government reform

Moody’s Tries to Scare Us

Mark Noonan14 Comments

From Market Watch:

Moody’s Investors Service said late Wednesday it placed the U.S. government’s triple-A bond rating on review for possible downgrade due to rising risk of default. “The review of the U.S. government’s bond rating is prompted by the possibility that the debt limit will not be raised in time to prevent a missed payment of interest or principal on outstanding bonds and notes. As such, there is a small but rising risk of a short-lived default,” Moody’s said…

This is the global Ruling Class circling the wagons – there is absolutely zero danger that a bondholder won’t get paid.  But they are fretful of the precedent – that is, they are worried that we, the people of the United States, will discover that the world won’t end if Uncle Sam stops spending money.  That would be pretty much game over for them…once we see it happen, we’ll probably start making all sorts of demands for spending cuts and that could lead just about anywhere – President Palin, balanced budgets, a revived American economy, bitter-clingers ruling the roost…it is all just too terrible to contemplate.  So, better try and frighten the yokels…Obama did his bit by claiming old people won’t get their SS, now Moody’s is doing it’s bit by claiming that disaster impends.

Don’t buy the scare tactics and the hype – there is no financial crisis for the United States government.  Not yet.  That will come some where in 2015 if we don’t cut spending, not in 2011 if we fail to go further in to debt.  To be sure, there is a danger of a complete economic melt down – but that will be triggered by China and/or Europe, not by us; and there is nothing we can do to stop any of that, though we could make matters much worse by having more debt than we should when the crash comes.  Republicans, conservatives, libertarians – remain calm:  stand firm on principal and all will be well.

Boehner: Obama is Like Jell-O

Mark Noonan5 Comments

From ABC:

In a meeting with a small group of reporters in his Capitol Hill office this morning, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, criticized President Obama and White House officials for their lack of resolve in negotiations.

“Dealing with them the last couple months has been like dealing with Jell-o,” Boehner said. “Some days it’s firmer than others. Sometimes it’s like they’ve left it out over night.”

Boehner explained that talks broke down over the weekend because, he said, the president backed off entitlement reforms so much from Friday to Saturday, “It was Jell-o; it was damn near liquid.”

Rather hard to negotiate with someone who’s position continually shifts.  We’ve seen this before – again and again Obama has refused to put his own ideas firmly on the table…meanwhile, however, the business of the country does need to be done, so men and women with more firmness come up with actual proposals, only to see them sink in the morass of Obama indecision.

I doubt there is much left in Obama outside a desire to be re-elected.  He seems to have resigned any semblance of leadership in domestic or foreign policy and is only interested in events in so far as he feels he can use them for personal, political advantage.

It is probably time for us to give up on Obama and negotiations:  pass a bill which raises the debt limit while cutting $1.50 for each additional dollar of new debt and just hand it off to the Senate.  Let them vote it up or down, or amend it and send it back to the House.  We can sit back and wait – we’ll have passed our plan and can reasonably state to the American people that we’re just waiting to see what Reid and Obama come up with in response.

At any rate, there is something wrong – and vaguely un-American – in seeing our Congressional leaders closeted with the President to work out a plan which, presumptively, would be passed through Congress with minimal debate and no real chance to amend…a sort of decree from on high which Congress is supposed to rubber stamp.  Better to just do it properly and let the political chips fall where they may – in the end, if we stand firm on principal while showing our willingness to do the job, we’ll reap the benefit, in my view.

Obama to GOP: One False Move and Granny Gets It

Mark Noonan23 Comments

A disgusting scare tactic on the part of the President, but entirely expected:

President Obama on Tuesday said he cannot guarantee that retirees will receive their Social Security checks August 3 if Democrats and Republicans in Washington do not reach an agreement on reducing the deficit in the coming weeks.

