[tomder55]

The new plan by Speaker Bonehead is to kick the debt ceiling can down to road for several months,and force the Senate to pass a budget or forfeit their pay.

Evidently Speaker Bonehead never read the Amendment he helped usher into the Constitution in 1992 .
No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.(27th Amendment ) .

Actually this isn't even kicking the can... since the debt ceiling will be increased ;the new higher number will be the new base line in May. This is more abject surrender.

[tomder55]

Correction... it uses a gimmick to temporarily "suspend " the debt ceiling... sort of .

The bill would suspend the debt ceiling until May 19 rather than increasing its level. It would then retroactively increase the borrowing limit to account for whatever debt the Treasury issues in the interim period to pay its bills. It was structured in this way to avoid House Republican lawmakers having to cast a vote for legislation that would increase the debt ceiling, even though, ultimately that is what will occur.

House Passes Debt-Ceiling Bill - WSJ.com
Disgusting... kudos to the Republicans who voted no.

[talaniman]

I'm not for kicking the can down the road either, just raise the thing and get on with bigger battles to come.

[tomder55]

This is the battle that needs to be engaged at the moment . Right now there is no fight in the opposition party except for the few conservatives who Speaker Bonehead has already marginalized. .

[paraclete]

Tom why does everything have to be a fight, perhaps Boehner has realised that squabbling only damages the nation. The time has come to get some real plans for going forward

[talaniman]

The stock market seems to react when they have news from the hill.

[paraclete]

Not only your stock market but markets around the world, all this fiscal cliff nonsense has been very damaging even though we are not directly involved, we are starting to see normality return, so we hope you aren't going to spoil it with these childish spats

[tomder55]

Yeah everyone likes it when the US government spends money it doesn't have. We have a $16 trillion debt . At the rate we've spend under Emperor Zero we will have a $20+ trillion debt. When is enough enough ?

[paraclete]

Tom I agree you need to control and reduce debt in order to have stability, but brinkmanship to gain political advantage isn't the answer. There are serious issues here that both sides aren't willing to let go of. When you have problems like these you start by removing discretionary expenditure and increasing revenue. You let programs expire and you definitely say no to staples. You restructure so future benefits are different, they may not match what existing programs are but they set long term goals.You need to fundamentally change in the way you do business if you hope to make real inroads into the problem. It is all politically unpalitiable. The problem has been fifty years in the making and it might take fifty years to unwind it. It begins with budgets in surplus and to do that you have to have a real budgettary process

The alternative is to let it all go to hell in a hand cart and allow massive inflation and devaluation to take over

[tomder55]

but brinkmanship to gain political advantage isn't the answer

Tell that to the President . There has to be two partners at the table to negotiate.

You restructure so future benefits are different,

Careful now ;you are talking about the sacred cows of the libs here.

[talaniman]

The problem could have been solved 4 years ago if the repubs number one priority wasn't to say no to everything to make Obama a one term president. All that energy, time and money spent and what do we have to show for it?

Still you blame him, and not acknowledge the part that you guys have played in this exercise in desperation. But conservatives shouldn't panic. Just shut up and get out of the way, and stop pulling crap.

When is enough enough?

[paraclete]

Obviously Tal enough is already enough but partisan politics isn't ready to stop point scoring, there is a whole new crop of politicians who need to count some coup and in this era when few scalps are to be had that might make negotiations difficult

[talaniman]

Theatrics is no substitute for effective governance.

[paraclete]

What universe do you live in Tal? Government is 90% theatrics, photo ops, press calls, hearings, spin. It is what passes for governance

[talaniman]

Then enjoy the theatrics, and don't complain about the lack of governance. Vote for Mickey Mouse, or a conservative.

[speechlesstx]

Theatrics is no substitute for effective governance.

That's an odd phrase coming from someone who supports the master of political theater, our president.