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View Full Version : Reid: All 53 Senate Dems sign (already signed) letter to Boehner:Your bill will never pass




Agorism
07-27-2011, 08:46 PM
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/27/senate-democrats-promise-to-reject-boehner-plan/?smid=tw-nytimespolitics&seid=auto

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/.a/6a00d8341c630a53ef01348665bb29970c-600wi

By MICHAEL D. SHEAR
Fifty-three Democratic senators have signed a letter to House Speaker John A. Boehner saying they intend to vote against his plan for an increase in the debt ceiling, virtually assuring its defeat in the Senate even as the speaker lines up Republican votes to pass it in the House on Thursday.

Votes are not final until they are cast. But if the Democrats hold to their promise in the letter, Mr. Boehner’s plan for a six-month increase in borrowing authority will not make it to President Obama’s desk.

“We heard that in your caucus you said the Senate will support your bill,” the senators say in the letter. “We are writing to tell you that we will not support it, and give you the reasons why.”


Dear Speaker Boehner,

With five days until our nation faces an unprecedented financial crisis, we need to work together to ensure that our nation does not default on our obligations for the first time in our history. We heard that in your caucus you said the Senate will support your bill. We are writing to tell you that we will not support it, and give you the reasons why.

A short-term extension like the one in your bill would put America at risk, along with every family and business in it. Your approach would force us once again to face the threat of default in five or six short months. Every day, another expert warns us that your short-term approach could be nearly as disastrous as a default and would lead to a downgrade in our credit rating. If our credit is downgraded, it would cost us billions of dollars more in interest payments on our existing debt and drive up our deficit. Even more worrisome, a downgrade would spike interest rates, making everything from mortgages, car loans and credit cards more expensive for families and businesses nationwide.

In addition to risking a downgrade and catastrophic default, we are concerned that in five or six months, the House will once again hold the economy captive and refuse to avoid another default unless we accept unbalanced, deep cuts to programs like Medicare and Social Security, without asking anything of the wealthiest Americans.

We now have only five days left to act. The entire world is watching Congress. We need to do the right thing to solve this problem. We must work together to avoid a default the responsible way – not in a way that will do America more harm than good.

White Bear Lake
07-27-2011, 08:50 PM
It's basically a giant bluff to try and coax the GOP congress into passing it.

malkusm
07-27-2011, 08:50 PM
The hilarious thing to me is, one of the reasons that Senate Dems cite for not going with the (already weaksauce) GOP plan is "We risk a downgrade!"

If this were a company, the Board of Directors might fear the share price dropping based on a cutback of expenditures, but they would be doing that to SAVE their credit rating, not in spite of it. The credit downgrade would come if they continued to run up huge, unsustainable debt/equity ratios and the returns that they were getting on outstanding debt were abysmal.

Of course, for whatever reason (hmmmmmmm), the credit rating agencies do not rate governmental creditworthiness in the way that they rate corporate creditworthiness....

Agorism
07-27-2011, 08:52 PM
Yahoo finance Tech Ticker, which is one of my favorite shows (I watch it instead of news) had a segment today on how the ratings agencies get licensing from the federal government and are essentially beholden to it.

They were making the case that a downgrade would be extremely unlikely.

Brian4Liberty
07-27-2011, 08:56 PM
The credit rating of a country is somewhat different than a company. The US can always print more money to pay it's debts.

Agorism
07-27-2011, 09:00 PM
The US can always print more money to pay it's debts.

Well they couldn't do QE3 if they conform to the debt ceiling.

So no they couldn't entirely.

They could change the reserve requirements though, which would accomplish about the same thing.

Unelected
07-27-2011, 09:02 PM
This is a joke. Harry Reid's plan actually cuts more than Boehner's plan. White Bear Lake has it right, the Democrats are bluffing so that the GOP house passes it.

Though, some House Republicans might think it'll help their reelection campaigns if they vote against Boehner's progressive spending plan if it's going to fail to pass in the Senate anyways.

Agorism
07-27-2011, 09:05 PM
It's political theatre.

The August 2nd deadline isn't even a real deadline. It's just a random date Obama picked as we've been over the debt ceiling since May.

Other than the 3000% profit this year from insider trading, I don't see why anyone would want to be a politician.

Freedom 4 all
07-28-2011, 12:12 AM
Is it possible to short the U.S. dollar? Cause that sounds like it might be a good idea right about now.

KingRobbStark
07-28-2011, 01:05 AM
The republicans should play along and send a similar letter to Rep. Boner.

bunklocoempire
07-28-2011, 02:31 AM
It's political theatre.

The August 2nd deadline isn't even a real deadline. It's just a random date Obama picked as we've been over the debt ceiling since May.

Other than the 3000% profit this year from insider trading, I don't see why anyone would want to be a politician.

Sheesh, and BAD theatre at that.

Is this jumping the shark?

Who writes this crap?

:rolleyes:



Bunkloco

devil21
07-28-2011, 05:16 AM
The credit rating of a country is somewhat different than a company. The US can always print more money to pay it's debts.

They can also point guns at you to take what you have to pay it's debts. These are why .gov is rated differently than .com.

devil21
07-28-2011, 05:17 AM
Is it possible to short the U.S. dollar? Cause that sounds like it might be a good idea right about now.

It's called buying precious metals.

Seraphim
07-28-2011, 05:41 AM
Exactly right. In fact, I was going to post word for word the same thing you did.


It's called buying precious metals.

dean.engelhardt
07-28-2011, 05:48 AM
Democrats pledging to vote against a bill to raise the debt ceiling? Not a bad thing.

tangent4ronpaul
07-28-2011, 10:16 AM
Yahoo finance Tech Ticker, which is one of my favorite shows (I watch it instead of news) had a segment today on how the ratings agencies get licensing from the federal government and are essentially beholden to it.

They were making the case that a downgrade would be extremely unlikely.

Well, if that's the issue - someone should introduce legislation to pull the licenses of all the ratings agencies. That would deflate the Dems balloon.

-t