AMANPOUR: Well, you say that. Jonathan raised several incarnations of a potential deal, the two-part deal, the grand deal. What will it be?
GEITHNER: Well, there are -- there are two types of frameworks now that are on the table. One is the framework that the president and the speaker of the House have been going back and forth on for some time.
That would be a comprehensive, balanced set of savings on the spending side to help secure Medicare and Medicaid for the future and tax reform that would generate revenues...
AMANPOUR: So they are talking again?
GEITHNER: They are -- yeah, absolutely. They've been in touch throughout this period of time. But there's also the proposal that Senator McConnell made, Senator Reid had made, that would agree on some upfront savings, but then establish a special committee with exceptional powers that could legislate quickly as a way to force Congress -- or make it easier for Congress to make the tough choices we're going to have to make.
Now, both of those are on the table. Now, they could be combined in various forms. But the most important thing is we can't adopt an approach that leaves the threat of default hanging over the country for another six months or so. That would be deeply irresponsible to do, and we do not think that's acceptable burden to put on the American economy.
__________________
The first one, I believe, contains the 650 billion radical-right shock-doctrine cuts to Social Security that the President mentioned on Friday (Social Security does not add one nickel to the deficit, and making people who earn over $116,000 a year continue to pay into it will keep it solvent til the end of time), as well as cuts to Medicare (which only needs to be able to negotiate drug purchasing in bulk).
The second one appears to set up a radical-right new super congress that bypasses the US constitution and "would be less accountable than the system that exists today, and would find it easier to strip the public of popular benefits."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4933385Both foster an extreme far-right neo-con agenda that is damaging to our constitution, our country, and it's people.
The best solution I can come up with rests in the President leveraging the far-rights cherished war against raising the debt ceiling, in other words, the President tells the Rebups that they either raise the debt ceiling cleanly, or the troops come home next week, the war contractors do not get paid, and he cuts the pentagon budget by 2/3's.
The other solution is Bill Clinton's proposal that the president raise the debt ceiling of his own accord, the 14th amendment solution.(
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/19/news/la-pn-clinton-debt-ceiling-20110719). Unfortunately for America, Obama has appears to have rejected Clinton's solution, which would land him squarely on the side of the radical right. "I have talked to my lawyers, they are not persuaded that that is a winning argument" (
http://reut.rs/nquiO7)
The options that are NOT ACCEPTABLE, are Geithner's proposals, IMHO.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
