Obama: Default Would Be ‘Reckless And Irresponsible’

Source: Talking Points Memo

Obama: Default Would Be ‘Reckless And Irresponsible’
The text of President Obama's nationally televised address on raising the debt ceiling, as prepared for delivery:

Good evening. Tonight, I want to talk about the debate we've been having in Washington over the national debt - a debate that directly affects the lives of all Americans.
For the last decade, we have spent more money than we take in. In the year 2000, the government had a budget surplus. But instead of using it to pay off our debt, the money was spent on trillions of dollars in new tax cuts, while two wars and an expensive prescription drug program were simply added to our nation's credit card.

As a result, the deficit was on track to top $1 trillion the year I took office. To make matters worse, the recession meant that there was less money coming in, and it required us to spend even more - on tax cuts for middle-class families; on unemployment insurance; on aid to states so we could prevent more teachers and firefighters and police officers from being laid off. These emergency steps also added to the deficit.


Full Transcript:
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/07/obama-default-would-be-reckless-and-irresponsible.php?ref=fpblg

Read more: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/07/obama-default-would-be-reckless-and-irresponsible.php?ref=fpblg

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Transcript: Boehner's remarks on debt fight
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20083261-503544.html

We are suppose to call ? Hey Mr. Prez...you call them...you had a chance on national tv and pissed it away.

Note to Boehner: When telling the Pres you'll destroy the global economy unless your demands are met, try to be stroking a fluffy white cat.

:applause:

nt

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...with, <snip>"Would you rather reduce deficits and interest rates by raising revenue from those who are not now paying their fair share, or would you rather accept larger budget deficits, higher interest rates, and higher unemployment? And I think I know your answer."

Those words were spoken by Ronald Reagan. But today, many Republicans in the House refuse to consider this kind of balanced approach - an approach that was pursued not only by President Reagan, but by the first President Bush, President Clinton, myself, and many Democrats and Republicans in the United States Senate. So we are left with a stalemate. <snip>

<http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/07/obama-default-would-be-reckless-and-irresponsible.php?ref=fpblg>

He used their beloved RR's own spoken words against them. It left them flatfooted and speechless save for junior high putdowns. The GOP doesn't like that.

New member (although I have been "lurking" for quite a while) :)

It's a fairly common observation that the REAL Ronald Reagan would be considered far too "centrist" or "Liberal" for today's GOP. Unfortunately, there are several good reasons for that:

1. The "Southern Strategy" was basically a Faustian bargain, in that Republican strategists basically rode to power on the backs of disgruntled "Dixiecrats", hence Reagan's blather about "Welfare Queens", let alone the transparently obvious hat-tip to "States' Rights" in, of all places, Philadelphia Mississippi. You don't invoke "States' Rights" in Mississippi, unless you know *exactly* what you're doing. (Hint: it was a favorite "code-phrase" among Right-wing racists/KKK types, who absolutely loved to cast the 1964 Civil Rights act as an instance of "Federal Tyranny").

It worked too well, just like the "strategy" of pandering to the craziest elements of the Religious Right. No *wonder* the Teabaggers tolerate -- even encourage --their base to use blatantly racist Anti-Obama imagery on their signs.

2. The other big mistake was pandering to Ayn Rand fans. I'll admit up right up front that I'm a *former* (self-described) Libertarian and Objectivist (believer in her philosophy). Rand's drivel is basically one giant rationalization for being rapaciously greedy and self-centered, and frantically apologizing for anything/everything corporations do.

Look at THIS, for proof: http://irabrodsky.com/index.php?/archives/81-Americas-Persecuted-Minority-Big-Business.html

(Ironically enough, the reason I'm no longer a Right-winger, is because I took Ayn Rand's advice, and looked at the "Facts of reality". What I saw was basically transnational corporate oligarchy, war profiteering, racism, religious bigotry, and plain old thuggishness run amok.)

If you want to know who "moderate Conservative" has basically become an oxymoron, you need look no further than the above. It's really pretty sad, because I really *do* believe in a lot of the stuff Rightists SAY they believe in: (efficient, non-wasteful government, maximal individual liberty, etc.) The sad part is that I can't bring myself in good conscience to support the likes of Michelle bachmann, Sarah Palin, or any movement that could create Glenn Beck.

Personally, I genuinely wish that president Obama would just invoke the 14th Amendment, whether the GOP/Teabaggers like it or not: they ALREADY hate him (since he's a "socialist Kenyan Usurper" or some such blather), so it's not like he can really *get* anywhere by cozying up to them. (I also personally don't think he's deliberately trying to "cave" to Republicans, either. He's just *really* fixated on the notion of compromise, and not being a Bush-style dictator.

