Day: July 6, 2011

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Politics South Carolina United States

Republican Suggests Impeaching President Obama For Maybe Invoking The 14th Amendment

Section 4 of the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution 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.

Because of this amendment, many suggests that Congressional authorization to raise the debt ceiling is not necessary, as not doing so would mean that America defaults on its obligation to pay its debt, thus, going against the 14th amendment of the constitution.

Republicans – who have stood their ground in insisting that raising the debt ceiling is not going to happen – are now scrambling to find a way to defeat section 4 of the 14th amendment. Some have suggested an amendment to the 14th amendment and others like Rep. Tim Scott of South Carolina, went even further. He wants to impeach President Obama if the President even thinks about trying to raise the debt ceiling without congress. The South Carolina representative recently told a teaparty audience;

“This president is looking to usurp congressional oversight to find a way to get it done without us. My position is that is an impeachable act from my perspective.”

There are a lot of things people say, ‘Are you going to impeach the president over that?’ — No. But this? This is catastrophic. This jeopardizes the credibility of our nation if one man can usurp the entire system set up by our founding fathers over something this significant.”

It should be noted that President Obama has never mentioned an intent to “usurp the entire system.” As a matter of fact, this president has gone the extra mile trying to bring both Republicans and Democrats to the table, in an effort to get the Congressional authorization necessary for allowing America to pay her bills.

But then again, Republicans like Tim Scott would like to impeach President Obama just for being president.

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Barack Obama MSNBC Pat Buchanan Politics Republican United States

Pat Buchanan Predicts That Obama Will “Fold” On Debt Ceiling

Politics were on full display on MSNBC’s Morning Joe with Pat Buchanan demanding that Republicans do nothing on the upcoming vote to raise the debt ceiling. Buchanan’s reasoning to his Republican friends in Congress? – Don’t raise the debt ceiling because “Obama will fold!”

In his call for the Republicans to do nothing, Pat Buchanan went as far as to suggest that if Republicans do what’s best for the country and raise the debt ceiling, Boehner and the rest of the  Republicans will not be able to go home and face their constituents. When it was explained to Buchanan that it is simply impossible to balance the budget on spending cuts alone without bringing in revenues from taxes at the same time, Buchanan replied;

If you take a look at John Boehner, he can’t go home again if he signs on to taxes. He’s dead if he signs on to higher taxes.

It should be noted that the “higher taxes” Buchanan and Republicans in general are talking about, is a 3% raise in the tax rate of millionaires and billionaires – essentially going back to the rate as they existed under Bill Clinton.

Apparently, the politics of doing nothing and further tanking the economy, will be better for Republicans and their constituents, notwithstanding the fact that this political decision will cause severe consequences to the nation’s economy.

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Politics Republican Tax United States

David Brooks – These Infected Republicans Are Unfit To Lead

If the debt ceiling talks fail, independent voters will see that Democrats were willing to compromise but Republicans were not. If responsible Republicans don’t take control, independents will conclude that Republican fanaticism caused this default. They will conclude that Republicans are not fit to govern.

And they will be right.

Those are the words as written by David Brooks – a columnist for the New York Times who is described by David Warren, of  Real Clear Politics, as someone who shares the Conservative Republican ideology. The piece, published on July 4th, is called The Mother of All No-Brainers, and in it, Brooks spoke about the Republican party as being “infected by a faction that is more of a psychological protest than a practical, governing alternative.”

“The members of this movement,” Brooks continued, “do not accept the logic of compromise, no matter how sweet the terms. If you ask them to raise taxes by an inch in order to cut government by a foot, they will say no. If you ask them to raise taxes by an inch to cut government by a yard, they will still say no.”

Brooks proved his point by referencing the debate going on in Washington about raising the debt ceiling, where Democrats and the President have already signaled their willingness to cut defense and entitlement spending if Republicans are willing to close some tax loopholes that benefit millionaires. This willingness by the Democrats would cut about $3 trillion in spending, for a few billion in savings by closing these tax loopholes. According to Brooks, the real Republican party should “seize the opportunity to put the country on a sound fiscal footing,” but the infection would not allow that to happen.

Speaking further on this “infection”, Brooks says;

The members of this movement do not accept the legitimacy of scholars and intellectual authorities. A thousand impartial experts may tell them that a default on the debt would have calamitous effects, far worse than raising tax revenues a bit. But the members of this movement refuse to believe it.

The members of this movement have no sense of moral decency. A nation makes a sacred pledge to pay the money back when it borrows money. But the members of this movement talk blandly of default and are willing to stain their nation’s honor.

The same Republicans who were responsible for raising the debt ceiling under the Bush Administration on numerous occasions did it then because they knew the importance of America paying its bills. These same Republicans are now willing to allow the country to default on these bills, in order to point to the present administration as being irresponsible and unable to lead. That argument they’re hoping, would be enough to win them the  elections in 2012.

Americans sent both Democrats and Republicans to congress with one request – lead. In order to effectively do that, both party must be able to come together and solve the nation’s problems. But Republicans have shown, time and time again, that they are not willing to come together to solve anything. Republicans are more willing to assist in pushing the economy back into a ditch, even if it means millions of Americans suffer in the process.

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