IT DOESN’T HAPPEN OFTEN, BUT …
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (RINO-S.C.) has been veering wildly to the left lately on fiscal issues, but credit where credit is due … the so-called “third Senator from New York” is explicitly rejecting U.S. President Barack Obama’s attempt to assume exclusive authority for future elevations of the federal debt ceiling.
“Suggesting that we never have a say about raising the debt limit again, that it be raised in perpetuity, when it’s a constitutional requirement that Congress only can borrow money, shows to me that he’s trying to create a situation for unlimited power rather than bipartisanship,” Graham said this week.
That’s correct … letting Obama arbitrarily set the nation’s debt limit is about as ludicrous as letting New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie determine what constitutes “all you can eat” at your lunchtime buffet. Either way, you’re gonna go broke.
Anyway, Graham got some rare love from limited government advocates in Washington for his surprisingly strong position on the debt ceiling.
“That is the right position for any responsible legislator to take,” said Bill Wilson, president of Americans for Limited Government. “We need real reform now.”
“Obama wants an unlimited credit card. Instead, Republicans should freeze his account,” Wilson added.
Damn straight. And just as “Republicans” in Washington, D.C. should adopt U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint’s hard line when it comes to rejecting Obama’s tax hikes – they should follow Graham’s lead in refusing to give Obama exclusive control over raising our nation’s debt limit.
“Washington’s spending still has us sprinting towards a fiscal cliff,” U.S. Rep. Mick Mulvaney said after voting against the last deficit deal. “And this bill barely slows us down.”
Mulvaney was absolutely correct. Obama and big spenders of both parties blew threw the $2.4 trillion they approved last August in less than a year-and-a-half. And now they want a blank check to ratchet up the borrowing even further?
Hell no …
Props to Graham for getting this one right.
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43 comments
FITS has some company. Because FITS gets it right every now again too…
It’s why FITS liberal Minions go Ape-$#!* when FITS bucks themm and says something logical and Conservative…when FITS actually publishes in accordance with what he has claimed to be….
It’s called “standing up to be counted”. Play hard ball and yell “here’s one from the SEC”!
Can an entity which has the authority to print money ever truly go “bankrupt”? I don’t, I am just asking.
Look at Germany in the 1920s and 1930s – particularly the postage stamps which were overprinted with the multimillion mark cachets. I can’t really figure out if the country went fiscally bankrupt or not. Its infamous leader in the 30s and until 1945, was certainly morally bankrupt.
Our own first-class [ultimate oxymoron?] postage has only increased 15,000% since 1934-35 (was 3 cents, now 45).
Windsey is pretending to be a Conservative because he is up for re-election in two years. He hopes we forget about his begging for MORE tax money to give away to third-world shitholes that happen to hate our guts. He hopes we forget about his support of amnesty for illegals and other benefits for them that he wants. He hopes we forget about NDAA-2012 and the other freedom-killing legislation he has fought for and voted for.
Do not be fooled by this Clinton in Reagan’s clothing.
Ya mean ol TAXIN Ronald Reagan?
The guy who smiled ,rapped all that conservative BS
Then raised taxes ev’ry few years?
That fella?
He hopes we forget, and more than likely enough SC voters will.
Shine,those ol boys like Raspy why they jest love ol Ronnie.
Heckfire,they only care bout tax raisin and spending money when Democrats do it!
Why Ronnie ol man Bush and his boy G.W?
Would jest spend, and spend ,and spend some mo
And ya know what them Republicans would say?
Nuttin
No sa not a daggum thing!
Which is worse– allowing the unlimited authority to increase the debt ceiling or allowing the country to default on its obligations?
As long as the credit card company keeping raising my limit, I’m going to keep using. If China, Japan or the Arab nations decide to cut us off, then we have a problem. Until then– spend, spend, spend– saving money doesn’t help the ecomony.
If the poor don’t have money to spend, the rich are not going to make any money. The rich don’t make money off of the rich.
You can kiss the 1% ass all you want, but they still won’t like you, respect you or think they need you.
“Which is worse– allowing the unlimited authority to increase the debt ceiling or allowing the country to default on its obligations?”
I really love your sentence is a lot of ways. It is very “to the point”.
“unlimited authority” is a damn perfect description.
However, the country is already “defaulting” on its obligations daily via money printing.
