Yesterday President Obama declared that no one is arguing for government default. But isn’t it amazing to see so many politicians work so hard to ensure that un-argued-for goal?
There are two parts to a default. The first is running up debt; the second is not paying it back. Like it or not, advocate it or not, sovereign debt repudiation comes closer as American politicians lumber on with the first part.
Of course, there are folks who think the American people should simply repudiate their government’s debt. Over at the Mises Institute, Justin Ptak provides citations from more than one economist advocating just that.
Gary North states that the day is fast approaching when the phrase “full faith and credit of the United States government” will “provoke universal laughter. . . .” He insists that “the credit rating of the United States government will be marked down from AAA to AA. It will then be marked down to A.” What’s more, he says this is a good thing: “For every notch down that it falls, the national day of deliverance draws closer.”
Paranoid? Fringe? Hopeful? No matter how you categorize such talk, it’s not crazy to think about, since the probability of default grows as the debt increases.
A default could have a beneficial effect on America’s politicians: They would be unable to finance further deficits. Reality’s cold, hard fist — that is, un-amused investors — would rein them in.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
6 replies on “Cold, Hard Reality”
If we are to restore our beloved fraternal republic, We, The People, will Disobey our feral gummint’s every dunning demand upon us and thus Defund it and force it to Default on the Debt upon which its “Democratic” party-activist-controlled bureaucracy has long fed itself and that gang’s contractor cohorts and its cronies.
Let’s pretend that the RINOs are holding tough and that they mange to have taxes not increased.
And that the DINOs are holding tough and manage to keep raising the spending and keep all of their little political pork programs.
And then Presbo will hold tough and ride in and pull both sides to the table and make them compromise so that the whole system doesn’t collapse in August.
Then everyone looks good and gets to go home and pretend that they did a good job of fighting the opposition and that they really deserve to get re-elected.
And everyone lives happily ever after.
Except the taxpayer who has to deal with the infinite inflation and pay bills with money that is worth less.
We secceded already from one corrupt government that overtaxed us and did not have our best interests at heart. Time to try interposition and have the states reassert their Constitutionally derived authority to limit the power of the bankrupt federal govenment by limiting its access to taxpayer funds.
Part of Dirk’s answer is wrong, in that THE REPUBLICANS, ESPECIALLY UNDER G.W. BUSH, AND ESPECIALLY WHEN TOM DE LAY WAS THE HOSUE WHIP– DID AS ALMOST AS MUCH- AS THE DEMS. TO LOAD PORK ONTO THE DEFICIT.
DE LAY WOULD ONLY DEAL WITH LOBBYISTS WHO WERE REPUBLICANS ( PELOSIE DID THE SAME- JUST CHANGED TO DEMS); LOOK AT BUSH’S DRUG DEAL-
ALL OF THEM ARE DAMN CROOKS.
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AND EVERYTGHING IS ON THE LINE- BUT THEIR PERKS, SALARIES AND PENSIONS.
There is no real doubt about it. The US is going to default. The only questions involve the time table and who gets to turn the final light on the American dream.
Our current omniscient leaders think they can make the transition painless enough that the populace won’t actually revolt and the foreign lenders won’t prematurely foreclose.
But when all is and done, another massive chunk of America will have been stripped from the American producers and savers and redistributed to the bankers and political manipulators while the American taxpayers subsidize the whole process.
[…] Cold, Hard Reality Yesterday President Obama declared that no one is arguing for government default. But isn’t it amazing to see so many politicians work so hard to ensure that un-argued-for goal? … https://thisiscommonsense.org////?p=6465 […]
An important piece of the puzzle is missing: we the people. American voters are as responsible as all the politicians who voted for massive spending. We voted for these pols and we protest mightily if they try to cut our benefits or eliminate a program we believe benefits us. We the people should not be let off the hook here. After all, this is government of, by and for the people. A default will be our responsibility, too.