MEMO
Date: Today, Now
To: My Representative
Subject: RAISE THE DEBT CEILING
JUST RAISE THE DEBT CEILING NOW.
STOP THE GAMING.
THE DEFICIT CAN AND SHOULD BE ADDRESSED SEPARATELY.
Click here to contact your representative.
Be direct. Be brief. Be clear.
Tell your friends you did. Ask them to do the same.
Do it now. Do not wait.
“This letter is to ask for your help and support, and that of your colleagues, in the passage of an increase in the limit on the public debt.
...
“the Treasury's cash balances have reached a dangerously low point. Henceforth, the Treasury Department cannot guarantee that the Federal Government will have sufficient cash on any one day to meet all of its mandated expenses, and thus the United States could be forced to default on its obligations for the first time in its history.
“This country now possesses the strongest credit in the world. The full consequences of a default -- or even the serious prospect of default -- by the United States are impossible to predict and awesome to contemplate. Denigration of the full faith and credit of the United States would have substantial effects on the domestic financial markets and on the value of the dollar in exchange markets. The Nation can ill afford to allow such a result. The risks, the costs, the disruptions, and the incalculable damage lead me to but one conclusion: the Senate must pass this legislation before the Congress adjourns.”
—Ronald Reagan, in a letter to Howard Baker, Senate Majority Leader, November 16, 1983
“Congress consistently brings the government to the edge of default before facing its responsibility. This brinksmanship threatens the holders of government bonds and those who rely on social security and veteran benefits. Interest rates would skyrocket. Instability would occur in financial markets. And the federal deficit would soar.”
—Ronald Reagan, in a radio address September 26, 1987
If you got value from this post, please "rate" it.
Other posts by me on the debt limit:
Taking Charge of the Debt (29 Jun 2011)
How the 14th Amendment relates to the debt limit.
Compromising Government (13 Jul 2011)
About Mitch McConnell's “compromise” offer.
The Risky Business of the Greedy Old Party (13 Jul 2011)
About the looming risk to our credit rating and its timetable.
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RomanticPoetess
Sandra Stephens
old new lefty
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oaxacangringa
CoyoteOldStyle
Salon.com
Comments
Coyote, thanks for pitching in.
Lefty, I'm not surprised your rep is already on the right side of things. But maybe you know people in other areas who have reps that are still opposing the debt limit hike...
Lezlie
It's depressing so many feel it has no power, maybe we need Wisconsin's approach and surround the Capital as united people and demand in chant.
JT, it's true that often one feels powerless. But I think with modern social media, the chance to enthuse others and have that enthusiasm be contagious is worth trying. I wanted to write something with a nice simple message today that had half a chance of getting some of that “viral” thing going. It will require serious numbers to get those representatives to pay attention, but the polls suggest that those numbers are out there, presumably just wondering what they should do.
designanator, I think it's an uphill battle with Republican, especially Tea Party, reps. I'm in a similar boat. But the point is they are the ones who need to change their mind. And hearing from constituents is the only avenue. My feeling is that if they hear from enough to worry that sentiments have changed and they might not remain in office, they'll start to care.
he thinks to the right of rain
I can always hope
rated with love
Look at Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota. You're not a crackpot if you see a conspiracy in this. If you don't know about ALEC, read up on it - their own site: http://www.alec.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home the other side: http://www.thenation.com/signup/161973?destination=article/161973/alec-exposed-koch-connection
The tea partiers are pawns of the very rich and it's class a war that's been underway for a long time. It's not just the Koch brothers, they're the face that's been exposed but there's a whole crowd of them. I know people who travel in those circles. (They've also been circulating the racist Obama imagery for a long time and are blatantly and proudly racist.)
Solution? No clue. I'm hoping in 2012 there will be a national reaction like the Wisconsin one. It may get worse before it gets better. The "job creators" may be letting enough people remain comfortable and protective of their comfort that the opposition may never achieve sufficient critical mass to fight back effectively.
Personally, I've got a lot of experience coping with poverty.
Rated anyways!!
(They won't stop the playing around ---- my cock is bigger than your ball that they seem to play every other week it seems!! Playing with peoples' lifes and they don't even give a care, neither side!!!!)
Walter, it's an uphill battle to write to the people on the right, but it's even more pointless to write to the people on the left, since they are already pretty agreeable and are not the obstacle. It's hard to change minds, but at least you have the opportunity to try. Thanks for trying.
Grif, thanks. Yes, there will be some housecleaning to do next election.
Whirlwind, I don't have a detailed recollection of that era, but searching around a little, I found a book excerpt from The Deficit and the Public Interest, by Joseph White and Aaron Wildavsky, which appears to treat some of the history of that time in quite a bit of detail. Scroll down to page 274, and it really gets into the issues you're talking about around page 278.
Though it's an uphill battle,
Worse is to lose hope.
nerd cred, some definite concerns there. Add to that this, which if true creates additional obstacles to electoral victories. Bad enough with the issue of voter identification being used to exclude voters, fake candidates being used to confuse voters, etc.
married, thanks!
Tink, thanks for getting involved.
Thanks for sharing the quotes. That will be very helpful.
This just shows how effective right-wing media centralization and domination has been in terms of perpetuating consensus thinking. We should definately use the Reagan quote, and throw it back at them.
But we also need more essays in defense of FDR and TR and the Progressive movement.
Until we do that, we will always be fighting a rear-guard retreat.
Dear Friend of this office.....
I write mine on any reason I see to alert him/her to addressing my concerns...somebody reads them I hope Kent...
Good work here.
RW, the main reason I included the words was to say this isn't really a partisan matter. It should be well-agreed by all parties that this just needs to be done. I'm happy to defend progressive principles on other days, but my point was to divorce this from any notion of “only people on the left think this.”
Mission, to clarify (in case I created any confusion), it's your Rep in the House of Representatives that is most important to write. Writing to any politician is good, of course. They all need to know where the public stands. But it's the Republican-controlled House specifically that is blocked, and although as I mentioned to RW above the message is not partisan, the people refusing to hear the message are all pretty much in one party, so it's mostly Republican reps that need to hear. Anyway, thanks much for your efforts in any case. :)
So I am sitting here, getting angrier and angrier by the minute. I have already written Boner and told him in no such terms, that when heads start to roll, his will be the first!
I've stopped being a "nice guy". I have stooped to calling some of these dickheads, dickheads!