This also has the nasty side effect of not only devaluing our currency but if done sufficiently chancing the destruction of it.
Yeah, Republicans should freeze the gubmint’s credit card! …until they are in power, at which point they continue to raise it over and over again.
Nice to see they care about holding down the debt ceiling while someone else is running the show. And to think all these “limited government” morons are actually praising Graham of all people for saying this shit? Really? Tell Graham you’re going to have to cut back on military spending because of the debt ceiling and see how fucking fast he changes his mind.
Palin’s right? Graham’s right? You forget who these people are. If you allow them to play you like a fiddle, then you’re a bigger fool than they are. Tell us how “right” these people are when they are given back the power to do whatever the fuck they want and toss this temporary cheerleading for fiscal conservatism right back in the garbage can.
You’re spot on, Smirks!
Smirks, you and I think alike much of the time. And you save me about 30 minutes a day posting what I would essentially post. So thank you for freeing me up to actually get some work done. I’ll raise a beer to you tonight. It might only be a Natural Light, but that’s all I can afford.
Don’t always agree with you, Smirks….but you nailed this one. Will raise a Sam Adams Winter Lager to you tonight. Can’t afford it, either. Bought it on credit…. : )
Democrats tax and spend. Republicans cut taxes and spend. Democrats help the poor. Republicans help the rich.
Dead on. This is why I am a raging Independent…BOTH parties are full of crap. Neither party helps anyone, except themselves. They play games and the people suffer.
There is NO party that thinks the same as me (and almost everyone I know). We deserve better.
Hey, eat me! No, not you Lindsey, President Obama…
The Fiscal Cliff is ALL Obama’s…no mater who tries to claim different…
NO ONE else is Reposnible…it’s Obama TIME…let’s see WWBD…What Will Barry Do?)….
Can’t WAIT…
Please stop trying to eat your oatmeal and type at the same time!
To bad Big T, the public knows who owns the fiscal cliff, and its the Republicans. If we go over they own the tax increase on everyone making over 250k and the recession that is likely to follow.
If you don’t believe me ask the most accurate poll in America, Rasmussen.
Excuse me they own the tax increase on everyone making underunder 250K.
Big T — Is Glenn Beck the voice in your head?
Old GW,aka, Bush “the worst” raised the debt limit seven times while he was playing “warrior president”.
YOU BETCHA!
YOU BETCHA!
Well,actually, Cheney was running the country, or should I say “ruining” the country.
YOU BETCHA!
YOU BETCHA!
Obama wants the cliff…he will get everything he wants after we go over.
The Republicans have worked so tirelessly to get us to the edge of this “cliff”, just so they could threaten us with it. I think most of America knows whose fault it will be if we go over.
The skinny socialist is laying the ground work for continuous stim packages. With no limit he can pay back his pals in and out of Congress. Eventually Greece will look like a picture of a great economy compared to the USA.
Ok
We now know you listened to Rush today.
What else did you do?
This isn’t news, Graham is the biggest warmonger of them all. To discuss cutting his military would be treason.
Fits and most of his ‘readers’ couldn’t tell the difference between right and left if their lives depended on it..
To steal a quote from ,’Night of The Living Dead’;a comment about the zombies:”They’re all messed up.”
I support any posting that quotes “The Night of the Living Dead”, regardless of position…just remember, when it comes to taxes, they’re coming to get you, Barbara…
The Debt limit is stupid. Do you not understand how this works? Congress must approve all spending. Obama cannot spend anything unless Congress, approves it. If Congress approves more spending than the revenue we take in, the Government must do one of two things, borrow money to pay for what we have purchased or not pay for what we have purchased. Obama does not have an unlimited credit card, the Congress, including Republicans, has an unlimited credit card.
If Congress does not want to borrow money it must cut spending. Refusing to allow the government to borrow money to pay for what the Congress has authorized the government to purchase, is called defaulting on a debt. That is stealing.
You people seem to think Obama is running up the debt. He is not. The Republican House and the Democratic Senate have to approve all spending. They do not have the courage to cut specific programs, so they try to back door the cuts with the debt limit. But that hurts the country, because we are essentially defaulting on a loan which destroys our credit and send our borrowing costs through the roof.
Congress relies heavily on public stupidity.
Exactly.
