Here's the truth about the upcoming fight over whether or not to raise the debt ceiling. We are not going to default on our national debt. Anybody who tells you that is lying and trying to scare you. The US Treasury brings in over $250 billion each month. Our debt payment is $20 billion and by law must be paid first. The President does not have the discretionary authority to not pay it first.
So why are we hearing all this stuff about collapse, default and the bogeyman coming to take you away? Because politics has become theater for the egomaniacs of our nation.
The media finds a story and beats it to death in order to attract an audience which in turn gives them viewership numbers they can use to sell advertising. That is television, radio, newspapers and most blogs in a nutshell. It's all about getting money.
As it is with most politicians. Oh sure, I know, the TEA party guys are all about principles and not politics. Baloney.
They looked out over the political landscape and discovered an audience they could carve out for themselves, a niche so to speak, from which they could raise money and get voted into $176,000 per year jobs with all kinds of perks not the least of which is having people jump to their feet and applaud every time they walk into a room. They have staff members with a deep sense of loyalty whose only jobs are to make the boss look good.
This applies equally to the TEA party folks, the other republicans, the democrats, Libertarians and all others. They have found group to which they appeal for money, donations, volunteers and all of it is designed to get them in and keep them in office.
The media provides a free delivery system for their message and increases their notoriety. Even though the Kentucky readers of this blog don't see Steny Hoyer knocking on doors in their neighborhood, you probably know the name and can picture in your mind kinda what he looks like. The same holds true for Barney Frank, Barbara Boxer, Saxby Chambliss, Ted Cruz, Dick Durbin and many other names you know. These people all have notoriety, a perk of office.
So when the press keeps the debate over the government shutdown on the top of the news for a few weeks don't be surprised if the people increasing their notoriety in the environment of that news cycle do little to put an end to in until the media moves on to some other topic.
And what's up next? The Debt Limit increase. More theater, more lies, more exaggerations and more confusion about what is really going on.
We aren't going to default on the debt. And no, all those government workers who are being held up as such poor victims of the shutdown aren't going without pay. They have been promised back pay when the shutdown is over so it has saved us nothing, cost them nothing, given them a paid vacation and cut down on whatever productivity the government has any chance of performing for a little while.
Why don't you hear the truth? Because it doesn't sell as well as the hype.
The truth is being buried by egomaniacs.
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