The media, the debt ceiling, and the big lie

[XNavyNuke]

Was listening to All Things Considered on NPR during the drive home this afternoon and heard a wonderful example of carrying water for the Administration. We heard last year during the debt ceiling crisis that not renewing the debt ceiling on time was unprecedented. Showing a lack of creativity, that's being used again this time around.

hXXp://www.npr.org/2013/10/01/228158870/beyond-the-shutdown-theres-a-bigger-battle-brewing


No one is exactly sure what would happen if the government suddenly had to make do without a credit card. But experts agree that the fallout could be scary and far-reaching.

While government shutdowns are messy and disruptive, the country has lived through them before. The U.S. government, on the other hand, has never had to go cold turkey on borrowed money.

>emphasis mine<

Well, lets see.

hXXp://news.google.com/newspapers?id=B_BBAAAAIBAJ&sjid=QaoMAAAAIBAJ&pg=7119,810453&dq=debt-ceiling+carter&hl=en
Dateline: October 6th, 1977

President Carter Wednesday signed a bill boosting the national debt ceiling to $752 Billion, ending a four day "nervous" stretch in which the government had no authority to borrow money to pay its massive debts.

...
This was only the second time ever that Congress had let the old debt ceiling run out without enacting a new one.

back to the NPR story:

"The consequences of a one-day or two-day failure to pay the debt will not lead to a shutdown," he says. "But you don't want to look at your 401(k) a week later."

During those 4 days in 1977, the Dow was +0.4%, -1.0%, -0.5%, and +0.5%. Hardly Armageddon.

hXXp://news.google.com/newspapers?id=lU5DAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ga0MAAAAIBAJ&pg=2085,1234926&dq=debt-ceiling+carter&hl=en
Dateline: August 3rd, 1978

The Senate also passed legislation raising the debt ceiling to $798 Billion, which now goes to the president for his signature. The federal debt reached its current $752 billion limit Tuesday.

During those 3 day, the Dow was -0.2%, +2.5%, and +0.3%

The next time a media wonk going off on how this is unprecedented you'll know that it crap.

XNN

[HOLLYWOOD]

You never hear about Jimmy Carter's government shutdown, with a Democrat House and Senate.

They shutdown the government 5 times, for a total of 50 days over Carter's term. So much for partisan media... :rolleyes:

[XNavyNuke]

You never hear about ANY previous government actions, no matter how similar, if they don't track with TPTB talking points. The vast majority of the population are ignorant of history and the media actively participates in propaganda dissemination that keeps them that way. Everything has to be reported in such a way that an issue is unprecedented and scary.

XNN

[XNavyNuke]

Slate Magazine seems to be running with the same crap.

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2013/09/government_shutdown_versus_the_debt_ceiling_why_hi tting_the_debt_limit_is.html
Why the Oct. 17 deadline for hitting our debt limit is so much scarier than the government shutdown.




Long story short, a government shutdown is problematic but decidedly noncatastrophic. Not because the government isn’t important, but because the prevailing interpretation of the law is specifically designed to avoid catastrophe.

The debt ceiling is another matter. Nobody really knows what will happen if we breach the debt ceiling because it’s never happened before. And everyone worries that it will be awful because nobody’s created any legal provision for not making it awful.

.....and HuffPo
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/02/debt-ceiling-terrifying-ceilings_n_4031535.html?utm_hp_ref=business
7 Ceilings That Aren't Nearly As Terrifying As The Debt Ceiling


There's a chance that Congress won't raise the so-called debt ceiling, leaving the U.S. government unable to borrow more money to pay its bills. Such an action would be unprecedented and no one quite knows what would happen. Many warn that such a default would spark some pretty horrendous economic consequences and possibly a global financial meltdown.

XNN

[XNavyNuke]

CNN running today with the theme that failure to raise the debt ceiling before expiry would force the Glorious Leader's hand into a Constitutional crisis.

Economists fear debt ceiling fight may bring recession (http://money.cnn.com/2013/10/03/news/economy/shutdown-debt-ceiling-recession/)


Some of the economists believe if Congress doesn't raise the debt ceiling then the administration will act unilaterally. That might cause a constitutional crisis but they believe it would avoid a financial crisis.

"My expectation in this scenario is that the President finds a sufficiently plausible constitutional rationale to ignore the debt ceiling and keep on meeting all US Federal obligations on time with no exceptions," said Bill Cheney, chief economist with Manulife Asset Management.

At which point Article 1, Sections 7 & 8 become moot. Yeah, I'd call that a Constitutional crisis. The sad thing is the Media is already gearing up to support him.

XNN

[QuickZ06]

Great info XNavy.

[HOLLYWOOD]

CNN running today with the theme that failure to raise the debt ceiling before expiry would force the Glorious Leader's hand into a Constitutional crisis.

Economists fear debt ceiling fight may bring recession (http://money.cnn.com/2013/10/03/news/economy/shutdown-debt-ceiling-recession/)

At which point Article 1, Sections 7 & 8 become moot. Yeah, I'd call that a Constitutional crisis. The sad thing is the Media is already gearing up to support him.

XNNLiberal-Progressive media, especially MSNBC-NBC & CNN are now pushing the 14th Amendment, section 4.(Lincoln's Legacy of Tyranny) on funding the debt ceiling rise. Repeated over and over on Fascist-Corporatist media today, even through WH/Executive branch council/DOJ stated, they wouldn't invoke the 14th Amendment in funding the Debt Pile, 2 days ago.

Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
Section 4.

The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any state shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiv


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-01/white-house-rejects-14th-amendment-to-raise-debt-ceiling.html
White House Rejects 14th Amendment to Raise Debt Ceiling
By Margaret Talev - Oct 1, 2013 12:41 PM PT

President Barack Obama (http://topics.bloomberg.com/barack-obama/) has neither the legal authority nor the practical ability to bypass Congress and extend the nation’s borrowing limit, and attempting such a step might trigger turmoil in the markets, two top White House advisers said.
National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling and Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer were responding to some congressional Democrats who urged Obama to extend the federal debt ceiling without congressional authorization under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Hours into a partial government shutdown resulting from a fiscal stalemate with House Republicans, administration officials and lawmakers are looking ahead to an Oct. 17 deadline for Congress to raise the $16.7 trillion federal debt limit.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, told reporters at the Capitol today that invoking the president’s powers under the 14th Amendment to raise the limit is “an option that should seriously be considered.”

House minority leader Nancy Pelosi said last week that she disagrees with Obama’s decision not to act unilaterally during a 2011 standoff over increasing the debt limit. “I would never have taken it off the table,” the California Democrat said.

White House lawyers don’t see that as an option, Sperling and Pfeiffer said today at a Bloomberg Government luncheon.
“Our folks have never found that there was such extraordinary authority,” Sperling said.
Not Practical

Pfeiffer said employing such a tactic is impractical.

“Would people buy bonds that are legally questionable?” he said. “If you were buying a car, would you ever buy a car when the title was in doubt? The answer to that question is no.”
“I don’t know why we would assume that investors would buy bonds that are legally in question, that could at any day be invalidated by a court,” he said. “So it is an impractical solution to the problem.”

Proponents cite the language of the 14th amendment, which says that the “validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payments of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.”
Obama and his advisers have consistently rejected using the amendment to justify raising the debt ceiling without Congressional support.
“This is ultimately about whether the rest of the world, global investors, have confidence in this,” Sperling said. “The spectacle of auctions going off that are under a legal cloud would most likely have a lot of the same negative impact globally that people fear in an all-out default.