“I cannot guarantee that those checks go out on August 3rd if we haven’t resolved this issue. Because there may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it,” Mr. Obama said in an interview with CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley, according to excerpts released by CBS News…

Which is entirely BS – Social Security has its own funding mechanism and there is currently more than enough money coming in to it to ensure that the checks go out on the 3rd.  Obama is just trying to scare oldsters in to putting pressure on the GOP – hoping that such pressure will force the GOP to cave in on a debt ceiling increase without any fundamental budget reform.

Now Obama’s cards are entirely on the table – to preserve Big Government is his only goal.  That we are heading towards bankruptcy and renewed recession doesn’t matter.  That we can’t afford tax hikes and must cut spending is unimportant.  What is important to Obama is that the pork he has spread around his constituencies since 2009 continue.  Think about it – we are spending at least a trillion more per year since Obama took office.  We can dispense with that additional trillion and still have all the money we need for social services, defense, etc, etc, etc.  It is just that Obama doesn’t want to give up that extra money he and his Democrats piled on when they held the Congressional majority.  This is the core of Obamunism:  piles of money for everyone who helps elect liberals.

Hold firm, GOP – don’t blink.  Let the Democrats carry Big Government in to 2012 all by themselves.  Even if by some chance the American people choose Obama and his Democrats, then at least we will have gone down fighting for what is right…but my belief is that the majority are seeing through the scam, and we will reap the reward if we hold firm.

Michelle Bachmann, Hero

Mark Noonan6 Comments

She understands:

I saw Bachmann on O’Reilly and I have to say that while Bachmann was great, she did flub one of her answerst.  O’Reilly about whether or not Geithner is lying – whether, that is, we’ll really have a catastrophe if we don’t raise the debt ceiling?  Bachmann answered that Geithner is wrong – probably out of an unwillingness to ever directly call someone a liar (one bit of courage we are sorely lacking in the modern world).  Bachammn should have answered like this:

“Lying?  I don’t know, Bill; lying our stupid.  Think about it:  what Geithner, Obama and the rest are saying is that the only way to avoid bankruptcy is to go further in to debt. ”

You have to be some kind of special definition of obtuse to believe such nonsense – piling on more debt is what will cause our default.  The way to avoid default is to cease piling on more debt.  Remember, the only reason to raise the debt ceiling is because you want to borrow more money – you want to continue to live beyond your means.  I don’t know about any of you, but it seems to me that the best course of action for a man teetering on the edge of bankruptcy is to spend less money – certainly not to borrow any more.

Bachmann is right, though, about the fact that we won’t default – we have plenty of revenues coming in to pay off old debts, roll them over with new debts and meet the vital needs – social security, medicare/medicaid, defense, etc.  What we don’t have the money for is things like the Departments of Commerce, Labor and Energy, as well as whole swaths of more useful Departments like Health and Defense.  We can, if we are only willing to offend core, Democrat constituencies, easily cut several hundred billion out of the 2012 budget…and that would eliminate any need for raising the debt ceiling.  Bachmann sees this – so does a small but growing number of Congressional GOPers.  So, too, will a majority of the American people once it is properly explained to them.

So, this makes Bachmann a hero – she said it:  the Emperor has no clothes – debt does not make you rich.  It is the first step in restoring fiscal sanity to our nation.

Obama to Hold News Conference About Debt

Mark Noonan8 Comments

Having failed in his efforts to get the GOP to commit political suicide by caving in on taxes, Obama is now just seeking the last ounce of political advantage he can from the debt talks – from Reuters:

U.S. President Barack Obama will hold a news conference at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT) on Monday about the status of negotiations to cut the deficit and raise the debt ceiling, the White House said on Sunday.

Obama met with congressional leaders for about 75 minutes Sunday evening and will meet again with them on Monday “to discuss the ongoing efforts to find a balanced approach to deficit reduction,” the White House said, without giving a time for that session.

I think that for the Democrats they are mostly working out a campaign theme for 2012 – the reason things are lousy is because those mean, greedy Republicans wouldn’t agree to a tax hike on millionaire’s and billionaire’s corporate jets.  No, seriously; it is how things are shaping up.  Yes, Democrats are that out of ideas and that convinced that the American people are infantile enough to buy it.

