PTOLEMAIC POLITICS
Have you seen this speech delivered by a US Senator on the floor of the Senate regarding raising the debt ceiling? Every American needs to read it now:
"The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our government’s reckless fiscal policies.
"Over the past 5 years, our federal debt has increased by $3.5 trillion to $8.6 trillion. That is "trillion" with a "T." That is money that we have borrowed from the Social Security trust fund, borrowed from China and Japan, borrowed from American taxpayers. And over the next 5 years, the President’s budget will increase the debt by almost another $3.5 trillion.
"Numbers that large are sometimes hard to understand. Some people may wonder why they matter. Here is why:
"This year, the Federal Government will spend $220 billion on interest. That is more money to pay interest on our national debt than we’ll spend on Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. That is more money to pay interest on our debt this year than we will spend on education, homeland security, transportation, and veterans benefits combined.
"And the cost of our debt is one of the fastest growing expenses in the Federal budget. This rising debt is a hidden domestic enemy, robbing our cities and States of critical investments in infrastructure like bridges, ports, and levees; robbing our families and our children of critical investments in education and health care reform; robbing our seniors of the retirement and health security they have counted on.
"Every dollar we pay in interest is a dollar that is not going to investment in America’s priorities. Instead, interest payments are a significant tax on all Americans a debt tax that Washington doesn’t want to talk about. If Washington were serious about honest tax relief in this country, we would see an effort to reduce our national debt by returning to responsible fiscal policies.
"Our debt also matters internationally. Now, there is nothing wrong with borrowing from foreign countries. But we must remember that the more we depend on foreign nations to lend us money, the more our economic security is tied to the whims of foreign leaders whose interests might not be aligned with ours.
"Increasing America‘s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘‘the buck stops here.” Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.
"I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America‘s debt limit."
It is even more important for every American to know who delivered this speech: Senator Barack Obama on March 16, 2006. The transcript is in the Congressional Record: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CREC-2006-03-16/pdf/CREC-2006-03-16-pt1-PgS2236.pdf#page=2.
The level of snake-oil shell-game flim-flammery going on in the Washington Circus has now reached levels of Ptolemaic astronomy.
Although certain ancient Greek astronomers had argued that the earth revolves around a "central fire" (along with the sun, like the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy: Philolaus, 480-385 BC) or the sun (Aristarchos of Samos, 310-230 BC), Christian theologians declared the geocentric astronomy of Ptolemaios (90-168 AD) as official dogma.
Geocentrism argues that the earth does not move at the center of the universe, that the sun, planets, and stars revolve around it. Since the earth is the sinful dross of the universe while the heavens are perfect, the sun, stars, and planets revolve around it in perfect circles.
The problem, among others, is that they do not have circular orbits in regular motion. Especially the planets, which is the Greek word for "wanderers." From the earth, they appear to stop, reverse, and switch direction at various times – whence, e.g., the expression "Mercury in retrograde."
This is an illusion, caused by the earth’s orbit around the sun being slower or faster than those of other planets (like cars going slower or faster than you on a race track). The only way for Ptolemaic geocentrists to explain planetary wandering was to invent "epicycles" (orbits within orbits) that spun around a make-believe point called an "equant" which was the center of a make-believe orbit called a "deferent."
Here is what they ended up with:
Looks remarkably like the schemes Dems and Rinos are inventing to explain how to solve the debt ceiling problem, doesn’t it? Or as convoluted as what the special-interest, crony-capitalist, constitution-trashing universe of the federal government has become?
It took Copernicus (1473-1543), Galilio (1564-1642), Kepler (1571-1630), and Newton (1642-1727) to get rid of Ptolemaic astronomy. It need not take that long to get rid of Ptolemaic politics in America.
The overthrow of Ptolemaic astronomy is known in science as The Copernican Revolution – a paradigm shift from one model of reality to another more accurate one. It is now blindingly obvious to everyone save for moonbats and the mentally defective that America requires a political paradigm shift, replacing its unworkable Ptolemaic system with one that will work – a Constitutional system.
There is a way to do this. It’s not the Gang of Six Fix, not the McConnell Debt Bamboozle, nor is it the Cut, Cap, And Balance bill passed yesterday by the House (230-190).