Sorry for the blather. First post and all. :)

But yeah, the Teabaggers are basically the logical endgame of Nixon's "Southern Strategy", if you ask me.

And thanks for the candid and informative first post. :hi:

welcome to DU!

Obama seems to be invested in a "You LIKE me, you really, really LIKE me!" moment with the GOP...

And welcome to reality.

I'm curious as to how you came to your senses. The one thing that baffles me most about the far right is they continue to believe in things that are just flat out wrong and are proven wrong daily. The "Facts of reality" really don't mean much if your reality is so far removed for the real reality.

For example, most people should realize by now that cutting taxes on the wealthy do not create jobs. Well, the do, but they produce them overseas, not here.

I too believe in efficient government and personal liberty. I don't believe in group think though and that seems to dominate the right.

How do we make them start THINKING??????????????

Obama quotes St. Ronnie, during whose administration this massive economic train wreck occurred. During his eight years in office, Ronald Reagan spent more than EVERY other president before him COMBINED. Our country saw its first trade deficit EVER. And, the uber wealthy, who installed him in office for their express purposes, got ever MORE wealthy and powerful.



Hmph! Obama needs to use the correct tense when discussing job losses and serious damage to our economy--now that the wrecked engine of our economy is FINALLY grinding to a halt. We are already witness to the relentless crumbling of the global economy, quite the logical outcome of decades of unfettered hedonism.

Paying the piper...never a happy event.

You've been reading here for 5 years and haven't figured out what disappoints some of us about Obama?

I can accept that you don't agree philosophically, but to act like you don't understand....???

I like Obama as an individual, but am very disappointed with his failure to get a single payer health care program or at the very least a public option or the EFCA. I am further less than happy about our continued roles in Iraq & Afghanistan.

I had "hoped" for more "change that I could believe in".

I have to wonder if Mr. Obama's inherent 'goodness' is becoming a red herring in these discussions about his relative merit as a POTUS. I am hopeful that we, the hoi polloi, can flex our critical thinking skills and use Obama's ACTIONS to interpret his relative merit.

In other words, debating a person's 'goodness' puts us on the slippery slope of judging an individual's inherent 'worth.' In debating Obama's goodness, do we become fodder for his sycophants' criticism and dismissal?

I can separate the "goodness" issue from performance.

Frankly he seems like a decent guy, his job performance less so in my opinion.

Five years is a long time to not vent! :)

if the 16 trillion that the fed gave to the banks both foreign and domestic is part of the national debt or is it separate..and why no one in the MSM is talking about this..including Obama.

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Having been a bank manager some thirty years ago, I have consistently told friends, family, and fellow activists that banks always, always, always, always -- have I said always enough? -- ALWAYS get their money.

To your post, I would add: the housing debacle is still unresolved, AND all this debt ceiling talk is a ginormous red herring.

and yes housing is still in the red in many states. The glutton of vacant homes here is evidence. Debt ceiling? yep..never let a good crisis go to waste to screw the working class.

The rest of that 16 trillion has been paid back to the Fed.

From what I've read it's unclear what's been paid back but rumors abound.

"The Federal Reserve likes to refer to these secret bailouts as an all-inclusive loan program, but virtually none of the money has been returned and it was loaned out at 0% interest."
http://www.unelected.org/audit-of-the-federal-reserve-reveals-16-trillion-in-secret-bailouts

Democracy Now
"And the result was that while many of the $16 trillion have been repaid, there has been a residue of $13 trillion added to the government debt since September 2008, when all of this began"
http://michael-hudson.com/2011/07/save-the-gambling-bankers/

Half of the 16 trillions were provided under the form of PDCF - overnight credit facility backed by "collateral".

That doesn't sound bad until you realize that this collateral was utterly worthless at the time. Interest rate for these was 0.5% in Dec 2008. (0.75% is the current rate). Reading between the lines, that means that these private corps were able to ditch their toxic assets to the Feds' balance sheet and convert them into cash at their face value, when they wouldn't have been able to sell them on the market for a quarter of that.

And when the fed collects those incredibly dodgy "assets", the loans are then considered to be "repaid", thereby erasing the debt from the paperwork.

ZZZZZZZ...

whatever...


Just DO something and shut up.

Oh well... alrighty then!

Because the Repugs always listen to the "people"! I feel so empowered!


:eyes:

not automatically block everything he or Dems try to do. Pres Obama did something, he asked people to do something, which they are doing.

Telling US to do something is HIM doing something?????

It doesn't work if you don't make it.

