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2013-05-19 Home Front: Politix
Lew asks Congress for debt increase, says it's 'not open to debate'
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Posted by Uncle Phester 2013-05-19 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11128 views ]  Top

#1 Dear Mr. Lew: fuck off.

Sincerely,

A Taxpayer
Posted by Raj 2013-05-19 00:51||   2013-05-19 00:51|| Front Page Top

#2 The creditworthiness of the United States is non-negotiable

This from the administration that got America's credit worthiness downgraded for the first time in history.
Posted by Nimble Spemble 2013-05-19 06:23||   2013-05-19 06:23|| Front Page Top

#3 Start by A) putting all Federal Employee Pension funds in Social Security, retroactive for 5 years; B) cut Federal Employment, other than military, by 10% over the next 6 months.

Then when this regime fires all the really needed people to save their cronies and lackies; we'll know who to fire next.
Posted by AlanC 2013-05-19 08:18||   2013-05-19 08:18|| Front Page Top

#4 You mean we have to go into even more debt to pay on (not off) the debt we already have?

Isn't that a rather bad situation to be in?
And now they want to go into even more debt for obumblecare?
Posted by CrazyFool 2013-05-19 08:23||   2013-05-19 08:23|| Front Page Top

#5 You still think its a Republic? How quaint.

The creditworthiness of the United States is non-negotiable

It's already been negotiated by ruinous spending and hackery into a fiat currency in which the printer demands (ie non-negotiable) you accept it whether or not it has any real value.
Posted by Procopius2k 2013-05-19 08:39||   2013-05-19 08:39|| Front Page Top

#6 There is a natural limit on how much the USG can borrow. It's called the market. The limit is what creditors are willing to lend.

It's quite entertaining, watching these schmoes try to engineer a socialist utopia while the national credit card is already nearly maxed out. It's like that never occurred to them, LOL.

Pubs need to allow default and credit downgrades, because it's the most reliable check on the whole scheme. Besides, the USG isn't creditworthy anymore, despite all the extend and pretend.

Foreign creditors were free to choose whether or not to lend, and should've seen this train wreck coming. Someone is going to get screwed here, so I'd rather it's them, than US taxpayers.
Posted by RandomJD 2013-05-19 09:42||   2013-05-19 09:42|| Front Page Top

#7 There is a natural limit on how much the USG can borrow. It's called the market. The limit is what creditors are willing to lend.

For the last couple years the 'market' has been the Treasury printing money to buy Fed Bonds. If Americans didn't operate in opposition to the 'learned' economists [ie spending when they should save and save when they should spend] inflation would be making Zimbabwe and Argentina look good.
Posted by Procopius2k 2013-05-19 10:42||   2013-05-19 10:42|| Front Page Top

#8 Right, P2k. There are many tools in the box and QE has been a big one. But that's slowing down because they know they can't inflate/devalue the currency too much more. Treasury is just about out of fudge factors, which I imagine is why Lew is sounding kind of panicky here.
Posted by RandomJD 2013-05-19 10:51||   2013-05-19 10:51|| Front Page Top

#9 Tyrant.
Posted by Glomosing Brown8795 2013-05-19 11:01||   2013-05-19 11:01|| Front Page Top

#10 It's incredible that 42% of Americans think that this unqualified, incompetent, dishonorable, ego-driven fraud is doing a good job. Take a moment. Admit it to yourself. You know who his supporters are. They are the people that YOU support -- financially.

Did you notice who Obama threatened when he wasn't getting his way on raising the debt ceiling?

He threatened to not pay:
- Social Security Retirees
- Military Retirees
- Social Security
- Disability and
- Federal Retirees.

Those he did NOT threaten:

- He did not threaten to stop payments to illegal aliens.
- He did not threatened to take frivolous benefits such as Internet access away from violent inmates.
- He did not offer to fire some of the thousands of unnecessary federal employees that he hired.
- He did not offer to cut down on his or his wife's frivolous gallivanting around. $20 Million already spent on family vacations. (One Million on a FL golf outing). All our money...why not?
- He did not threaten to not pay the senators and representatives or any of their staff.
- He did not threaten to take benefits away from welfare recipients or to stop the free cell phones they get.
- He did not threaten the food stamp programs.
- He did not threaten to reduce payments in foreign aid.
- He did not threaten to cut back on anything that involves his base voters.
Posted by Besoeker 2013-05-19 12:25||   2013-05-19 12:25|| Front Page Top

#11 I echo poster #1.

Fuck off assholes. You have dug us in a hole far enough. You don't need more.
Posted by DarthVader 2013-05-19 13:39||   2013-05-19 13:39|| Front Page Top

#12 Oh yeah - fuck em, no question. But once the debt passed $10T or so, there was no realistic way it was ever going to be paid back. So the difference between $16T and $17T or $20T is like the Titanic ramming a third iceberg and then a fourth. Let him have his stupid debt increase - it doesn't matter. What matters is, who gets a spot in the life rafts, and who gets trapped in steerage.
Posted by RandomJD 2013-05-19 15:39||   2013-05-19 15:39|| Front Page Top

#13 Great! So how do I get out of steerage and get a spot in the lifeboats?
Posted by Bobby 2013-05-19 15:54||   2013-05-19 15:54|| Front Page Top

#14 Well, Bobby, the good news is, this bucket is taking a long time to sink. Long-term, I'd suggest:

1. Don't be a foreign government to whom the USG owes money.
2. Don't count on the government for any benefits.
3. Fully divest from any investment the USG can welsh on.

Basically, assume the USG will go bankrupt. Laws don't matter when math is driving the train. The best way to be sure you won't be the last in line of USG creditors, is to not be in the line at all.
Posted by RandomJD 2013-05-19 16:08||   2013-05-19 16:08|| Front Page Top

#15 Governments don't go bankrupt, but they do inflate.

Farmland, the yield you can live on.
Posted by Bright Pebbles 2013-05-19 17:21||   2013-05-19 17:21|| Front Page Top

#16 Farmland, the yield you can live on.
Only if you can pay the property taxes...
Posted by Glenmore 2013-05-19 20:21||   2013-05-19 20:21|| Front Page Top

23:54 JosephMendiola
23:48 JosephMendiola
23:39 JosephMendiola
23:29 JosephMendiola
23:21 JosephMendiola
22:20 Procopius2k
20:56 Procopius2k
20:53 Procopius2k
20:44 junkiron
20:21 Glenmore
18:26 USN,ret
17:52 rammer
17:46 bman
17:37 swksvolFF
17:35 swksvolFF
17:21 Bright Pebbles
17:14 Besoeker
17:13 Pappy
16:57 Besoeker
16:56 Besoeker
16:56 Frank G
16:50 Besoeker
16:40 junkiron
16:39 DarthVader









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