Paul Craig Roberts: The President Can Just Ignore the Debt Ceiling Limit; Congress Rendered Superfluous?
Submitted by Michael Nystrom on Sat, 07/23/2011 - 23:30by Paul Craig Roberts via Gerald Celente's Trends Research Journal
July 23, 2011
KINGSTON, NY — The drama of it all! Will Congress refuse to raise the debt ceiling, forcing the US government to default and, thereby, immediately turning the "world’s only superpower" into a Third World country subject to an IMF austerity program? The markets are poised to explode upward in jubilation or collapse in despondency. Only in America could such fantasy dominate the news.
Does anyone really believe that the US government would default on its debt?
The debt ceiling/default "crisis" is nothing but political theater. The Republicans are employing scare tactics in their attempt to destroy the social safety net. The Democrats are playing along with the assault on "entitlements," because it is what the majority of their large contributors want.
The presstitutes dish out the fantasy as if it were reality.
The US government will never default on its debt, because the government can print an endless stream of money to redeem its bonds.
The Republicans would love to gut Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, food stamps, unemployment insurance, education, and any and everything that benefits ordinary people. But do they want to gut their wars?
Do they want to gut American financial hegemony over the world?
Do they want the US dollar replaced as world reserve currency and oil to be priced in a different currency than the US dollar?
Of course they don’t. And if the Republicans are not smart enough to have figured out these consequences of their refusal to raise the debt ceiling, someone will tell them before it is too late.
But in truth it matters not whether the debt ceiling is raised. The Bush regime, with the complicity of the federal courts and Congress, established that the president has essentially unlimited powers not bound by law when the country is at war. The president does not have to follow the Constitution or obey statutory law. He can ignore the laws against spying on Americans without warrants. He can ignore the laws against torture and against indefinite detention without presenting charges in a court. He can even ignore the War Powers Act. Obviously, the president can also ignore the debt ceiling limit.
If banks are too-big-to-fail, so is the US government. All Obama has to do is to declare a national emergency, set aside the debt ceiling limit on national security grounds, and continue to issue debt. If the Federal Reserve were to resist, which it never would, Obama would simply nationalize the institution. If US presidents can take over the steel industry, or bring the industry to heel with the threat, it can take over the Federal Reserve.
If Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling, the only consequence would be the further erosion of Congress’ diminished power. Obama would say, and the public would accept, that Congress was unable to do its share of governing and had left the troops without supplies, the dollar unprotected, and was casting away American power.
The final result would be that Congress, having already lost the power to declare war, would lose the power of the purse. Henceforth budgets would be determined by the executive branch, which would also determine the proportions of expenditures covered by taxes, by borrowing, and by money creation.
The Republicans would have made Congress irrelevant like the Roman senate under the caesars.
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The Summer Trends Journal will be out on Tuesday
Kiddos, if you don't
Kiddos, if you don't understand what Paul Craig Roberts is saying here, you might want to tone down the criticism a bit, please. He is essentially saying what Ron Paul is saying in the media too; he is telling you what "they" are going to do next, ok? Well, I'd say that it is a tossup at this point whether the President is just going to declare the emergency and take the control of the purse from Congress, or whether "Congress" is simply going to void the Constitution and create this so called "Super Congress" committee to accomplish the same thing. Either thing will be patently illegal, bus since when has that ever stopped "them"? Lay off on Paul Craig Roberts guys, ok? Thanks.
Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. - George Washington
Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel... The battle, Sir,
Paul Craig Roberts is correct
The final result would be that Congress, having already lost the power to declare war, would lose the power of the purse.
Paul Craig Roberts is correct
If US presidents can take over the steel industry, or bring the industry to heel with the threat, it can take over the Federal Reserve.
Paul Craig Roberts is correct
The Republicans would love to gut Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, food stamps, unemployment insurance, education, and any and everything that benefits ordinary people. But do they want to gut their wars?
Craig Roberts is an idiot
Why can't we gut it all? Why does your question seem to insinuate that it's wrong to gut these programs? You know that they (as well as the wars) are why we are in such a mess. Why do you want to convert liberty loving individuals into collectivist socialists who rely on emotionalism and not reason in making their points?