This 11 am presser – a bit of an odd time to hold one – is to try and grab hold of the media narrative for the remainder of the debt talks.  Obama is trying to make it so that the MSM continually asks Republicans why they won’t tax corporate jets.  The idea is that endless repetition will make the GOP look bad and give Obama and his Democrats a lot of good sound bites for the 2012 campaign (remember, America can go down in flames – for Democrats that is not nearly as bad as a Democrat losing an election:  all else is subordinated to Democrat victory).  Of course, this will only work, at all, if Obama comes across in a Presidential manner.  If he spends half an hour just insulting the GOP, then people will simply tune him out, no matter how much his MSM lapdogs try to make it otherwise.

We’ll see how it comes out – but I’ve never been more confident about conservative/libertarian political prospects than I am now.

Boehner Seeks Limited Budget Deal

Mark Noonan28 Comments

A statement from the Speaker:

Despite good-faith efforts to find common ground, the White House will not pursue a bigger debt reduction agreement without tax hikes. I believe the best approach may be to focus on producing a smaller measure, based on the cuts identified in the Biden-led negotiations, that still meets our call for spending reforms and cuts greater than the amount of any debt limit increase.

It does appear we are at an impasse – Democrats won’t go for a major package without tax hikes, while we can’t accept tax hikes.  Unless there was a cave-in by the GOP, this is pretty much what I expected.

Of course, it would be better if we didn’t agree to any increase in the debt limit – there would be scare stories aplenty if that happened and the markets would at least temporarily tank…but as the markets are due to tank, anyway, the actual economic effect would be minimal.  And I do believe that as on the morrow of no new debt the world did not end, people would shrug off the event and any hit we took in the polls would be short-lived – and the long term payoff would be immense as the people would absolutely trust us on the matter of the budget.

But, we don’t quite have that sort of Congress, yet.  We’ll have to work for one in 2012 – meanwhile, a mini-deal which actually cuts spending will be good for the country and good for us…and we can carry the fight in to next year, with the Democrats having to defend Big Government while we defend freedom.

Now, if we could only get the GOP leadership to make it a fight against Big Government and Big Corporation and really hang the rotten system on the Democrats, that would be wonderful…

Chances for Budget Deal Fade

Mark Noonan12 Comments

From the New York Times:

President Obama’s drive for a supersize budget deal was further complicated on Friday by the release of unexpectedly weak employment figures, which Republicans seized on to bolster their arguments against possible tax increases and Democrats said were reason to limit painful spending cuts…

If this does create an impasse then that will probably be for the best – no tax hikes can be contemplated, and massive spending cuts must be done.  This is the requirement of common sense in this – we’re bankrupt and we must not spend as much as we have been; meanwhile, our economy is teetering on the edge of a new recession and so we don’t dare put even the lightest additional burden on it.  If Democrats can’t see their way to clear to merely roll back spending to 2008 levels – all that would be required – then there is nothing to discuss.

We’ll see how this comes out, but it does appear that the Congressional GOP has discovered a back bone (or had one implanted by the TEA Party) and at the very least any deal which does come out will be defensible on conservative/libertarian grounds.

Senator Lee Explains Constitution to Tax Cheat Tim Geithner

Mark Noonan16 Comments

Senator Lee was, of course, once a clerk for Justice Alito, so he’s probably on firm ground here.   Lee points out two very important points – only Congress can authorize debt and and the 14th Amendment requires the Secretary of the Treasury to ensure that valid US debts are paid.  What this means is that Geithner can’t exceed the debt limit while he must pay the debts as they come due even if this means that other obligations of the United States are laid aside.  As Geithner  cannot lay aside Social Security and Medicare (they are entitlements with their own funding sources, the only thing he can do if he can’t borrow to pay old debts is to take money out of discretionary spending.  This means he’ll have to pull the money out of the Departments of Commerce, Labor, Defense, Education, Energy, etc, etc, etc.

