Unfortunately, Mark Levin is now teetering on the edge of kooky land. He spent a fair amount of today’s show concerning the debt ceiling. He rightly points out that only Congress has the authority to authorize spending and the 14th amendment will force President Obama to not default on the debt – so far, so good.
But then he upped the ante by saying that if the President ignores the debt ceiling, that’s an impeachable offense because he doesn’t have the authority to spend money unless Congress authorizes it. That sounds nice, but it is completely wrong.
Congress already HAS authorized him to spend the money. Back in April, Congress passed a full year continuing resolution to fund the government until September 30th at last year’s levels. The Nancy Pelosi House completely dropped the ball and passed nothing and the Tea Party House has shown no interest in fixing that prior budget year and doesn’t seem very interested in next year having actual appropriation bills. It forces them to make real decisions and negotiate with the 2/3 of the government Republicans don’t control.
So the President has been authorized to spend the money, but not provided the President with either the revenue or the borrowing authority. If Congress wanted the President to borrow no more, it had an obligation to not pass the continuing resolution and pass real appropriations bills.
So this is like telling your wife she can spend $500 on clothes knowing there is only $100 in the checking account, then blaming her when the checks bounce.
Starting October 1st is another story – Republicans need to permit borrowing up to the already passed spending authorizations (as distasteful as that is) and focus on passing spending bills this summer with the cuts they want and take the heat it generates.
Rush went down pretty much the same path today, except he got even more confused trying to explain the things that most Americans just are not smart enough to understand – the national debt isn’t the same thing as the debt owed by the nation! That clears it up for me.
There’s nothing quite as amusing (pathetic) as watching conservative media shills try to prop up the false dichotomy of Republicrats vs Democans…
…except, perhaps, Newt ‘GinGrinch’ trying to resuscitate his campaign.
What’s the date when OTC gold trading will be illegal? July 15th?
Directive 10-289 is just around the bend.
This is what is seriously depressing. As the country is zooming off the cliff, the “Conservative Talk Radio” hosts are just proving how thin their knowledge actually is. I’m most disappointed with Beck, who at least has been playing catch up on his learning, rather than playing golf or riding his boat – he’s become obsessed with defending another country while this one is crumbling.
I have nowhere to go – the “religious right” is going to continue to respond to the bait dangled in front of them (abortion, gay rights, prayer in schools, nativity scenes on the public square at Christmas) while the Democrats / Progressives / Liberals incrementally take over the schools, the government and the courts and spend all of us into slavery. The most troubling sign for the future is the religious demographics of the U.S. Supreme Court. For all of the efforts of Pat Robertson, et al… there isn’t one non-Catholic Christian on the court despite being 76% of the adult population. So much for “Diversity”