"I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else where I was capable of thinking for myself." - Thomas Jefferson
Nice. How long have you been
Nice.
How long have you been an Obama supporter?
I don't get it
How does my wanting to get rid of the welfare state, social security, medicare, the wars, bloated government make me an Obama supporter? Please explain.
I guess if you have nothing substantive to "attack" me on, just baselessly accuse me of supporting a known enemy...
Funny thing is your rant on how it would somehow be wrong to rid ourselves of these entitlements (which have given us the dependent class) made me suspect that you might be the closet Obama fan.
"I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else where I was capable of thinking for myself." - Thomas Jefferson
Read It Again
PCR is not an Anarcho Capitalist
Paul Craig Roberts is correct
The US government will never default on its debt, because the government can print an endless stream of money to redeem its bonds.
Paul Craig Roberts is correct
The debt ceiling/default "crisis" is nothing but political theater.
who cares
as long as they don't raise the debt ceiling and cut spending drastically while not raising any taxes. I don't care which party favors these points but those are the ones that Dr. Paul is on principle and on record backing, and so am I.
"I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else where I was capable of thinking for myself." - Thomas Jefferson
You don't have a point
The debt cannot be paid.
It really is that simple.
Default now or make your children a slave to the banks (whomever they are).
I don't have a problem with default
you on the other hand would seem to have a problem with it given that you support Craig Roberts' unfounded fear mongering about how we might lose our status as a reserve currency. If you really supported default this wouldn't be much of a problem then would it? How do you reconcile this inconsistency on your part?
"I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else where I was capable of thinking for myself." - Thomas Jefferson
Read it again
PCR does not care for the US$ as a reserve currency.
The US$ as a reserve currency is a cross that the Citizens of the USA have to bear.
I always thought something was wrong with Roberts, but could
never put my finger on it exactly.
Now I know. He's a babbling moron.
He has officially just bought the funny farm.
The President can not simply declare dictatorial power via a self imposed emergency.
Even previous presidents who appeared to do so had Congressional approval or authorization of use of certain powers.
Congress cannot give up its power to Borrow Money, but it can delegate it to some degree to the President.
That is EXACTLY what the debt limit is - a delegation of borrowing authority. (with a limit)
It has been in place since 1917.
Prior to this, Congress had to specify in a law, each time borrowing was needed, exactly how much, in what form, and at what terms.
During the Wilson administration, they decided to authorize any debt the President/Secretary of the Treasury saw fit up to a limit and within certain guidelines.
This is actually the problem with the debt. (other than the spending itself) Congress spends, but doesn't actually have to get the votes to borrow to do it. They have already delegated that to the Treasury Dept.
So they only need the votes to raise the limit.
The better solution to get this under control would be to repeal the debt limit law entirely.
Then Congress will have to have votes every time they want to spend more than we take in.
Are you entirely sure that it is not you.
Have you no concern whatsoever?
Can you or your family pay for all of the expenditure?
Someone has to.
What in the world are you talking about?
What "expenditure?"
What do I need concern for?
Some specifics might help here.
Paul Craig Roberts is a fool,
a blathering Marxist and economic illiterate. I wish Republicans had the intentions he attributes to them in his fantasy but they don't have that much spine or principle.
You're so right...
It's not that the Republicans aren't (lately) leaning in the right direction with respect to the debt limit, it's that their not as committed as they should be to fiscal sanity. I don't even wanna get started on the Democrats' track record on fiscal issues.
I don't know how this piece made it onto DP. I guess anything has a chance as long as it seems anti-establishment, even if it's nonsense.
"I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else where I was capable of thinking for myself." - Thomas Jefferson
Well, what are we waiting for?!?
If the Republicans won't stand up to Obama, WE'LL DO IT OURSELVES!!! Lets storm that White House and go Donkey Kong on those bigot @$$holes!!
"Their wars"? You mean like Libya/Yemen/Somalia?
What a moron.
The setup....
