who won’t cut spending.

[kabar]

We will just agree to disagree. In any event, it is not going to happen. Dems and Reps will vote to increase the debt ceiling because it is the only way our government can continue to operate. We need to go after the cause of the problem, not the symptom.

[Wolfie]

[ClearCase_guy]

Yes, we agree that we diagree. No big deal.

But I will agree that going after the cause and not the symptom is the right approach. I just think that allowing deficit spending IS the cause. You think deficit spending is unavoidable and that it should be facilitated by Republicans by raising the debt ceiling. I say go after the cause and shut the government down until the Democrats get very serious about a debt reduction plan.

[kabar]

I just think that allowing deficit spending IS the cause. You think deficit spending is unavoidable and that it should be facilitated by Republicans by raising the debt ceiling.

You got it totally wrong. I believe that we need to balance our budget and stop deficit spending. But you cannot do that overnight. There has to be a long term plan and an organizede appraoch. What you want to do is childish and counterproductive. Shutting down the government will put pressure on the Reps, not the Dems.

[ClearCase_guy]

There has to be a long term plan and an organized appraoch.

It's not at all clear to me how that conversation begins. I've been waiting for it to begin for a good 30 years. Two years of trillion dollar deficits tell me that some folks have no interest in this topic.

I'll concede that I've been describing an unrealistic approach -- but seriously: How do you expect to initiate a realistic conversation about deficit reduction? The Democrats aren't going to participate. I say that based on 30 years of observation.

The position I've been arguing for? It's unrealistic. There. I said it.
The position that you seem to support? That we need to agree on an organized approach? Exactly what can you say that tells that this is a realistic approach?

Anyone reading our interchange would say that I'm crazy and that you are far more reasonable. But I would maintain that both of our positions are crazy. Yours just sounds more level-headed.

To be very clear: We clearly want the same thing. I just don't see how this country gets there.

[Candor7]

I don’t think they should offer any carrots, just gi back to helath care as we know it, and deregulate, open it up so that the plans are not state bound so there is competition.

If GOP spends money it should be for grants to hospitals to expand cheap Emergency Care, with a sliding fee scale based on income.

[kabar]

The Tea Party movement and the election results indicate to me that the public gets it. They understand that something needs to be done or we will wind up like Greece.

Obama appointed this deficit commission, which is just away of deferring the responsibilty to someone else to make the hard decisions. Paul Ryan will be chairman of the finance committee. He is a good conservative and has a plan. Getting it adopted is another matter.

This country has some very difficult, painful decisions to make. Anyone who says we can get out of this mess without any pain is lying. Both parties need to come together on the problem rather than demogoging it for political advantage. They have to speak to Ameircans as adults.

Obama is such an ideologue and partisan, I doubt he will be able to make the hard decisions. We will have to wait two years to get something done. In the meantime, we stop his agenda, including spending, and try to roll back some of the things he has already done. The Reps need to paint him as the bad guy and not let Obama blame Congress and Bush for all of our problems.

Shutting down the government just plays into his hands. Let the House start investigating the Administration. Let them show how much ObamaCare really costs. Revenge is a dish best served cold.

[SaraJohnson]

Review and cut “stimulous” money that is wasteful and cut health care measure stuck in there like the Federal health computer system and death panel rationing creepiness.

Take back unspent Tarp money and when banks pay back the money put it back in the general fund. Right now it is a slush fund for the corrupt.