And that, my friends, is the real reason Obama wants this increase in the debt ceiling – he is afraid to show the American people that we don’t need to go further in debt and doubly afraid to show that if massive cuts are made to federal spending no one will notice.  The whole thing about Big Government is the ability to convince people that utter disaster would result without it…that if we don’t keep the money rolling right on and up and up in Big Government, people will die; kids won’t get educated, granny will eat dog food…only Big Government can rescue us from this fate worse than death!   The truth of the matter, of course, is that at least half of government spending is completely wasted.  Money we don’t need to spend but which is spent to keep people on the gravy train.  That is what Geithner will have to cut if the debt ceiling isn’t raised.

I am a bit disappointed in my Congressional GOP that they do seem willing to increase the debt ceiling at some point.  I am happy that they seem to be holding very firm on no tax hikes and the need for significant cuts and spending reform…but the fact of the matter is that the debt ceiling does not need to be raised.  I believe we could educate the majority up to this if we really tried – and if we did it we’d be taking the last bit of leverage liberals have…fear that a failure to raise the debt ceiling would be catastrophic.  But, I guess we can only get so much at one time – in 2012 we’ll hopefully elect even more like Lee, and then we’ll be able to press things to an absolute conclusion.

Senator Snowe Backs Balanced Budget

Mark Noonan1 Comment

Showing exceptional GOP unity on the issue – from Politico:

No deal to raise the debt ceiling is complete without an amendment to the Constitution requiring a balanced federal budget to prevent Congress “from hijacking the promise of American prosperity,” two Senate Republicans are arguing as a bipartisan group of congressional leaders heads to the White House on Thursday.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) say that while deep budget cuts and caps on future spending are key to warding off “fiscal calamity,” an amendment to the Constitution forcing the federal government to spend only what it has is essential…

If there is such a thing as a “liberal Republican” these days, it is Senator Snowe.  At best, she’s only a couple steps to the right of Joe Lieberman.  But, in the end, balancing the budget is no longer an ideological issue for anyone with sense – in 2011, you are either in favor of a balanced budget or you are an idiot or you are a corrupt tool of the Ruling Class.  Pick which one you are, because those really are the three choices. Continue reading →

DeMint Explains How to Fight Democrats

Mark Noonan2 Comments

First off, by having no illusions – from NRO’s The Corner:

…“The Democrats will not give us anything that will not humiliate and shame us, unless we make them,” he warns. “It’s a stare down, and a lot of Republicans don’t have a taste for it.” Yet DeMint sees no other choice: “If Democrats won’t cut public broadcasting, if they won’t cut Planned Parenthood, how do we expect them to really cut anything that means anything?”

He reminds Republicans that Democrats walked into “a public-opinion buzz saw” to pass Obamacare. And he predicts, “If we don’t pass anything, then we’re on defense the whole time.”…

And in light of that, DeMint is urging House passage of “cut, cap and balance”:  Cut spending by $700 billion next year, cap spending at no more than 18% of GDP and pass a balanced budget amendment which includes a requirement for a 2/3 vote to raise taxes.  With that, we can tell Obama and his Democrats that we agree to raising the debt ceiling – just as soon as “cut, cap and balance” passes out of the Senate.

This is a winning strategy – the people are on the side of real budget cuts; the people are on the side of a balanced budget amendment; the people are opposed to tax increases…but people are and will remain wary of default, and so the Democrats do have some leverage in the debt ceiling debate (the majority are wrong to view it thus – but a generally held opinion, whether well- or ill-founded cannot lightly be set aside).  This strategy gives us the whip hand – and the people will wonder why Democrats don’t allow it and thus also get the debt ceiling increase they claim is vital.

In the end, it doesn’t matter if the Democrats do or don’t – if they do, it works to our advantage because we will have put America’s fiscal house in order.  If they don’t, then they get to carry their profligate spending in to 2012.  I hope that the rest of the Congressional GOP pays heed to DeMint.