Schumer To Boehner: If You Think You Can Raise The Debt Limit Without Dem Support, You're Dreaming

A temporary visit while laptop is getting fixed but will be back again on a regular basis. Too much to miss!!!

o'stephanie,

I beleive that most Americans can figure out that the party that works to get the rich even richer does not care for them at all.

Which party would that be? The rich are always getting richer, Democrap or Repugnant. If they raise the debt ceiling where will the money come from? Who will pay? Not Obama's rich friends..not the Repugnants rich, yup the good old middle class. Our government is made up of greedneedy power mongering bafoons. We need to stop being Democrats and Republicans and start paying attention before it's too late. This whole thing with the debt ceiling is nothing more than a soap opera devised by politicians to make us think they are working for us, when they are really only working for themselves and their rich campaign contributors.

Perhaps Chuck Schumer could get another $9 million from Wall Street. I'm sure that will solidify his status as a man of the people.

they'll take it out of McConnell's 'donations'. poor Mitch

Well, he is a Senator from New York. Last I checked, Wall St. was still in Lower Manhattan.

This guy is the epitome of new york city liberal if I ever saw one. Wack job, they got them on both coasts - Pelosi on the left coast.

The debt ceiling has been a rallying cry for teapublicans since the last election. Don't tell me they're gonna puss out and run from it now. They wanna scream about a crisis of their own design so now they have to sack up and face the music for their pissy fit about taxing the poor old billionaires a few % more. Sooo, which gov't service will the GTOP cut first? Medicare or SS payments? VA? Have at it. This poop sandwich will still be spread across their dumbass faces till next November.

This poop sandwich will still be spread across their dumbass faces till next November.

Question is, do repubs mind their candidate wearing poop or does that make them more attractive? From the way they act I think they find poop attractive.

The default will be the dems fault, Obama's fault.

Yeah, ask Newt Gingrich how things work out when you assume that the American people are stupid with regards to brinksmanship on the issue of the government defaulting on it's debt.

Any serious discussion of solving the nation's debt problem must include addressing revenue as well as spending.

American's also realize that it's a long-term issue that doesn't need to be discussed in hyperbolic terms...the idea that entitlements need to be cut immediately because "we're broke" is an exaggeration when Social Security is projected to be solvent until 2037, After that, it is expected to be able to pay out 75 percent of benefits until 2084. There is no threat of the program running out of money any time soon.

If republicans think they can ditch the blame I think they will be sorely disappointed. Americans already know who is to blame for this economic meltdown (Bush and the corporate/financial sector). Republicans are not having luck blaming Obama and if they shut down the government and it causes the havoc economists and others think will happen, republicans will get the blame and it will cost them dearly. It will cost all of us.

Hempluva,

So what are you saying, that the headline of this article is a misprint? Or was it a Schumer gaffe? Because, according to the headline, Schumer is saying that the debt limit will only be raised if the Republicans "work with the Dems", which would logically mean that if the Repubs don't, the Dems won't "allow" it to be raised.

T it isn't just us worried about a default. It's the world banking and heads of state that are very concerned. With an American default the value of the dollar as the benchmark for the world money supply slips. Enough so that even now there is talk spreading through the money supply people about changing the benchmark to the Chinese yuan.

The power and prestige is tremendous. The US cannot afford for the yuan to be the benchmark for the future money supply. People need to remember China is a Communist nation. IMO that being For a default is a sanction for the yuan to be the benchmark.

Any country that holds American bonds will have to rollover those bonds because the US will only be able to pay the interest. If they are counting on cashing in those bonds, they are not going to be able too. Thus, their economies are going to be hurt also. It's a domino effect especially since America is one of the Big Domino's.

Lots of politicians fell for that BS. They are first and foremost concerned with reelection. Of course they say that is because they need to be reelected to continue to serve their constituents. I, however, believe it is because they crave power and attention and no better place for it than the US congress.

Back to Iraq. Well, Bush and co. did a brilliant job of framing anyone who disagreed with them as a traitor, coward, or terrorist sympathizer. Ironic since Bussh and Cheney were both draft dodgers as well as most of their fellow cheerleaders.

Sooo, Chuck, like many other dems (not the Prez!) went along with this fools errand to finish a family vendetta against a tin pot dictator under the guise that it was for national security. I agree whole heartedly that the dems f'd up listening to the douche bag administration of Bussh.