He talked endlessly about his "'balanced' grand bargain" to what point? That proposal is dead in the water and has been since last Friday: It can never pass by default day. So? So what exactly was he saying?- Take care of it, I'm taking my baseball bat back home? Not much stick or leadership there.

"I have told leaders of both parties that they must come up with a fair compromise in the next few days that can pass both houses of Congress - and a compromise I can sign," he said. "And I am confident we can reach this compromise."

Then he says -"Ring your congress critter to insist on a 'balanced approach'. or at least compromise"?

What planet is this?

we'd be in good shape

in any current legislative effort and has no time to be crafted before default day?

The only way this makes sense is shaping the landscape for the day after default and that is not acceptable.

and in theory, if enough people call their reps, things can change.

"Look people, there's no way any compromise is gonna work because 120 members of the Tea Party caucus have already said they won't sign any agreement, no way, no how. So whatever hole you look at it from, you're screwed."

Never before in America's history has a President faced a Congress so intent on politicizing every possible item. Why the deficit was raised without protest several dozen times. Now our Republican friends want to attach a lot of riders to it, just to do something they would do and have done unquestionably for a Republican President. Their riders aim to attack your entitlements which are namely Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

This partison politics has gotten the new Congress so full of itself that they have forgotten why they came back to power. They were too busy boasting to remind themselves. Well, Mr. Boehner, where are those jobs? Why haven't you advanced a single jobs creation bill? And Tea Party members, have you forgotten your constiuents telling you hands off their entitlements? Why are you sponsoring legislation to slash those programs?

...everyone will now be putting themselves on display for their constituents. We will see which repuks and dems are pathetic when the "12" elections are over and done with. About 67% of all polled believe more in how the Dems are handling this debate........THE BLOODLETTING WILL NOW BEGIN. Obama knows what he's doing!

I wanted someone to tell him that the kind of compromises this country was founded on got his wife's ancestors counted as three-fifths of a human being!

The most egregious propaganda of all: "our country was founded on compromise," my rear appendage!

Why, it's the planet of propaganda! It's the "let's feed the zombie masses a little Kabuki theater, so we can get what WE want" planet. It's the "relentless radical income inequity" planet.

ALL of their filthy lucre will be cold comfort when Gaia rolls over to scrape us off her backside...

for billionaires and millionaires working out for you Mr. O?

He could have been bargaining from strength. All he had to do was let the tax cuts lapse. But his real agenda is to carve up "entitlements" as part of a "Grand Sellout." His scare tactics ring hollow.

He can't and there is no use trying. He needs to lay his position out more clearly. Looking over the transcript, he uses too many words, and makes it too complicated. Parts of what he says are good, but he's really being too cerebral here.

and that's pretty much what he should have said, what they showed. again, he did a good job, but you're right, he's being too cerebral, and needed to shorten this up and be callously direct on behalf of the People and say those opposed to the Senator's plan are boldly standing up for the elite in society, willing to destroy the social safety net to protect them, and I need you my fellow Americans to let them know that the debt limit cannot be just a short term deal and no Entitlement programs should be butchered to protect the wealthy.

I was impressed, but I agree, don't use so many words to say it, as the video provided by the AP was pretty well done and was fairly produced!

The intellectual pride of the tweed hatters has doomed us all

since he's addressing a population that cut its teeth on television, almost half of whom are functionally illiterate.

My wife, for the first time in her life, ran to the computer to email her representative to tell him to compromise or just raise the debt ceiling.

And she hates politics.

you never know how people will react

Ya'll rock.

....'reckless and irresponsible' to fuck with Social security, Medicare or Medicaid....grow up and act like a Democratic President....

....we ain't buying yours or the pukes shit....

Grow a spine already and stop arguing with those delusional fools.

"Reckless & Irresponsible"

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You didn't wind up in a Tea Party forum. A lot of us are just upset that Obama's considered caving in to Rethugs over Social Security and Medicare. He's got plenty of followers here. A lot of detractors that have been dismayed by his selling out to the other side at times, but I don't believe most of us here will be voting Repub any time soon.

I was watching in early 08 hoping for Hillary as banks started failing in Feb. When Obama was sworn in I was kneeling in front of the TV my hands clasp begging, "Please, Please, Please, Dont bail them out. I knew the Republicans would get him on the run. Well at least now he has lost his niavete with his back to the wall, only option to rip into them and take the Big Dog spot on top of the porch. I am going to vote for him, again.

to get their butts to the computer and phone and pummel those responsible for being assholes. And also between those more intelligent phrases he is prone to using (in hopes that he is talking to an intelligent citizenry perhaps?) he was saying...it's the fucking Tea Partiers who are threatening you. Make them responsible, uncomfortable and threaten them with the power of the vote. They can be fired.

