Monday, January 03, 2011
Regarding the debt ceiling
Obama advisor Austan Goolsbee threw down the gauntlet yesterday, denouncing Republicans who are threatening to vote against an increase in the legislative ceiling for the national debt:
Appearing on ABC's "This Week," Austan Goolsbee, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, laid out the fairly alarming implications of the United States defaulting on its obligations while asking the question: What type of insanity would persuade us to do this?
"Well, look, it pains me that we would even be talking about this," he told co-host Jake Tapper. "This is not a game. You know, the debt ceiling is not something to toy with. If we hit the debt ceiling, that's essentially defaulting on our obligations, which is totally unprecedented in American history. The impact on the economy would be catastrophic. That would be a worse financial economic crisis than anything we saw in 2008."
"As I say that's not a game," Goolsbee went on. "I don't see why anybody's talking about playing chicken with the debt ceiling. If we get to the point where you've damaged the full faith and credit of the United States, that would be the first default in history caused purely by insanity. There would be no reason for us to default other than that would be some kind of game. We shouldn't even be discussing that. People will get the wrong idea. The United States is not in danger of default. We do not have problems with that. This would be lumping us in with a series of countries throughout history that i don't think we would want to be lumped in with."
So, apparently Barack Obama is insane. Prolly should have checked with the boss before going out with "insanity" to describe a vote against raising the debt ceiling. But at least we know what Goolsbee thinks of people who vote the way Barack Obama do.
5 Comments:
By 
JPMcT, at
Mon Jan 03, 11:19:00 PM:
"But at least we know what Goolsbee thinks of people who vote the way Barack Obama do."
Democrats have no fear of history. A good portion of their constituency couldn't descibe the shape of their state and it's location on a globe...much less take umbrage on a vote on the debt ceiling.
...as long as people think that the "Obama money" is going to put somebody elses money in their mailbox, they honestly couldn't care less.
By Georg Felis, at
Tue Jan 04, 12:55:00 AM:
It can be a little...ok, a lot frightening that the "smart people" who have attained such high status and office, have less money sense than my barber.
Building a debt pyramid only works on the way up, the moment you get a hiccup or a minor drop, the whole deck of cards comes tumbling down. (see Madoff, Bernard) These people think that choking off the insane government spending will trigger a collapse. They may be right. But allowing the debt to pile up and up and up will guarantee an even bigger collapse, that we may not be able to climb back out from underneath.
If reality soaks in, this Congress will be enacting major and real budget cuts and freezes on nearly every government program in existence.
By 
, at
Tue Jan 04, 08:25:00 AM:
I'm beginning to lthink more of Goolsbee. Anyone referring to the President as insane and game-playing probably won't last very long, though.
By , at
Tue Jan 04, 09:03:00 AM:
Obama & Co are trying to spin the Republicans as crazy and irresponsible if they resist raising the debt ceiling in order to force spending cuts. That Obama voted against raising the debt ceiling in 2006 shows the hypocrisy.
I'd expect the treasury market to welcome the Republicans taking a tough stand.
Didn't Reagan flirt with this? If I recall correctly, Reagan & Co found a way to cut social security checks and keep essential government going, but there was a stoppage in non-essential government.
By , at
Tue Jan 04, 09:50:00 AM:
If the Congress attaches an across the board 10% cut in all non-active duty military federal pay to the increase in the debt ceiling, the GOP base will love them and it will put Austan's boss in a crazy bad spot.
Love to see that!
