Do Mitch, Princess Lindsay, Johnny B, and Eric C know about this?
[…] [passing a budge or shutting down government] is not an “either/or” proposition, as congressional Republicans can show this week by taking two steps. First, House GOP leaders should introduce an alternative continuing resolution that ensures no slowdown in essential services, including the delivery of Social Security checks and Medicare payments for medical treatment, keeping the military at full strength and funding agencies charged with maintaining the public safety. House Speaker John Boehner should make clear that this alternative continuing resolution will be approved if Senate Democrats and/or President Obama refuse to accept the $61 billion in spending cuts approved last week by the lower chamber. Just as Cato the Elder ended his every Roman Senate speech by demanding that “Carthage must die,” Boehner should constantly demand that Democrats stop obstructing the defunding of Obamacare, White House “czars,” EPA’s regulatory cap-and-trade, and other much-needed spending cuts.
As Examiner columnist and former U.S. Office of Personnel Management general counsel Hugh Hewitt wrote recently, “Forewarned is forearmed, and if the public is briefed again and again on the GOP’s intention to keep the crucial parts of the government running, while allowing the shutdown of the EPA, the departments of education, labor and interior and various parts of health and human services (not Medicare, not the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, not the Food and Drug Administration) the public will not only support the move, they will cheer it.”
Second, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell should himself return to Washington and challenge his colleagues, Democrats and Republicans alike, to cut short this week’s recess for “state work.” Business-as-usual Senate recesses won’t put America’s fiscal house back in order. The deadline for passage of a temporary funding resolution is March 4, so if senators remain at home through Friday, they will have little time to act on the continuing resolution when they return next week. In this regard, Democrats and Republicans should take a cue from Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker: “I think in November, voters certainly here in Wisconsin but across the country, voters elected people to turn things around, to balance the budget, to stop the games. … We’re broke, and it’s about time somebody stood up and told the truth.”
Okay. But isn’t it easier just to kick the can down the road, then go home and have a julip and bang a Georgetown intern?
I mean, seriously. I’m just saying.
“Okay. But isn’t it easier just to kick the can down the road, then go to the Oval Office, have a Big Mac and get a BJ from a pepper-pot intern?”
FTFY
Regards,
Bill Clinton
Considering the market is down close to 200 points today, the budget battle may very well become moot.
Kind of hard to for government to spend money if the country financially melts down to the point no one is willing to purchase US Treasuries.
Oh, that is so mean, Jeff. We can’t afford to have Boehner shed any more tears. Besides, I recall George Will quoting Mitch McConnell as saying “There is no education in the second kick of a mule.” McConnell demonstrates that aphorism every day now.
Given that the stock market hasn’t had a 3%+ correction since September, this sell off is widely anticipated.
We could easily see a 10% move to the downside in the S&P here, given the 100% move we’ve had off the 2009 bottom.
Keep in mind the following:
– the US dollar continues to be a “flight to quality” destination, which is why yields are DOWN today. The 5-yr has traded from a 2.27% yield to a 2.15%. That reflects BUYING in Treasuries, not selling.
– the rising costs of energy will hit every industrialized economy, but given that energy prices are relatively low here vs. the rest of the OECD states, we will be the least effected. Making US equities relatively more attractive than others.
– before foreign investors stop buying US Treasuries, they’ll stop buying Portugese, Italian, Greek, Irish and Spanish bonds. Thus far, those countries have still been able to issue new debt.
Net-net, as bad as things are here, things in the rest of the Western world are FAR worse.
Therefore, regardless how bad we think our fiscal situation is, foreign investors still view the US as a “safe haven” vs. most alternatives.
proudvastrightwingconspirator…I post gloom and you rain on my gloom.
Where’s the love?
Blake,
It’s all relative.
Yes, we’re in a mess, but we have the mechanisms and common sense to pull ourselves back from the type of catastrophe that most of Europe and Japan are already in.
Now, we may fail to do so, and if that’s the case, shame on us.
Net-net, I’d take the US economy, and all it’s current structural & fiscal problems over any other in the OECD, except maybe Australia.
But Australia, economically, is about the size of New Jersey.
proudvastrightwingconspirator, I think the USA is going to survive, but, in the words of the Duke of Wellington it will be “a damn near run thing.”
Just for a bit of perspective:
See map at http://bigthink.com/ideas/21182
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a convenient way of measuring and comparing the size of national economies. Annual GDP represents the market value of all goods and services produced within a country in a year. Put differently:
GDP = consumption + investment + government spending + (exports – imports)
Although the economies of countries like China and India are growing at an incredible rate, the US remains the nation with the highest GDP in the world – and by far: US GDP is projected to be $13,22 trillion (or $13.220 billion) in 2007, according to this source. That’s almost as much as the economies of the next four (Japan, Germany, China, UK) combined.
Pakistan, for example, has a GDP that’s slightly higher than Israel’s – but Pakistan has a population of about 170 million, while Israel is only 7 million people strong. The US states those economies are compared with (Arkansas and Oregon, respectively) are much closer to each other in population: 2.7 million and 3.4 million.
