If you missed the president’s umpteenth speech last night, you didn’t miss anything.
It was the same old, same old, same old, same old, same old stalling, fear-mongering, and blame-shifting.
Seriously, if his debt demagoguery gets run through the spin cycleagain, the drive belt is going to snap.
As for House GOP Speaker Boehner’s plan to increase the debt limit and create another in a long line of endless do-nothing commissions, Erik Erickson calls it “Punt, Kick, and Pass.”
So do a stalwart number of House conservatives.
The chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee wasted little time announcing his opposition to the House GOP leadership’s two-step plan to raise the debt ceiling.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who stood — visibly uncomfortable — next to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) during Monday’s announcement of the plan, released a statement saying he would vote “no” on the measure.
“While I thank the Speaker for fighting for Republican principles, I cannot support the plan that was presented to House Republicans this afternoon,” Jordan said.
Conservative lawmakers Reps. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.) also came out against Boehner’s plan.
Jordan argued that his leadership team should stand behind a measure that the House approved on a party-line vote last week — the “cut, cap and balance” bill that failed in the Senate.
Boehner’s proposal features ten-year mandatory spending caps, consideration of a balanced budget amendment before the end of the year, and two stages of debt limit increases — the first reusing Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell’s reverse vote maneuvering and the second tied to future recommendations of the future, recycled entitlement/tax reform commission (UGH). In theory, the plan floats $3 trillion in cuts.
Here is Boehner’s full plan titled the “Budget Control Act of 2011″ — released last night as an amendment to S627 to speed up consideration of the proposal:
Wash. Times
If we end up stalemated and we get downgraded what happens next?
Kevin D. Williamson opines that many of our financial institutions that have heavy holdings in US Treasuries will also be downgraded.
Two of those are New York Life and Northwestern Mutual.
Many banks could find themselves downgraded as well, just because of all the U.S. government debt on their balance sheets.
AAA-rated Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program, could get downgraded as well, along with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Banks, and, critically, the FDIC.
State and local governments are holding another $1 trillion or so in Treasuries, meaning that the credit profile of our already struggling states and cities would worsen.
Illinois and California would be the BIG canaries in the coalmine.
If they become insolvent, watch out!
In English: If the government isn’t AAA, nothing that the government backs is AAA, either.