What our enemies and friends are learning from the Gov't Shutdown

It's sad to see but this shutdown is going to show countries like Iran and North Korea how they will need to deal with our Country in a crisis. This Shutdown and Debt Ceiling crisis is not good for our President and the Congress as our enemies are going to learn a free lesson in dealing with us when our Countries have a major crisis like Iran acquiring a Nuclear Bomb. They get this knowledge without having to pay anything for the lesson. It's a damn shame and a sad day for America. Someone is going to need to be the adult in the room and it isn't going to be Speaker John Boehner. He is forcing the President's hand as the crisis of Syria did when he drew a red line regarding the use of Chemical Weapons and couldn't get the Congress to support him. What idiots the Tea Party Representatives are. They don't really care about our Country and they should fold their hands in this crisis. The Country needs to get rid of all these Tea party nuts and some consequences should also take effect with the dumb people who voted them in!

I'm back! Here's my take on the Debt Ceiling crisis

I've been away on vacation for about 10 days so I apologize for not posting during that time, but you know that there are some remote places where there is no internet access. But I'm back now and ready to comment on this debt ceiling crisis.

I think there is now a 50% chance that both Parties in the Congress and the President will not come to an agreement to raise the Debt ceiling by Aug. 2nd. You know how this will affect the country in a negative way so I won't waste your time with those details. It seems obvious to me that President Obama has boxed himself into a corner as have both Republicans and Democrats over this issue. It seems to me the only thing left is for this President to make the unprecedented move to raise the Debt Ceiling using the 14th Amendment of the Constitution as the reason for this. This is what the 14th Amendment says:

""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." Many read this to say the President has the authority to guarantee payment since the Treasury of the United States reports to the President and is a Cabinet position.

I think that this President needs to consider the possibility that this may be the only way to guarantee the debt ceiling is raised in time. Politically he most likely would not want to make this choice, but he might just have to because it is clear to even the most casual observer that the House Republicans are demanding things that can't pass the Senate and the Senate are demanding what the House Republicans won't pass. So we have an impasse. This issue has held government hostage unnecessarily and never before in history have we ever come to this point. If you are into the blame game, you can either blame or praise the Tea party Republicans for where we find ourselves today. Those praising their stance on this, I hope you still feel this good when government spending is significantly reduced at a time where spending is required to keep this economy from relapsing into a Great Recession of worst, Unemployment rises, the cost of borrowing increases significantly and causes the housing crisis to get worse. This Republican Party with its Tea party activists will more than own the economic problems and crisis going forward, because in their zeal to ensure President Obama is a one term President, as Sen. Mitch McConnell has repeatedly said. God help us all.

Market and Political commentary for Dec. 17th.

Today is quadruple witching day for the stock market. There should be very high volume near the close and significantly higher volume for the day. To me what is very interesting this day is that wouldn't you expect the market to be roaring this morning since the Bush Tax cuts extension for 2 more years got passed and is on the way to President Obama for signing into law? Hmmm, why do you suppose that it isn't roaring?

Seems to me that yesterday we had the tax cuts in place and on January 1st and for the next 2 years they will remain in place, and the economy will not have any more dollars really added to spur the economy along. You see nothing much has changed except one thing, we now have a $900 Billion debt added to what we had as debt yesterday. That's a lot of money to pay off with increasing interest rates.

Oh, I'm sorry, didn't you know that interest rates have been rising rapidly in spite of Ben Bernanke's Quantitative easing, which was supposed to LOWER interest rates? Can you see the scam yet? The American worker and tax payer must now pay off an even larger debt than they had on their plate before the Bush Tax cut extension Bill was passed. The 10 year Treasury yield was down as low as 2.45% within 30 days ago, but now it is over 3.5%. How's that working for ya?! That's your best bought Congress at work for you. Where were all the loud Tea Party Republicans clamoring for us not to pass this Bill? They were bought off and silenced just like all politicians are. As I have said before, we have the best Congress money can buy, and this one cost more money than past ones. Now go out there and shop and stop complaining. Long term Slavery isn't that bad! Our ancestors managed it well but it only included the "colored's" back then. This new slavery is for "whites" too, as you, your children and your grandchildren will all be working to pay off this debt for their Master.

As you can tell, I am just sick of it. Why do you think many want to kill funding for public education and continue to make our education system inferior? Whose interest does that serve? How will these less educated vote when they are of age? Just like this generation of less educated. And that's how the game is perpetuated! It's the only way people will not vote their interests, now that Corporations are seen with equal rights as individuals in where they spend their money in elections. We are killing the American Dream for a generation at a minimum. What a sad day. Oh well, I've got to get ready for the day. Have a nice weekend, in spite of the news.

Is anything going to change after the election? Yes! Let me tell you.

So it is a foregone conclusion that the Democrats are going to lose the majority in the House of Representatives, but most likely will not lose the majority in the Senate. What does this mean to us and what effect that will have on legislation? I’ll tell you.

You see Republicans and Tea Party advocates believe they will reign in government spending and shrink the size of government, as a result of their victory, and that is what they are selling voters, as to why they should be elected. In fact, that will be far from the reality of what will happen after the election. Let me paint a real possibility of what is possible after this election.

First, there will be a lame duck Congress, as many Democrats will lose their seats, but, and this is the real interesting bit of news, they will feel they have one last chance to pass legislation before Republicans take control in January after they are sworn in. As of October 5th, here is a headline worth your attention: “Frustrated House still waiting for Senate action on 420 bills. Do you think that this fact is irrelevant because they lost the majority? Think again!

You see these bills are awaiting approval by the Senate, which still will be controlled by the Senate and that will still be controlled by the Democrats if projections hold for them holding on to the majority in the Senate.

Do you have any idea what those Bills contain? Let me give you a small sample:
- At the top of the list was the June 2009 cap-and-trade energy and climate bill, which passed the House by a slim margin but never made it to the Senate floor.
- Measures to audit the claims fund set up by BP after the Gulf oil spill and legislation to increase screening for diabetes.
- House leaders drew a line in the sand on holding a House vote on tax cuts set to expire at the end of the year, saying the Senate would have to act first. When the Senate decided to punt the issue until after the elections, the House followed suit, despite protests from liberal members who wanted to cast their vote to extend middle-class tax cuts before they left for the campaign trail.

- The ‘Paycheck Fairness Act’ (H.R. 12) that was one of the first pieces of legislation approved in the House when the new Congress convened in 2009. It won by a vote of 256 to 163. According to sponsor Rep. Rose DeLauro, D-Conn., it will help promote pay equity for women.
But with the post-election lame duck session packed with priorities, like debating the so-called Bush tax cuts, many of the bills passed in the House will simply disappear into the history books. They don’t carry over from one Congress to another and sponsors of these hundreds of measures must introduce them once again. So there will be a lot of pressure to get some of these passed in the Lame duck session between November and January.

If after the election, the Democrats in the Senate have the courage, and this would clearly take courage, they could change the “Filibuster” Senate rule to allow for 56, 55 or as low as 53 votes to move some legislation. The Republicans threatened to do this when they were in power, under the George W. Bush Administration and Senator Bill Frist was the majority leader in the Senate. Also, I believe I had heard that Reid has also considered this move.

So this will be an interesting 3 months ahead. I would expect some new tactics to be used in the Senate to overcome the gridlock. And don’t forget, if Harry Reid gets reelected he won’t be worrying much about what Republicans think, as this most likely will be his last Senate term as he would then be 77 years old when up for reelection. Interesting times indeed!