Boehner's boner

[Anonymous]

He couldn't beg, borrow, or steal the last few votes to pass his bill. What is his next step?

[jsteele]

He will make the bill even more draconian. I understand they want to reduce Pell grant funding.

This entire issue has become a disaster. The Democrats are playing entirely on the Republican side of the field. We are simply negotiating the size of the Republican victory at this point. Ironically, our only hope is that the Tea Party will refuse to accept the Democrats' surrender.

[Anonymous]

Jeff, you (and other progressives) seem to pre-suppose that we can continue to borrow indefinitely.

When would the borrowing actually, you know, stop, or are you prepared to run a Japan-sized debt and hope our finances are done Greek style?

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Jeff, you (and other progressives) seem to pre-suppose that we can continue to borrow indefinitely.

When would the borrowing actually, you know, stop, or are you prepared to run a Japan-sized debt and hope our finances are done Greek style?

I don't know how many times I have to say this. You pay down your debts during periods of growth. When Bush inherited a record surplus from Clinton, he should have used that to pay down the debt. Instead, he gave tax breaks to the wealthy. I do not like having a large debt. I wish that Bush had not been so short-sighted. But, he turned a record surplus into a record deficit and left Obama with a recession. Cutting spending during a recession simply makes things worse. If there were a strong concern about the debt, the Bush tax cuts should not have been extended. The fact that those cuts were extended shows that there is not a honest concern about the debt. That is simply being used as leverage to cut entitlement programs. The same people who brought you the mortgage crisis now want 65 and 66 year olds to buy insurance and want us to give them our retirement funds.

We don't have a debt crisis. We have a jobs crisis. Solve the jobs crisis and we will be better positioned to address the debt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Jeff, you (and other progressives) seem to pre-suppose that we can continue to borrow indefinitely.

When would the borrowing actually, you know, stop, or are you prepared to run a Japan-sized debt and hope our finances are done Greek style?

Actually we presuppose that we are the ONLY ones who will pay down the debt. It appears that conservatives want tax cuts, but when it comes to budgets they are gutless wonders.

[Anonymous]

Jeff I think you should run for office!!!

[Anonymous]

Oh I freely admit the GOP isn't terribly serious about cutting anything. I'd rather take the social democrats who're at least somewhat honest about the need to pay for the social welfare state than the dishonest minarchists.