- First, read about the big changes in the Daily Kos editor workflow.
- Tom Junod, who is one of my favorite writers, explains why not raising the debt ceiling would be an economic disaster:
The world's largest economy can't just stop spending the trillion-plus dollars it acquires through debt each year without putting itself and the rest of the world in peril. What worried the banker about missing the August 2 deadline was not that it would initiate a credit crisis but rather deepen the recession, to the extent that the markets will have to force Congress's hand in the same way that the markets forced Congress's hand when Congress didn't pass the first TARP bill in 2008. Congress won't be risking the country's all-important credit rating if it doesn't raise the debt ceiling; no, it will just be risking economic turmoil.
The bond market will take into account the fact that the Federal Government is stiffing somebody. Which is why they cannot stiff anybody.
Okay Rep. Bachmann?
- Who do we owe?
About $4.5 trillion is held by foreigners, from private individuals to central banks and sovereign wealth funds. China holds about 10% of the federal debt.
The rest is owned by, well ... us. $4.6 trillion is held by Social Security and other government funds. $1.4 trillion is owned by the Federal Reserve. The rest, about $3.8 trillion, is owned by American pension funds, insurance companies, mutual funds and state and local governments.
Source: June report of the Financial Management Service, U.S. Treasury.
- President Obama continues the "both parties" schtick:
"Let's be honest. Neither party in this town is blameless," he said in his weekly address. "Both have talked this problem to death without doing enough about it. That's what drives people nuts about Washington."
Wrong. There is one party that is to blame for the debt and the deficit: The Republican Party. From 1981-2011, this deficit problem emerged. Twenty of those years were under Republican rule, and the 10 years of Democratic rule produced a net surplus. Democrats balanced the budget. Republicans ruined it. No, Mr. President. There is not blame on both sides. There is blame on one side.
- TPM outlines four possible paths forward.
- Meanwhile, Boehner is having trouble civilizing the savages:
Despite being swept into the office of Speaker of the House atop a wave of newly elected Republican Congressmen, John Boehner (R-Ohio) may be sensing that, more often than not, this wave is crashing in on him and threatening to drown his little empire.
Quite a different feeling from the day when 87 Republicans worn sworn in as Congressmen for the first time in 2011 and John Boehner rejoiced to welcome this freshman class of colleagues. On that heady day Boehner rightly reckoned that he would soon be handed the Speaker?s gavel and, with it, control of the House of Representatives and of the policy agenda of the Congress specifically and the federal government generally. - Finally, the McConnell/Reid plan gathers momentum everywhere, but among conservatives.
Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/1XeaggUzKtc/-Midday-open-thread
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