Shot in the Dark

Scenarios

Scenario 1:  Obama wants the shutdown.  

The government shutdown will be a bonanza to Obama.

Pro:  It’ll draw attention – with the aid of his Praetorian Guard, the media – away from the mounting disaster that is the Obamacare rollout, to say nothing of the IRS, NSA and Fast and Furious scandals.  With the aid of his lackeys in the media, he could actually play it into a big win, a la Clinton vs. Dole in 1996.

Con:  This isn’t 1996. Back then, this was a pretty trivial country, awash in a boom.  This country could still get away with fripperies like electing Jesse Ventura, for crying out loud.  Now, people are hurting, and seeing the way government behaves with the money it’s borrowing from our grandchildren is galling at least.  And the only people it’s going to affect are those who are never going to vote Republican anyway.

Scenario 2:  Obama Doesn’t Want The Shutdown

Pro: Remember “sequestration?”  Despite the best efforts of Obama’s Praetorian Guard, which tried to portray it like Operation Barbarossa gathering on the Atlantic seaboard, either do most of you. Obama counted hard on “sequestration” to do for him what the 1996 shutdown did for Slick Willie.

That didn’t work, did it?

Con:  John Boehner could screw up a third date with a drunk Lindsay Lohan.

And even if Boehner and the DC establishment don’t screw the pooch, the media will, will will be out there working overtime to represent, and misrepresent, for Obama at every turn.  If there’s a low-information voter to be convinced, the MSM will be there to carry whatever meme Media Matters and Organizing for America need carried.

Discuss.

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Mitch Berg

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Comments

4 responses to “Scenarios”

  1. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    Congress has dictated the government spending. Congress has dictated government revenues. They have failed to allow for sufficient debt to cover the spending minus the revenue. Some would argue that the permission to issue debt is implied to cover the difference. After all, if spending is set, revenue is set, and debt is set, the system is overdetermined and something has to give. There is nothing in the constitution that instructs the Treasury Secretary how to choose between defaulting on debt, withholding benefits, limiting other spending, or arbitrarily raising taxes by decree. All would be equally unconstitutional. So perhaps the least unconstitutional way out of this overdetermined system is to keep spending and gathering revenue as Congress demanded, and ignore the debt ceiling, about which the Constitution is silent.

    When Congress’ spending bills expire, spending (mostly) stops. When Congress’ authorization to raise tax expires, tax collection stops. But Congress can’t also specify the difference between spending and revenue. They lack the authority to overrule arithmetic.

  2. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    So it is morally, logically and arithmetically OK in EmeryTheUSAHater fevered brain to run deficits. No wonder he lives on the street begging, posting from an Obamaphone. Because if he advocates running deficits for the country and the rest of us, he must be doing it in his personal life as well and that is where he ended up. That explains a lot…

  3. Powhatan Mingo Avatar
    Powhatan Mingo

    Congress is obligated to do only what the constitution obligates congress to do.

  4. ewaters925 Avatar
    ewaters925

    “Congress has dictated government revenues” …… I assume Emery is referencing tax RATES ??

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