Joe Conason writes: “The congressional Republican leaders, like their counterparts on the Democratic side and in the White House, all understand that the debt limit must be increased—just as they understood the imperative of the bank bailouts two years ago.”

What, am I missing something? Is was imperative to give the trillion dollar bailout to wall street, the very entity that created the crisis at the expense of the general public?

Am I missing something? Was the author being sarcastic in saying that?

Oh wait, maybe lifting the debt is just as against the public interest like the bailout. Maybe this is just another transfer of money to the corporate elite.

Thank you for illuminating it in a succinct way. I now understand that we are in bizarro world where everything is opposite.

Support republican policy,
vote for a democrat

http://www.NotOneMore.US - Take the Pledge for Peace

When this country becomes a vast Wasteland from shore, to shore, you can bet that the vast Mordor on the Potomac will still be disembling. Sadly, that day is not far away.

When that day comes the Democrats and the Rebublicans, will still be fighting over power, still pointing fingers at each other. Still telling us all to hope for happiness.

Yet, they expect people to hope in lies. Believe in their deceptions, believe in the unreal.

They have no intention of changing anything, never did.

Their only intention is to remain in power, no matter what it takes, no matter how many light plane crashes or traffic accidents, they have to arrange.

The author says that it is time to call the Republicans’ bluff.

But, we cannot ‘call the Republicans’ bluff’, because we have a Republican
President.

Obama has been:

1. Shifting private debt to the public sector (thereby freeing corporations, esp
the financial industry, but also financial arms of GM, GE, etc, and saddling the
middle class with the obligation to ‘pay it off’).

2. Watching private sector profits reach un-precedented levels (while
investment goes abroad, hiring moves abroad, and manufacturing continues to
disappear and un-employment continues).

3. Raising the defense budget 6% (so, when “cuts” come, the defense industries
will be safely sandbagged).

4. Allowing the financial industry to ‘borrow’ from the ‘public sector’ (i.e. me
and you) at 1% and buy bonds that pay 3% interest (Banks take your $1 and
make $2 off each one they ‘borrowed’ from you. But, here’s the real deal: You
gave them the $1 they ‘borrowed’, and you pay them the $2 interest they
‘earned’ on the bonds. All the money they ‘invest’ came from you – a ‘loan’ –
and all the money they make comes from you – you have to cover the interest
on the bonds).

5. Allowing the financial industry to ‘borrow’ from the ‘public sector’ (i.e. me
and you again) at 1%, to loan to me and you at 4%, 12%, 18% or more
mortgages, credit cards and other lines of credit (pocketing 3%, 11% and 17% on
your and my money – first given to them by us, then ‘paid back with interest’ by
us).

6. Giving private sector insurers a windfall: mandated customers, with a
taxpayer-paid overhead rate of 20% for ‘mandated customers’ (20% of our
premium spent on administration, CEO salaries, bonuses, sitting on Boards to
set rates and decide who’s covered, lobbying for the insurers’ benefit,
advertising and propagandizing to redefine more and more as ‘health care
service’ while delivering fewer and fewer services—- essentially, giving our tax
money to insurers to do with it what they will). *The American people wanted a
government administered plan like Medicare - for everyone. (72% - CBS/New
York Times poll June 2009)

7.  Expanding the war in Afghanistan. (64% of the American people opposed
expanding the war in Afghanistan and wanted to disentangle from Bush-era
‘War on Terror’ and ‘preventive war’ policies. Still, over 60% of Americans
oppose the war.?

8.  Keeping the six too-big-to-fail banks – now bigger than ever; kept deposits
at risk by maintaining huge grey areas between commercial and investment
banking; didn’t ‘punish’ the financial industry - now even more profitable, with
bonuses among the biggest ever.

9. Supporting ‘The Compromise’ – giving billionaires $10 for each $1 to an un-
or under-employed person or family.

It is foolish or the very least delusional to pretend we can ‘call the bluff’ of the
Republicans, when we continue to have a President whose policies are
fundamentally those of a corporate apologist - subsidizing failed ‘capitalist’
institutions with public tax money.

