Via Booman, the House GOP response to the specter of sequestration looming over the economy in Friday's depressing jobs reports, and the President's budget offer of again putting chained CPI on the table?
Eric Cantor is promising another brutal debt ceiling battle to force hundreds of billions more in austerity cuts and hurt our credit rating.
On the debt ceiling, Cantor said the House will consider the Full Faith
and Credit Act, H.R. 807. This bill, from Rep. Tom McClintock
(R-Calif.), would require the government to prioritize interest payments
on government debt if the debt ceiling is hit. "I expect the House to
consider legislation in this area in the near future," he wrote.
The
government has the potential to bump up against the ceiling in May.
Earlier this year, Congress passed the No Budget, No Pay Act, which
suspended the debt ceiling limit through May 18.
On May 19, the
debt ceiling will be equal to the level of debt accumulated by that
date, which means Congress will be under pressure to act before then to
increase the ceiling again.
But House Republicans have already
said they would be looking for a deal to cut a dollar of spending for
every dollar increase in the debt ceiling. That sets up a fight with
Democrats, who will likely push for a clean extension that does not
require spending cuts.
So this will put us right back where we were in 2011. Even worse, Booman is 100% right on what prioritizing our payments will mean to international markets and credit ratings agencies: we will be forced to default.
Our credit rating is based on the likelihood that we will pay all
our bills on time. Even the suggestion that we might "prioritize" our
payments is an invitation to downgrade our credit rating. The last time
the House Republicans played around with the debt ceiling our credit
rating was downgraded even though we never had a late payment. It was
downgraded because it was evident that the House Republicans are insane
and might "prioritize" our debt payments in the future, which is exactly
what is being discussed now.
So yes, House Republicans are planning on destroying our economy through wrecking our sovereign credit rating. They hope you will blame Obama for it when they do.
That's the Republican plan for "growth". Punish Americans until we get rid of the Democrats.
"the suggestion that we might "prioritize" our payments is an invitation to downgrade our credit rating"
ReplyDeleteLet me see if I have this right. The Conservative extremists want to cut the GDP even more and at the same time force the downgrade of USA's credit rating. And that is the position they are starting from, if the Dem's don't agree to that, then they will do something even worse.
Clearly Conservative extremists are an enemy of the nation.
Could it have something to do with this?:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/05/sp-lawsuit_n_2621561.html
"The $5 billion in penalties the government is demanding would amount to
several times the annual revenue of McGraw-Hill's Standard & Poor's
Ratings division."
"Experts said the lawsuit could serve as a template for future action
against Fitch and Moody's, the other two major credit rating agencies."
I'm guessing S&P and the others thought it might be a good time to give Eric Cantor a call.
I just found this very informative post, and many of the comments are informative too. Read between the lines ...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/02/should-we-take-the-department-of-justices-suit-against-standard-poors-seriously.html