“Negotiations”

President Barack Obama often publicly chants his mantra of “[I] will not negotiate over the terms of debt limit legislation…[I am] willing to discuss a range of issues once the government is reopened and the Treasury able to borrow freely again.”

Given Obama’s credibility, though, on what basis can he be trusted to negotiate in good faith when there’s no pressure on him?  More, recall that in the last debt ceiling fiasco just a couple of years ago, Obama personally (and cynically, say I) blew up one deal very near to completion with a deliberately late demand for $1 trillion in higher taxes.

Here are further examples of Obama’s willingness to negotiate:

In a 2011 address to Congress:

[Republicans’] vision is less about reducing the deficit than it is about changing the basic social compact in America [and] children with autism or Down’s syndrome [should] fend for themselves.

At a Rockville, MD rally a few days ago:

single-greatest threat to our economy…the unwillingness of Republicans in Congress to stop refighting a settled election.

And

John Boehner…doesn’t want to anger the extremists in his party.  That’s all.  That’s what this whole thing is about.

And

Republican obsession [with] denying affordable health insurance to millions of Americans.  That’s all this has become about.  That seems to be the only thing that unites the Republican Party these days.

In a recent NPR interview covering, among other things, the then-imminent government shutdown:

Interviewer: What can you offer [to Republicans]?

Obama: [W]hen you say, ‘What can I offer?’—I shouldn’t have to offer anything.

Yeah, those are sound negotiating ploys, all right.

Finally, and not too unrelated, as Congressman Louie Gohmert (R, TX) says,

The [Obama] hissy fit is going to have to end[.]

Debt Default Redux

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, NV) continuing his meme of refusing to negotiate, says

We not only have a shutdown, but we have the full faith and credit of our nation before us in a week or ten days[.]

Never mind that this could have been settled much earlier in the year, but for Democrats’ and President Barack Obama’s intransigence:

Reid and other Democrats blocked numerous attempts…to approve House-passed bills reopening portions of the government.

And there’s that whole “Presidential” series of “veto threats against GOP spending bills” thing.  The “GOP” part is the kicker.

In the end, it’s clear that, having gotten the government shutdown for which the Democrats have fought so hard, they’re now bent on default.

Again, I ask, why?  I also ask against this backdrop: from Section 8 of our Constitution we have

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States….

Paying the national debt isn’t just one of only three purposes for which the Federal government is permitted to “lay and collect Taxes;” it’s the first purpose.

And from the 14th Amendment we have

The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.

The Federal government collects in tax revenue roughly 10 times the amount of money required to make the payments on the national debt as they come due.  Suggesting that that’s in danger, that debt default is a risk, is dishonest.