We must find a third Party, leave the pseudo-Democratic party or resign
ourselves to the corporate agenda. I suspect the later will be the case:
Democracy crushed by Corporate Subsidized ‘Capitalism’ (i.e. rule of the
wealthy under a ruse of democracy).

The author says that it is time to call the Republicans’ bluff.

But, we cannot ‘call the Republicans’ bluff’, because we have a Republican
President.

Obama has been:

1. Shifting private debt to the public sector (thereby freeing corporations, esp
the financial industry, but also financial arms of GM, GE, etc, and saddling the
middle class with the obligation to ‘pay it off’).

2. Watching private sector profits reach un-precedented levels (while
investment goes abroad, hiring moves abroad, and manufacturing continues to
disappear and un-employment continues).

3. Raising the defense budget 6% (so, when “cuts” come, the defense industries
will be safely sandbagged).

4. Allowing the financial industry to ‘borrow’ from the ‘public sector’ (i.e. me
and you) at 1% and buy bonds that pay 3% interest (Banks take your $1 and
make $2 off each one they ‘borrowed’ from you. But, here’s the real deal: You
gave them the $1 they ‘borrowed’, and you pay them the $2 interest they
‘earned’ on the bonds. All the money they ‘invest’ came from you – a ‘loan’ –
and all the money they make comes from you – you have to cover the interest
on the bonds).

5. Allowing the financial industry to ‘borrow’ from the ‘public sector’ (i.e. me
and you again) at 1%, to loan to me and you at 4%, 12%, 18% or more
mortgages, credit cards and other lines of credit (pocketing 3%, 11% and 17% on
your and my money – first given to them by us, then ‘paid back with interest’ by
us).

6. Giving private sector insurers a windfall: mandated customers, with a
taxpayer-paid overhead rate of 20% for ‘mandated customers’ (20% of our
premium spent on administration, CEO salaries, bonuses, sitting on Boards to
set rates and decide who’s covered, lobbying for the insurers’ benefit,
advertising and propagandizing to redefine more and more as ‘health care
service’ while delivering fewer and fewer services—- essentially, giving our tax
money to insurers to do with it what they will). *The American people wanted a
government administered plan like Medicare - for everyone. (72% - CBS/New
York Times poll June 2009)

7.  Expanding the war in Afghanistan. (64% of the American people opposed
expanding the war in Afghanistan and wanted to disentangle from Bush-era
‘War on Terror’ and ‘preventive war’ policies. Still, over 60% of Americans
oppose the war.?

8.  Keeping the six too-big-to-fail banks – now bigger than ever; kept deposits
at risk by maintaining huge grey areas between commercial and investment
banking; didn’t ‘punish’ the financial industry - now even more profitable, with
bonuses among the biggest ever.

9. Supporting ‘The Compromise’ – giving billionaires $10 for each $1 to an un-
or under-employed person or family.

It is foolish or the very least delusional to pretend we can ‘call the bluff’ of the
Republicans, when we continue to have a President whose policies are
fundamentally those of a corporate apologist - subsidizing failed ‘capitalist’
institutions with public tax money.

We must find a third Party, leave the pseudo-Democratic party or resign
ourselves to the corporate agenda. I suspect the later will be the case:
Democracy crushed by Corporate Subsidized ‘Capitalism’ (i.e. rule of the
wealthy under a ruse of democracy).

My opinion is, so as not to get deleted:
Republicans spend because their heredity is unlimited funds available, spoiled elites maybe. Don’t have to know where it comes from, just spend. To make sure they keep the cash cow, they must blame others for overspending on useless(?) policies that don’t benefit the masses. The masses are the Republicans because we are vastly becoming enthralled by the “golden idols” that wealth provides. Everybody wants to be rich don’t they? For the power it brings? The main problem of a civil conflict between red/blue states as stated would be no boundaries defined as who is who and it seems to be the exact goal of the Bin Laden types who attacked the WTC. It’s been downhill ever since with more infighting than ever before. The people who had the money before can pick up and run, say to Asia, and start again or continue on. Might the answer be to legislate the money and power from their hands and put control back with our country and our say so?

And now a Democratic Congresswoman has been shot in the head at point-blank range.  She’s been threatened before and had her office vandalized.  She was, as noted, one of the congresswoman who Sarah Palin put a gun site one in an ad.

