Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ya-ta Boy]

^
This is just a right wing screed.

What happened in the debt ceiling debacle is that the Bush fiscal policies that brought on the debacle were reinforced and extended. On top of that, the right wing contempt for traditional American values of negotiating in good faith and with a respect for majority rule were thrown out.

Pearl White is tied to the tracks and the Tea Party is driving the train straight toward her tender, innocent body, all the while yelling and screaming, "It's your fault! It's your fault!"

[visitorq]

[Kuros]

The Debt talks were a failure. The proposed cuts will be about $1.5 trillion, and those contingent upon further work by a supercommittee that may fail to persuade Congress. Meanwhile, much was risked, and there were great intangible losses to morale. I think Americans who once believed in the resilience of this country have been shaken (myself included).

Congress is now more unpopular than ever recorded. Than ever recorded.

[Fox]

U.S. Credit Downgraded: S&P Reduces Rating To AA+.

[Ya-ta Boy]

Rapist: It was Obama's fault because he was wearing a mini-skirt. What else was I supposed to do?

That's pretty much Boehner's response today after saying yesterday, "We got 98% of what we wanted."

Yes, S & P's credibility is seriously compromised, but the public is too busy trying to stay solvent to keep track little things like that. IF, and that is a BIG if, there is any justice in the world, the GOP generally, the Tea Party in particular, and the 'moderate' conservatives who sat on their hands and let the Tea Party do this, will be punished.

That's the only silver lining I can see in this debacle.

The only reasonable way forward is:

#1. a comprehensive jobs bill that has a chance of stimulating the economy so revenue can increase and people's lives be rescued (it would include an investment bank like Kerry is talking about, a WPA-style project that puts tons of people to work in construction, bringing back the pile of money the 'jobs creationists' have stashed overseas, and anything else American ingenuity can come up with: all on borrowed money. (I still support the idea of big character posters of 4 or 5 Wall Street types dangling by their neck from lamp posts). Short term deficit be darned.

#2. the Gang of 6 plan, re-jiggered in a leftist direction, offered as a substitute for the Super Congress idea that McConnell et al have already said they were planning to torpedo.

#3. a major drive to reform campaign finance laws to liberate Congress from the big money boys (along with some plan to stop gerrymandering--some states have found a way around it).

**
Back in the good old days of '64 to '68, there were a series of events that led to the left as being seen as violent, anti-American, and generally unfit to govern. It wasn't true, but that is the way it was seen. It opened up an opportunity for the right and they took advantage of it. It led to unending wars and economic destruction, but hey, we're exceptional...

Slowly, too slowly, the public has awakened to the idea that the right is bat guano crazy, addicted to foreign adventures and economic irresponsibility. With each outrage I have been expecting the pendulum to swing back. Each time I was disappointed. This time, maybe I will be vindicated. Too late to save the American economy in the short term, probably...but we know how to do this. FDR showed us the way.

I do NOT see this situation as necessarily leading to American decline. I do see it as a chance to turn away from anti-American values and back to the values that made America great.

I'm not entirely sure Obama has it in him. History rhymes, it does not repeat. He needs the dollar men to give him the best ideas we have. We have not had that so far in this administration. But I do have hope that he can do it. The class warfare and politics of racism and fear that we have been governed under since 1980 will not do it.

[visitorq]

[Ya-ta Boy]

Have you ever thought of offering an original idea, not a talking point from Ron Paul? Just a thought.

You know, if you throw off the blanket and stop sweating so much, turn off the music, and just think...(it isn't really so hard)...you might come up with an idea of your own.

[visitorq]

[Ya-ta Boy]

And yet you offer nothing.

Question: What do you actually think? Should S & P have down-graded us? Who's responsibe for bringing it on? What are the likely consequences?

What's the way out (no, not what RP thinks, what you think)?

[Ya-ta Boy]

Should I wait until we are ordered to use chop sticks, or can I report it now?

China tells U.S. "good old days" of borrowing are over

NEW YORK/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China bluntly criticized the United States on Saturday one day after the superpower's credit rating was downgraded, saying the "good old days" of borrowing were over.

Standard & Poor's cut the U.S. long-term credit rating from top-tier AAA by a notch to AA-plus on Friday over concerns about the nation's budget deficits and climbing debt burden.

China -- the United States' biggest creditor -- said Washington only had itself to blame for its plight and called for a new stable global reserve currency.

"The U.S. government has to come to terms with the painful fact that the good old days when it could just borrow its way out of messes of its own making are finally gone," China's official Xinhua news agency said in a commentary...

China, the largest creditor of the world's sole superpower, has every right now to demand the United States address its structural debt problems and ensure the safety of China's dollar assets," it said.

It urged the United States to cut military and social welfare expenditure. Further credit downgrades would very likely undermine the world economic recovery and trigger new rounds of financial turmoil, it said.


http://finance.yahoo.com/news/China-flays-US-over-credit-rb-3974888722.html?x=0

Thank you, Tea Party.

[visitorq]

[Ya-ta Boy]

WaPo has a nice summary (still rather lengthy) of the whole thing:

Origins of the debt showdown

�I�m asking you to look at a potential increase in the debt limit as a leverage moment when the White House and President Obama will have to deal with us,� said Cantor, one of several new House leaders who detailed the game plan for the coming months. �Either we stick together and demonstrate that we�re a team that will fight for and stand by our principles, or we will lose that leverage.�

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/origins-of-the-debt-showdown/2011/08/03/gIQA9uqIzI_story.html