“Refusing to allow the government to borrow money to pay for what the Congress has authorized the government to purchase, is called defaulting on a debt. That is stealing. ”
Yes, but let us remember this:
Printing up money(which the US gov’t does daily) is also defaulting on a debt. You’re using devalued dollars to pay for stuff. That also happens to be stealing as well.
Yep, ?, stealing — using the hidden tax of inflation. In a way it’s worse cuz it steals from all of us.
I’ve got my wheelbarrow prepped so that when the time comes, I can fill it with Federal Reserve Notes to go stand in line for a loaf of bread. Unfortunately those Federal Reserve Notes are hard to come by.
To those who poohpooh the idea of it ever happening here…study a little histor, pay attention to current policy and get back to me with a reasonable scenario how it could not happen here.
Nope, inflation is not hidden or stealing. You do not have to loan money to the federal government. People do so voluntarily. In doing so they understand they will be repaid in dollars. They take into consideration the rate of inflation in deciding how much to loan and at what rate. It is the same as when you go to the bank and take out a loan. The bank sets your rate based on its inflation expectation over the anticipated life of your loan and your credit rating.
If you don’t like the way the economy works, follow the advice of the Bard. “Neither a borrower nor a lender be.” Or if you believe hyper inflation is eminent, borrow as much money as you possibly can and invest it in gold or stocks which go up in value with the rate of inflation. If you are right you will get rich if you are wrong you will lose money.
Anticipated inflation is just another factor in the investment equation.
It’s obvious that this debt limit demand is a red herring, giving Obama something he can throw away in exchange for something else- like a raise in the tax rate for the top 3%. And the Republicans will accept it so they can crow, “Look what we got in exchange!”, since there will not be much cut in spending anyway. Oh, there will be some nibbling around the edges, mainly in means testing and deduction reforms, with most of those being directed at the top 3% as well.
Why will Obama succeed? Because A) He’s not going to be up for re-election, so he has nothing to lose by being a hardass, B) the Democrats in the house, while up for re-election, won’t be blamed for anything since they are in the minority and have no real power, and C) the Republican in the House will be up for re-election, and if we go over the fiscal cliff, they will be blamed for it because people believe they are just about protecting the rich. Why else do you think Boehner’s lopping Tea Party types off committees right now? Boehner will cut the best deal he can to try and protect the Republican majority in the House come 2014…
For some reason I thought that all bills ivolving government spending had to originate and be approved by the U.S. House of Reprensenatives.
You don’t understand public finance, Will. Congress sets tax rates and spending priorities. All the debt ceiling does is prevent the Treasury from auctioning off debt instruments to pay for the spending that Congress enacted. In other words, Treasury is doing what Congress told them to do, except without the means to do it.
There’s a very good argument for abolishing the debt ceiling. If we want to cut spending, then Congress should cut spending! But it is cognitive dissonance for Congress to spend money, refuse to sufficient revenue to pay for the spending, and then prevent the Treasury from auctioning off bonds to pay for the spending.
… refuse to raise sufficient revenue*….
As I continued to pull up this post, I was puzzled at Lindsey’s picture and wondered why he seemed so familiar. Then it hit me!
Going to Wikipedia for research, I discovered that he resembles Aunt Bee Taylor!
Could it be that Lindsey is the illegitimate son of Aunt Bee? She had many romantic dalliances with gentlement friends who passed through Mayberry.
I could not, however, determine which one fathered him. They are all listed in the article. Anybody want to make a guess?
So Graham righfully is not ok with the Unitary Executive when it comes to raising the debt ceiling, but he’s perfectly ok with the Unitary Executive starting and waging war, arresting American citizens and detaining them indefinitely without cause or a lawyer and claiming the right to kill American citizens without trial?
The cognitive dissonance emanating from Graham’s mere presence is repulsive. He and the neocons have laid the framework for an Executive Branch whose powers are borderline tyrannical. Ane now he objects? Please God let us vote him out in 2014.
FITS – you are as big a fool as Graham is . . .
When have you ever gotten something right???
How many stories penned on this sight on the imminent indictment of Governor Haley????
Well the mix project initial estimate was 1.6 billion, now somewhere in the range between 20 and 30 billion to manufacture 5 billion in reactor fuel. Why hasn’t lindsey graham or joe wilson demanded an investigation into the mismanagement of the program? It seems that ourrepublicans are really democrats and in bed with Obama and warren buffet. Fiscal conservatives… Amused.