And yet, while a per capita GDP might give a good indication of the average wealth of citizens, a ranking of the economies serves two interesting purposes: it shows the size of US states’ economies relative to each other (California is the biggest, Wyoming the smallest), and it links those sizes with foreign economies (which are therefore also ranked: Mexico’s and Russia’s economies are about equal size, Ireland’s is twice as big as New Zealand’s). Here’s a run-down of the 50 states, plus DC:
1. California, it is often said, would be the world’s sixth- or seventh-largest economy if it was a separate country. Actually, that would be the eighth, as France (with a GDP of $2,15 trillion) is #8 on the aforementioned list.
2. Texas’ economy is significantly smaller, exactly half of California’s, as its GDP compares to that of Canada (#10, $1,08 trillion).
3. Florida also does well, with its GDP comparable to Asian tiger South Korea’s (#13 at $786 billion).
4. Illinois – Mexico (GDP #14 at $741 billion)
5. New Jersey – Russia (GDP #15 at $733 billion)
6. Ohio – Australia (GDP #16 at $645 billion)
7. New York – Brazil (GDP #17 at $621 billion)
8. Pennsylvania – Netherlands (GDP #18 at $613 billion)
9. Georgia – Switzerland (GDP #19 at $387 billion)
10. North Carolina – Sweden (GDP #20 at $371 billion)
11. Massachusetts – Belgium (GDP #21 at $368 billion)
12. Washington – Turkey (GDP #22 at $358 billion)
13. Virginia – Austria (GDP #24 at $309 billion)
14. Tennessee – Saudi Arabia (GDP #25 at $286 billion)
15. Missouri – Poland (GDP #26 at $265 billion)
16. Louisiana – Indonesia (GDP #27 at $264 billion)
17. Minnesota – Norway (GDP #28 at $262 billion)
18. Indiana – Denmark (GDP #29 at $256 billion)
19. Connecticut – Greece (GDP #30 at $222 billion)
20. Michigan – Argentina (GDP #31 at $210 billion)
21. Nevada – Ireland (GDP #32 at $203 billion)
22. Wisconsin – South Africa (GDP #33 at $200 billion)
23. Arizona – Thailand (GDP #34 at $197 billion)
24. Colorado – Finland (GDP #35 at $196 billion)
25. Alabama – Iran (GDP #36 at $195 billion)
26. Maryland – Hong Kong (#37 at $187 billion GDP)
27. Kentucky – Portugal (GDP #38 at $177 billion)
28. Iowa – Venezuela (GDP #39 at $148 billion)
29. Kansas – Malaysia (GDP #40 at $132 billion)
30. Arkansas – Pakistan (GDP #41 at $124 billion)
31. Oregon – Israel (GDP #42 at $122 billion)
32. South Carolina – Singapore (GDP #43 at $121 billion)
33. Nebraska – Czech Republic (GDP #44 at $119 billion)
34. New Mexico – Hungary (GDP #45 at $113 billion)
35. Mississippi – Chile (GDP #48 at $100 billion)
36. DC – New Zealand (#49 at $99 billion GDP)
37. Oklahoma – Philippines (GDP #50 at $98 billion)
38. West Virginia – Algeria (GDP #51 at $92 billion)
39. Hawaii – Nigeria (GDP #53 at $83 billion)
40. Idaho – Ukraine (GDP #54 at $81 billion)
41. Delaware – Romania (#55 at $79 billion GDP)
42. Utah – Peru (GDP #56 at $76 billion)
43. New Hampshire – Bangladesh (GDP #57 at $69 billion)
44. Maine – Morocco (GDP #59 at $57 billion)
45. Rhode Island – Vietnam (GDP #61 at $48 billion)
46. South Dakota – Croatia (GDP #66 at $37 billion)
47. Montana – Tunisia (GDP #69 at $33 billion)
48. North Dakota – Ecuador (GDP #70 at $32 billion)
49. Alaska – Belarus (GDP #73 at $29 billion)
50. Vermont – Dominican Republic (GDP #81 at $20 billion)
51. Wyoming – Uzbekistan (GDP #101 at $11 billion)
Blake,
To quote another notable Englishman:
“You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing….after having tried everything else.”
– Winston Churchill
You might recall Churchill. His bust USED to reside in the Oval Office.
GDP = consumption + investment + government spending + (exports – imports)
I’m not sure the problem is the relative sizes of various economies, so much as it is the fact that GDP might as well stand for “Government-Demanded Product” if we stay on the present trajectory.
You are on a roll Jeff.
If youse guys need a break from all this angst, please take a moment to read a story about cake.
Pretty interesting interview at Reason.
http://reason.com/archives/2011/02/22/people-who-live-in-the-shade
Dicentra, for some reason the story conjures up visions of you as Mom and happyfeet as, well, you know.
“GOP can cut spending without closing government”
OK
for some reason the story conjures up visions of you as Mom and happyfeet as, well, you know.
The hyperactive four-year-old who will stop at nothing to get CAKE???
Actually, that sounds more like me at the present time.
They can do other stuff too – like re-assign the missing dems office space in the basement of the local VFW hall, right behind the toilets.
But, y’kow, that would just be MEAN.
Funny as shit, but MEAN!
We can has Ka’ba now ?