While the Judge Roll is a Republican, he made a VERY unpopular ruling, I believe allowing a discrimination suit to go forward, that got him threatened by radical reactionaries.

Call on the bluff of the miscreants, a word that must stand for Republicans in the new dictionary.

ItW

Exactly. The GOP sends the country into debt and up
until recently, Democratic Governments have taken the
country out of debt. The Republicans love to shout
about the deficit, but recent history shows that it
is the Republicans that create deficits by spending
insane amounts on an excessively bloated military
industrial complex while cutting taxes for
millionaires at the same time.

China isn’t going to finance US wars forever, so
Republicans will either have to stop bombing other
countries or raise taxes to finance it.
Alternatively, they can convince their supporters
that they have a genuine need to trash other nations
and then hand the mess back to the Democrats to clean
up like they always do. Meanwhile ordinary Americans
just get poorer, worse services and infrastructure.

The advantage this time, is that the mess the
Republicans created is simply too big for the
Democrats to clean up this time, so the Republicans
are going to have to actually help this time. But I’m
not holding my breath…..

Republicans are the biggest spenders of all, they will not do anything to upset their gravy train.

All these changes have occurred under Democrats. 
********************

Wow!  As if the Reagan/Bush I years from 1981-1993, and Bush II years from 2001-2009 never happened!  As if Reagan didn’t start killing unions, and shipping manufacturing jobs off-shore, and as if Dubya didn’t get us in a 1.3 trillion dollar war that was totally unnecessary just to prove his manhood—and sank our economy doing so.

None of that happened…it was all democrats.

In what universe?

Firefly,
All these changes have occurred under Democrats.  If you split the country into a Democrat side nothing will change expect they won’t be able to blame Republicans for their sellout legislation.  The root problem of government funded by Corporations will not allow it.

Firefly’s right.
The red states are like vampires draining the lifeblood out of the blue states.

As a Garden Stater, the US Govt spends 65 cents of every IRS dollar we send them in NJ.

But in Mitch McConnell’s and Rand Paul’s Kentucky, the US Govt spends $1.51 for every IRS dollar they send them!

So if we separated the Red and Blue states into two nations, the Reds would be bankrupt in 2 years and in that time the Blues would be solvent—even California, which only gets 78 cents back for every IRS dollar. The Reds will only last that long because Florida loses 3 cents and Texas lose 6 cents.  Besides, even without separation, Rick Scott is going to sink Florida in 2 years all by himself.  DO NOT move to Florida if you have children—he’s about to move the Sunshine State all the way to the bottom of the educational rankings…but a lot of private “school” owners are gonna get rich!

Or divide the country into two parts. The Republican
part and the Democrat part and see which governs more
wisely! The Republican side of the country will begin
to look like a third world country with corrupt and
unaccountable leadership, squalor on the streets,
religious extremism, high crime rates which low paid
police turning a blind eye in exchange for bakshish.

The Democrats will finally have a state funded
healthcare system, better schools and education in
general, better infrastructure, but not so many
billionaires.

The Republicans who are sick and can’t afford private
insurance for medicine, will move to the Democrats
side in order to see a doctor, and then start to try
to cut back government….

Look, so far we got a massive transfer of wealth to Bankers, an institutionalized transfer of tax and citizen money to the “Health” Insurance Industry, Tax Cuts for the Rich, and More War for the MIC.  Now we are just getting a little media prep work for the next “bipartisan” con game of putting those pesky worker “entitlements” such as a decent education and their already paid for social security, on the chopping block.  Don’t worry, I am quite sure the Democrats will assuring explain that while they could not get what they truly wanted in a perfect world they did cut the best deal they could.

The Republicans and Democrats like to run up the national debt with their wars
of foreign occupation.

The Republicans and Democrats like to run up the national debt with their
corporate welfare for the big money corporations and the banksters on Wall
Street.

Of course, only the Democrats want to run up the national debt by throwing
bones to the voters like extending unemployment benefits and passing junk legislation (Obamacare)—and hopefully (although not for certain) defending Social Security & Medicare from destruction by the Republicans.

