Paul will blame the Republicans. This makes sense.
As I understand matters, the impasse really has two parts. The first, which triggers the shutdown, is that the Continuing Resolution (CR), which America now uses instead of its Constitutionally-mandated process of passing a budget, will expire as of October 1. The CR allows the government to continue spending money in the absence of budgetary authorization. Beyond this hurdle, however, looms the Debt Ceiling. Jack Lew, the latest in a series of Treasurer-Three Card Monte experts, will run out of ways to conjure cash on or about October 17. He's been cashing in federal employee retirement bonds and playing other games to keep the government afloat for some time, but he's hitting rock bottom now. If we don't raise the debt ceiling, we cannot increase the national debt.
The Republicans are threatening the United States with default on its sacred obligation to sell more debt in order to pay debt service on existing debt. As President Obama has said several times during this crisis, America has always paid its bills, and lately has always done so by borrowing money to pay interest payments on money we previously borrowed. We will not walk away from this sacred commitment, not if President Obama, who's on the government payroll and thus receives about one-third of his salary from borrowed money, has anything to say about it.
The Republicans are messing with the full faith and credit of the United States. We have never defaulted. We have always gone out into the open market, sold our promises to pay back money to the highest bidder, which about half the time is part of a market-making cartel called the Primary Dealers, who promptly turn around and sell it back to the Permanent Open Market Operations Committee of the Federal Reserve, who raise the money by blowing it out of their assholes.
This can go on forever, as Mr. Krugman will point out. He will also point out that the Republicans hate Obamacare because it will work, and will sabotage the country because the American economy is recovering, and they don't want that because they hate Mr. Obama.
I will now take a break and actually watch George Stephetcetera and see what the esteemed panelists have to say about these latest developments in the nation's capital.
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They actually said nothing. More interesting was George's interview with the Iranian chief negotiator on nuclear issues. The Iranian spokesman denied that Iran is in pursuit of a nuclear weapon, and what about the way Israel treats the Palestinians? The Iranian spokesman's position, of course, is the same as that of the American intelligence agencies who have looked into the issue pretty deeply, but this fact is not the airwave version of reality used by Big Media. In Big Media Reality, Iran is actively seeking a nuclear weapon but lies about it. Under the commutative principle, where A=B, B=C, therefore A=C, Big Media are, of course, accusing the 14 American intelligence agencies which reached a consensus opinion agreeing with the Iranian spokesman of also lying, but it is unnecessary in American Airwave Discourse to discuss real facts when the Memes work better for television.
The Iranian spokesman appeared to accuse the United States of hypocrisy concerning Syria's use of chemical weapons, insofar as the U.S. was aware of Iraq's use of chemical weapons against Iran during the Iran-Iraq war, and not only said nothing but assisted the process. George responded to this by accusing the Iranian regime of Holocaust denial. The two then dissed each other's mother and called it a wrap.
The key question thus remains: will my Social Security check be mailed on the third Wednesday in October?
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