Mitch McConnell would rather tear out his eyeballs with a claw hammer than operate under the constraints of a balanced budget amendment. But that didn’t keep him from saying the following on the floor of the Senate this morning:
“The time has come for a balanced budget amendment that forces Washington to balance its books. If these debt negotiations have convinced us of anything, it’s that we can’t leave it to politicians in Washington to make the difficult decisions that they need to get our fiscal house in order. The balanced budget amendment will do that for them. Now is the moment. No more games. No more gimmicks. The Constitution must be amended to keep the government in check. We’ve tried persuasion. We’ve tried negotiations. We’re tried elections. Nothing has worked.”
Yeah, whatever. How about McConnell think back to 1999 and 2000? Remember those days? We had a surplus.
That was before Bill Frist, Tom DeLay, and George W. Bush gained power and looted the treasury.
Martin,
Yeah, no doubt Bush worsened things. But we need to be precise in accepting that the bubble of the late 90s helped balance the budget (heavy cap gains tax revenue, booming business from money pumping, etc), as did creative govt. accounting. As each year goes by, more and more accumulated Govt. promises come due and unbalance the budget further.
Granted, supporting the Empire abroad has worsened things, as have other spending increases foreign and domestic absent revenue increasing.
But let’s be blunt: All the promises we’ve made to the future total an insurmountable load. We could tax 100% of all earned income in the U.S. and still have a massive Net Present Value obligation (through real GAAP vs. fictional govt. accounting) left over, with all wage earners left with zero $$. Corporations would have to be raided further, which invariably would drive up consumer costs / send businesses offshore. There is no easy out to this, the bill for decades of free lunches is coming due at all levels.
That problem has only been pushed forward a few years by BushCo… It would have just hit us a few years later, perhaps enabling other spending to appear comparatively affordable before hitting the fan as it is now.
And regardless of President, the policies of ’00 through ’06 guaranteed a credit crisis… and the same policy geniuses would have structured the same bank bailouts to save the corporatist power class.
Balanced Budget Amendment*
Tax cuts not included.
“We’ve tried elections”?!?! Did he actually say that? Out loud? On camera?
Fascism is clearly the only alternative. “Wanker” is too mild a term for what that sumbitch is. And yet he reminds me so much of my dear old granny…
Short of a balanced budget amendment, how about the congress just impose a rule on itself that no one can propose a tax cut or spending increase without balancing it with spending cuts or tax increases. They could give it a snappy name, like, oh maybe “PAYGO”. Why is this starting to sound familiar?
Balanced Budget Amend. Mitch is just kicking the can down the road. How many years and how much money will that cost. The GOP will keep changing the conversation (wipe the slate clean and start all over). Without the votes to pass the legislation to raise the debt ceiling, they will default the government.
he’s an assclown
No. He wears that like a badge of honor. And wants government to extend special privileges to all assclowns.
There must be a better description.
He thinks he’s a snapping turtle, but he’s really just a river cooter.
Greatest Flops
The flop at 1:20 is pretty good.
McConnell needs some sort of face saving device to pretend he isn’t completely selling out the tea party faction of the Republican party by proposing to allow the President to raise the debt ceiling. If this gives it to him, fine; let him pretend to be a fiscal conservative by pursuing a Quixotic quest to pass a constitutional amendment. It’s a waste of time, but its far better than Republicans refusing to raise the debt ceiling and sinking the economy.
Although I suppose if this going to work as a face saving device for him, he should have some liberals denouncing him to help him out.
ahem Curse you, you diabolical McConnell for working to prevent us liberals from looting the treasury and bankrupting the country to funnel money to our constituents! Curse you for foiling our plan to use the threat of default to force innocent Republicans into raising taxes. You’ve foiled us again!
If an amendment of any sort passes in our lifetimes, I’ll regard it as a miracle. As far as this new century goes, I’d say our “living constitution” is in a coma.
Oh. Gee. Wow.
Another way to shut down the government without having to really be fiscally responsible.
Why don’t we give that a trial run on Aug. 3?
Minnesotans are going to be running out of beer soon. And then. Oh my! The government shutdown is not going to look so good.
Progressives could be like Joe Kennedy and make a mint in beer runs.
Why don’t we respond by offering a “Cut the bullshit” bullshit amendment?
I love it when a professional politician tells us that we can’t trust professional politicians to solve a problem.
If McConnell wants a balanced budget, maybe he should get his caucus to write one.