US borrowing authority to be exhausted by Oct. 17

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I think we need Tribunes with veto power to defend the working class.

I disagree. Like France in the late 18th and early 19th century, our collapse will take many years while we menace our neighbors and make a general nuisance of ourselves...

In this respect, you do have a Parliamentary system. The exclusive right of Parliament to impose tax, and to appropriate funds for the use of the Crown was established in England long before the drafters of the United States Constitution copied the idea into your government. Not only that, the rule that money bills could only originate in the lower house was a British rule that got copied.

Where Parliaments in the United Kingdom, Canada and other Commonwealth Realms differ (I can't speak to other Parliaments with the same level of authority) is that only Ministers can introduce money bills, whereas in the US Congress, any Representative may introduce one, and any Senator may propose to amend a House bill to create taxation or spending authority.

As a result, our Parliament tends to be very efficient when it comes to budgets--only the Ministry can propose a budget, and the government can either command a majority, negotiate an agreement, or go down to defeat and face the electorate.

But the flip side is that governments can be too efficient. Our current Government has a nasty habit of burying substantive policy change within "omnibus" budget implementation bills.

I hope Washington DC does go into default, then maybe things will start to go in a direction of change.
But I highly doubt it. My bet is on an 11th hour "miracle" solution which BOTH parties will use as an opportunity to secure votes.

What I'm wondering is, what is going on in the background that's not being reported on? While the entire country is focused on this big drama, what's slipping in under the radar?

And if by some odd chance default does happen, I'm sure it's all a big scam by the international banks to consolidate more money & power. For they are the true government which all nations are subservient to. The IMF chief is begging the US not to default, and since these people frequently speak in opposites, there is likely significant profits to be made from a US default.

Be careful what you wish for pete1061.

We are living in a new Gilded Age in which the personal interests of a handful of plutocrats serve to drive the fiscal policy agenda. A hundred years ago, it too the First World War to bring an end to that.

Then the market excesses of the 20's came along--a largely unregulated financial sector brought the economy to the brink of ruin and then tipped it over. It took the Second World War to recover.

If the United States defaults and the markets collapse, who will bear the pain of that collapse? I suggest to you that the burden will fall disproportionately on the working poor. And in the absence of the borrowing and spending authority to bring some Keynsean approaches to remedying that, the resulting Depression will be devastating.

It might bring about change, but there is absolutely nothing to suggest that it will be change of the nature or type that you would like.

Well put.

The sad part about it is, most people seem to not understand that allowing the government's borrowing power to cease will undoubtedly cause the working class to suffor worse than they already are, and that the people who cause such a thing don't give a crap because they're rich enough to muddle through it for at least a year.
If social security goes down the drain because of it, even more will be homeless because they can't work, what will happen to them? Answer: they'll either starve to death because they can't buy food, go to jail because they can't sleep on the streets, or be put into a "community shelter" and be treated god only knows how bad.

I don't see a happy ending to this, if borrowing power is disrupted people will suffor for it, all at the hands of a few politicians who should be removed from office for their gross incompetence.

I just read some TPer is proposing to impeach POTUS if he refuses to knuckle under before the default.

Little do people understand that it's not his unwillingness to "cave" that's causing the problem, it's the people who planned the shutdown to begin with, the people who've wasted valuable time with pointless banter instead of coming up with a real solution that could've prevented all of this, the people who, to this very day, are using americans and wages as a means of bullying the administration into something that in the long run would do more harm than good. It's those people who should be removed from office because they have demonstrated in spades that they are unwilling to do their jobs and do what's best for america. But they aren't in the public's eye, so they recieve no real blame.

People need to open their eyes and realize that it doesn't matter who the president is, if people in congress don't get their way, they'll go as far as screwing us to push their own agenda while selling their bullsh*t to people who are ignorant of the truth. The only reason they've gone this far this time is because POTUS won't put up with such a blatent disregard for america in his administration and so far, he's the first and only person who's stood up to it for years.

Plain and simple, the people who caused this nonsense are acting like 2 year olds and they need to be removed, there's no place in our government for such behavior and it's embarassing to think that such people could ever be in office. They're an embarassment to our nation.

^^^
I am aware of all that. I was just pointing out that what the TP are doing [with this whole thing leading up to impeachment of POTUS] is akin to a bloodless coup.

I think what the Tea Party is doing is very close to treason.

it passed that point long ago. they are screwing over americans, their fellow citizens. they are doing this as a big lead up to impeachment of POTUS.

I don't think that word means what you think it does.

I think the Tea Party and their minions are deliberately trying to scuttle the government. They want it to fail so they can (theoretically) rebuild in their own vision. It's anarchy from within. The TP are playing with fire and everyone may get burned.

I Googled the word "treason" before I posted, just to make sure it was the word I wanted to use.
So yeah, it means what I think it means.

The (so-called) Tea Party is not levying war or insurrection against the United States nor is it giving aid and comfort to its enemies. The Tea Party is pushing and advocating a perfectly legal agenda. In fact the Tea Party wants to return to being governed according to the U.S. Constitution which it has not since the days of the New Deal.

By the definition of treason given in the U.S. constitution the Tea Party folks are not committing treason. They are trying to end living in debt.

ruveyn

and wrecking the nation in the process, all because of their hatred of the poor, all because they don't want poor folk to get health coverage, they would rather they just got sick and died. that is the long and short of it.