So the big gamble is, how long can our broken political system play it’s games
until the expanding federal deficit brings everything down like a super-nova?

Yes the government keeps telling us that deficits don’t matter,
but can we, the people, really trust our government to be truthful
competent & knowledgable,
if they couldn’t even see the see, much less avoid, the tech, housing
and financial bubbles?
if they couldn’t even see, much less avoid the mistakes of Iraq & Afghanistan?

I’m only 67, but the only good Democrats and
Republicans I’ve ever seen were dead.

“The president loses either way.”  BINGO!  What else would be the primary purpose of the Republicans?

Deal or No Deal?  Again Obama and the Dems have an opportunity to stand up and fight, morally speaking. Don’t drink the Kool-Aid!

After years of Dems rolling over whenever the GOP draws a line in the sand, why would they expect anything different?

The one who controls the relationship is the one who has less to lose.  But who has less to lose?  If the Dems say “No!” and don’t compromise then either the GOP must back down or….they sink the economy and it will be blatantly obvious even to the dumbest dummy and blindest blinder-bound, that they did it.  It’s far harder on the nation, but breaking the current GOP is needed to save the US.  We NEED to true parties who can oppose each other, but this GOP is not into that.  They are into dictatorship and, it’s not worth saving the economy by giving it to them.

There is no bipartisan solution - the Reps don’t budge and fillibuster with impunity - there’s only slavish compliance to the corporate funders - which is both parties’ bluff.
The lie is that the problem is government and the deficit. The truth is that it is the Wall Street capitalist run- away money market malfeasance - not to mention the stupid immoral defense spending.
Watch what gets cut - the weakest citizens will be gouged - that means Medicare, Social Security, Education and all the social programs that level the unequal playing field - that is the socialist programs.

I’d love to see the Dems call the Republicans’ bluff.
I can’t believe the business community, which, let’s face it, owns the Republican party, would permit the credit of the U.S., including the zillions it borrows on a daily basis in bonds, to dry up, and the US debt it already owns to take a deep drop in value. I’d like to read more comments on this article from knowledgeable people.

Such all-grown-up seriousness from Joe Conason….who has to be as terrified as those he takes-to-task here of the inevitable day when even the rubes realize how completely they’ve been had.  The damned “money” is all make-believe!  The books’ve been cooked-to-death. 

How do you “call” a “bluff” when the stuff your playing with is nothing but a figment of the fevered collective imagination anyhow?  As David Sirota ‘next-door’ might say:  Things just keep getting curiouser and curiouser.

Having already been divinely HAD, now e-e-everybody must get royally fucked!

HokaHey!

Do you remember the “clique” people in school(unless you were one)who all dressed, acted, and talked alike so as to not be deemed “out”? School is increasingly becoming the world with the same results, no substance, phony, clueless people with a license to condescend people. Some never grow up, constantly living their past through the present. Until, until they are confronted with religion so to speak. Confronted with truth and forced to deal with their lack of character, kind of like those that Michael Moore confronts in his documentaries. First thought is that the German people have to be forgiven for Hitler’s prominence because we are proving how easy it can be to “create” a monster through apathy and the juvenile thought process. The results of letting the few dictate their idiocy through the weak so as to pass the blame when the turn comes, and this seems the current path. Lastly, the cure is easier than it seems and can be quicker than one might think. We can’t let those with the money, which is power, have the podium regardless of political party since they have no allegiance anyway except to their wealth. It is embedded deeply in our system it seems and has taken a long time to be deemed the norm, but it can be undone quickly or at least quicker than it took to be the controlling influence. It really is quite simple as long as one doesn’t think it impossible. The key is to care, really care, and treat it like a diet. The first small steps will yield small results but make it easier to take a larger path because more will participate. Why? When one has to face truth in the face when they have no backbone, they wilt to the pressure and cease to follow through confusion. Those that control will hide because they can afford to and because they need to with no one to blame as the followers dwindle. How? Make truth and compassion one’s foundation for starters, and one won’t be afraid to look anyone in the eye because they walk the walk and there will be more like them on the same path. Everyone will be leaders. The goal has to be to take away control of our economy and put it back in a Democracy controlled by us.