Granted, CC&B is far better than the other two disasters, but it still only cuts $110 billion from FY2012’s projected $1.2 trillion deficit – which means we’ll still have a trillion-dollar deficit for the coming year.
The real danger of CC&B, however, is that it is a sop to the Tea Party freshmen in the House which Boehner & Co know will fail (it will never pass the Dem Senate) so that he can say, "Sorry guys, we tried our best – we’ll have to accept the McConnell Plan now."
Somebody needs to explain to him that trying to shove McConnell down the House’s throat will cause Boehner to lose the Speakership in a full-scale rebellion against him.
The way to end Ptolemaic politics is not to add further epicycles upon the myriad we have now. The way is right there lying in the open on the Capitol Steps: Just Say No to raising the debt ceiling.
Andy McCarthy at NRO makes the case for this:
"There will never be a plan to cut federal spending by 40 percent [the current level of federal deficits]. Nor, absent absolute necessity, will the ruling class ever adopt a plan to cut the even greater amounts required to pay down our ocean of debt (rather than just pay the interest) and live consistently within our means…
"Even the good guys in government are in denial about the depth of our extremis. This is human nature: Nothing happens without hard deadlines. Overwhelming, seemingly intractable problems are never confronted until we are cornered.
"[Refusing to raise the debt limit] is adult acceptance of the facts that Obama’s spending will ruin the economy, that Congress has the power and the duty to rein in spending, and that the only plausible way to stop a spendaholic is to cut off his access to more credit.
"That is the only kind of plan that has a chance to work: a crisis that makes reduced spending unavoidable… The duty of Republicans in Congress is not to set the table for the next election. It is to use their power to stop President Obama’s destruction of the economy. If we are ruined, what good will it do for Republicans to natter that it was all Obama’s fault?
"Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s former chief-of-staff, who got out while the getting was good, perspicaciously observed that a crisis should never be allowed to ‘go to waste.’ ‘It’s an opportunity,’ he explained, ‘to do things you could not do before.’ The difference now is that the crisis is real and potentially fatal. It is time to do what could not be done before, not rationalize why not doing it is good politics."
Yet Just Say No To More Debt is good politics. Slick Willie yesterday (7/19) said he would, if still president, use the 14th Amendment to raise the debt limit on his own without Congress and "force the courts to stop me."
We’re starting to have fun now – for Slick is giving Zero the green light to do just this.
Section 4 of the 14th says: "The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law… shall not be questioned." At maximum, what this allows is a president to raise the debt limit in order not to default on debt service. Nothing more. This is a fraction of the Fed’s monthly deficits (some $29 billion out of $108 billion).
You can be sure Zero will argue he gets to raise the ceiling to whatever he wants and cover the entire $108 billion hole. The House would have every justification initiating impeachment proceedings against him, and the SCOTUS would, 5-4, undoubtedly and quickly smack him down.
With this, Zero is forced into triage. Let me repeat that: the game should be to force Zero into triage. E.g., if he wants to keep paying for food stamps, he’ll have to eliminate the Department of Education.
The House Pubs, all Tea Partiers, and the American public at large will very loudly clamor he has to use revenues coming in to pay debt service, Social Security & Medicare, active duty military, and veterans. Then comes the triage: cutting some $108 billion per month out of the Fed budget.
If the Pubs (led by a chastised Boehner or new Speaker) want to be magnanimous, they could then offer a "compromise." They’ll agree to raise the debt ceiling on a monthly basis, allowing Zero to borrow, say, half of the deficit or $54 billion, in exchange for zeroing out ObamaCare, and such things as the EPA and the Energy Department.
Then over time, that half can be reduced to a third, a quarter, 10%, to finally no mas.
We should all be so fed up with this stupid excuse that the Pub House is hamstrung because they control "only one half of one third of the government." What idiot thought that up? No party controls or should control the judiciary. Further, neither the Senate nor the President may spend any money not authorized by the House. Them’s the rules.
So, when are the House Pubs going to realize they are in charge of The Other Golden Rule: He who has the gold makes the rules.
The House has the gold. Its rule should be, no more borrowing gold. The opportunity to end Ptolemaic Politics is now. Carpe diem.