Is that they will end up raising the debt limit and printing trillions in more money. The consequence is higher inflation kicks in and more will need to rely on government because food and gas prices go super high.
Once government runs out of tax dollars everyone who relied on those dollars will revolt and look for government to save them.
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Horrible article!
Blaming the Republicans for not raising the debt ceiling? As if not raising it is a bad thing? Then accusing them of wanting to "destroy the social safety net" as if that's a bad thing?
Have any of these socialist, left-leaning "libertarians" ever read Rothbard or Mises? I'm still surprised by how Left-leaning the DailyPaul can be sometimes.
Have any of you so concerned over not raising the debt ceiling ever wondered that maybe we're in this mess because we continue to raise the debt ceiling? Or as Peter Schiff says: "what's the point of having a debt ceiling when we're always having to raise it? Then it's not a real ceiling!"
Greece and other European countries are showing the world the consequences of having obscenely extensive "social safety nets". Socialism doesn't work, it leads to bankruptcy as we're all witnessing. Blaming those who want to get serious about balancing the budget and living within the government's means is beyond irresponsible, it's blind. Are most Republicans doing this for political reasons? Who cares! They're going to end up doing the right thing unlike the Democrats who want to scare us into thinking that it'll be the end of the world if we "default" and have our credit rating decreased. Even if these things do happen they're exactly what this country needs. Stop wasting Taxpayer money to grow government, that's how we end up in this kind of mess.
We've got a spending problem not a revenue problem, or a compromise problem. Like Dr. Paul's new add says, we need conviction: to not raise the debt ceiling! No Deals!
And yes! The dollar needs to stop being the world reserve currency. It's because it's been the world reserve curency that we've been allowed to live beyond our means and become the biggest debtor nation the world has ever seen! Like I said, horrible article.
"I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else where I was capable of thinking for myself." - Thomas Jefferson
Makes Sense
The question is, how will the public respond?
donvino
Debt is an obligation or liability to pay or render something.
While there are technical differences between the bonded debts of the federal government and their obligation to pay Social Security and Medicare benefits, essentially these are both promises that government officials have formally made.
A bond holder gives the government something of value in exchange for the bond. A worker gives the government something of value in exchange for the Social Security and Medicare benefits promise.
In actuality, a significant portion of the bonded indebtedness was issued to commercial banks and the Federal Reserve Bank in exchange for a checking account balance created out of thin air, and it is highly questionable if the federal government was given any Constitutional money at all. The worker on the other hand gave up a significant portion of his earnings in the form of FICA taxes and certainly suffered more economic loss from these taxes than did the banks who printed up checking accounts out of thin air to buy bonds.
Of course, since the banks have considerably more control over those occupying the seats of power in Washington, DC, you can be sure that they will come first as the massive obligations of the federal government are out of necessity defaulted upon. After all, is is a mathematical impossibility for the federal government to fulfill the countless promises it has made.
"The deepest sin against the human mind is to believe things without evidence." Thomas H. Huxley
Social Security and Medicare/caid are NOT promises.
They are taxes and welfare checks.
That is all.
I keep seeing regular folks "talk" about these so called "promises" yet I've never even heard a politician make it.
Of course, one might find examples of this in more recent times, since it seems a vast majority of the population is under some sort of collective delusion that everyone is "paying into" some sort of "system."
The reality is that there were never any promises, and there never was any "system."
You paid a tax.
Congress spent it.
C'est tout.
i don't know...
this could work out pretty good in the end
once the republicans figure out they have become a "senate under caesar" they might just start to scream about something called a constitution
funny thought...et tu, boehner?
its 'cos I owe ya, my young friend...
Rockin' the FREE world in Tennessee since 1957!
I don't know.
The Repubs are making Congress "irrelevant"? Is that what this is all about?
They have ALL (Congress, Executive and Courts) made the Constitution irrelevant. They ALL do a "relevant" job of serving the oligarchy.... the corporatocracy... whatever you want to call it. So what is this left/right paradigm BS?
Sad but true:
http://www.sobran.com/reluctant.shtml
agreed
agreed
http://www.usdebtclock.org/