... that is the way I see it, too. And the way things go with the MSM, "repeat and repeat and ...."

It's why they don't care about the economic and political damage a default will create.

If he realizes it they are actually fortifying the Office of the President so this strong arm can never happen again. He just has to hang tough and know it is going to invigorate the true democratic masses. This is the Tea Party's armagedon.

great point. Thought we were about spending cuts. that would mean no more tax cuts...

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Welcome to the land of the almighty dollar.....

at the DU ....really sad !

:eyes:

distressing.

What about the POOR???

Do Dem leaders assume we're all too selfish too care???

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i thought. much better than boner (who actually seemed to be backing up what Obama said, right?). of course we are disapointed in this process, but the speech helped a situation that this morning seemed hopelessly bungled. now is up to the T Bags, if they don t find a compromise they look like the saboteurs on this one.

isn t that what the T bags say too?

OBAMA did a good job explaining the debacle to the people who don't pay attention. obama over boner any day!

When jobs stopped happening.

I paid taxes to the fed and the state on a couple of lines of my pay check. And then I paid something called "Social Security Insurance" and something called "Medicare insurance."

Do I hear correctly that my fellow Republicans are going to keep me from ever getting anything out of the insurance programs that I paid into for decades?

Since I never got paid out for the insurance, I want everything I paid into it paid back to me, with interest.

Even the worst rumors about Obama's supposed proposals are nowhere near as severe as you suggest.

"My fellow Republicans."

Reading is fundamental.

increase through 2012, in exchange for cuts to SS & Medicare/caid. The speech went a few minutes too long, but was direct enough for most. Every political operative should be pushing the core parts of his speech from here on out!

For the entire world!

And NO, of course we did not vote for his dumb ass.

in 08 our Congressman held his seat by a mere 1800 votes, his ass is toast in 2012. Even the slightest of redistricting and he is gone, did I tell you I live in California? Redistricting is guaranteed! And Congressman McClintock is FUCKED!

The one that the corporatist wrote, that takes my social security, and reduces medicare while the rich keep their tax cuts and corporation play little to no tax on billions in profit, and also get subsidies. Yup that's the balanced Obama plan.

Please everyone call and tell your representative to take your social security to prevent another fake crisis.

Keep in mind none of the politicians worried about deficits when they spent trillions on illegal wars and gave 16 trillion dollars to banksters. And they can't seem to be concerned enough to stop giving $ 40 billion to oil companies that are making record profits.

He waited until the bottom of the ninth before putting his best hitter up. His gross stupidity has fucked us all.

And when there is a bad result Obama will also be blamed for it.

Total hypocrisy.

cronies.

Could things have been handled better, yes...but the house is responsible, under the Constitution for tax bills. Boehener and sis Teabaggers are wholly responsible for the fiasco we face.

Since revenue enhancement is off the table, the GOP is at fault. If I were in PO's shoes, I'd let Boehner and Cantor hang by the rope they bought.

Blaming PO is a crummy way out, this rests completely w/the GOP run House.

The Lieberman Coburn rollback of the medicare qualification age to 67 are anything but "modest." The fair market value of the rollback for a couple born in the same year are in excess of $30,000.00. If they are not born in the same year, the costs could be far in excess of this. Most elderly couples can't afford this. Only an employer can, therefore at least one of the two persons will be forced to work an additional two years, if they can even get a job. The opportunity cost to this couple are off the charts.

There is nothing "modest" nor "balanced" in this draconian and inequitable cut. The President and the repukes are trying to coerce the public to ram it down our throats.

Obama needs to tell it like it is. It would be TRAGIC and HORRIFIC. That's part of the problem. He thinks he's talking to a bunch of attorneys when he's talking to a country of people who too often have almost no in-depth education.

how does everybody think that would be?

so please stop

Watched a few minutes and then flipped over to All in the Family reruns.

Started thinking about the default and how afraid they got everybody.

If we don't default the deal will hurt the economy of the average american, his job will be in jeopardy, prices will go up and his 401 will be worth less. Interest rates won't go up on the new car and house he can't afford to buy anyway.

Ok, got it -- we'll really be hurting.

If we default, it will hurt the economy of the average american, his job will be in jeopardy, prices will go up and his 401 will be worth less. Interest rates will go up on the new car and house he can't afford to buy anyway.

And rich people will lose a lot of money on their investments.

I'll go for door number 2. Let those f'ers be afraid for a while.

If I hear one more f'in time how bad it was when he took office ---

and my wife is reeeaaaalllllyyyy tired of hearing me scream "THEN WHY THE F' DIDN'T YOU FIX IT"?

Thank you, President Hoover.

This one has no spine.