Actually hemp , the dems were saying the same things all the way back to 98 about saddam , matter of fact , i think chuckie was even one of those dem leaders that signed a few letters regarding saddams WMD back then as well , he wasnt alone , gore , Clinton , bubbi type , lieberman ( then dem ) admin dems like albright and berger , all staed repeatedly that saddam had wmd and he was a danger , my fav came from ted kennedy though , his statement was that we ( the US ) have known for yrs about saddams wmd and his desires to aquire more . yep bush lied , right after the entire dem leadership of the 90s , some of which are still in positions of power.

I hear that a lot but don't recall anyone calling for an invasion. I'll look it up but I don't recall it. If it happened, they were wrong but they didn't pull the trigger on the occupation no matter how much they may have yapped about it.

Hemp they are not hard to find , just use the search words If Bush lied i come back with 12 500,000 results , through bing , some even have linlks to where it was stated links to other than right leaning sites might have to go to one of them to get to the other links , but the links are there to go to sites like cnn when they reported it . its out there, if one cares to look.

True, what annoys me is the fact that Republicans simply ignore the fact that much of the deficit is a result of revenues being down due to the recession. It's not static, these are projections - if the economy improves, deficit and long term debt projections will go down.

We need a smart balanced approach, not hyperbole. And most economists agree that taking austerity measures too far could stall any economic recovery. Cuts in federal spending mean more people added to the unemployment rolls.

I keep hearing that, but talking as a self employed person who has a lot of friends who have businesses, as long as the deficits stay high we're not growing or investing in anything. But if we see some responsible behavior on the government's part which would be comprehensive and include spending cuts, we'd feel encouraged. I think the spending cuts and tax increases would stimulate the economy now not contract it.

I know that's counterintuitive to the theory of stimulus spending and I know what economists say you're right but I'm reporting on what it looks like from ground level. Stimulus would work if we were doing it from a good foundation now we're definitely not our accumulated debt is sky high and getting worse. It's a different view now.

I'd also add that even if the economy improves, 1.5 trillion a year of deficit spending might drop 3-400 billion but is not going to go away. We need serious adults in the room to figure out how to get the rest under control too.

I'm self-employed and a small business owner as well and I don't buy this whole "regulatory uncertainty" argument. Relative tax rates are the furthest thing from my mind right now, what I need is consumers who feel confident enough to start spending again.

I don't really care if they are private vs, public employees, and I frankly don't care about the federal governments finances. Whether or not China wants to try to repossess a couple of aircraft carriers in 2030 isn't my immediate concern - what I care about is consumer confidence, and the Republicans proclaiming "we're broke" really isn't helping much.

If we're running up 1.5 trillion a year, we are in serious financial straits. That's not a GOP smoke screen there is an issue. And I think even on the consumer end, confidence our economy gets better will get them to spend more.

I'm not sure what you meant by regulatory uncertainty - if we rolled back the Bush tax cuts it would cost me personally over 8K a year, but I think I'd be better off. The additional business I'd get because of increased confidence about the government finally getting off their butt and solving our problems would more than offset that. For me - I always say this and it's true for me - income is what makes me smile. I'd rather pay 50% on 400K than 20% on 40K any day. We do grumble about taxes, but they aren't stopping me from doing anything and like all my friends, we're highly motivated about the next contract and the next opportunity. We all think if you're foregoing a 100K contract because you have to pay taxes on it, you're a total moron I can't imagine that.

If by regulatory uncertainty you're talking about regulations, we need some regulations. But speaking for small business, there's 3 things you need for a regulation to be good. First, it has to make at least a little sense. Second, it can be rigorous but a 5th grader should be able to understand what is required. Third, it has to apply for everyone the same there isn't a group out there that can get away with it. I think we have a lot of war stories about how regulations came to bite us in the butt in ways we'd never expect to the point where seriously the GOP can put out a lot of raw red meat for this one. I think regulations applied with these 3 rules in mind are cost savers we just don't have enough of them.And I'd say most of the time, when we went afoul of the regulations we had no idea we were. That tends to tick you off long term.

I'd rather pay 50% on 400K than 20% on 40K any day. We do grumble about taxes, but they aren't stopping me from doing anything and like all my friends, we're highly motivated about the next contract and the next opportunity. We all think if you're foregoing a 100K contract because you have to pay taxes on it, you're a total moron I can't imagine that.

Exactly. What I'm talking about the claim by McConnell and others that businesses aren't investing in the economy because of regulatory uncertainty, as if businesses sit around biting their fingernails over a few percentage points in their their tax rate, and that's the main driving factor that's keeping them from investing - that if demand was there they'd be sitting on the sidelines in protest.

Yes, no one likes taxes, but it's not the primary factor in decisions whether to expand, continue to invest or sit on the sidelines, that's purely a profit-driven decision that's based primarily on demand for your product - externalities are a factor but are a small percentage consideration.