THIS MUST END NOW! AMERICA RELIES ON TRUTH!

Submitted by: Debbie Beatty

http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/ernest-istook-knowing-inside/2013/oct/10/how-do-you-negotiate-president-who-cannot-be-trust/

Bait-and-switch on debt and default

Obama is re-defining “debt” just like Bill Clinton re-defined “what is is.”
Our national debt is officially $16.7-trillion. The annual cost is $415-billion to pay the debt service. Those are official numbers, publicly available on the Treasury Department’s website.

Nothing else qualifies to be called our national debt. Nothing else involves keeping our commitments to the full faith and credit of the United States. And nothing threatens our ability to make our regular payments.

Fiscal year 2014 began October 1st. This year’s federal income according to the White House website is officially estimated by the Obama Administration to be $3.034-trillion.
So this year’s income is seven times what it take to service our debt. ($3.034-trillion divided by $415-billion equals 7.31.) The amounts are huge, but we can handle that.

After debt payments and even without borrowing a penny more we would have $2.619-trillion left to spend on other things. That is more than enough to pay our troops and to pay Social Security and to pay lots more.

No, it’s not enough to continue doing all that government has been doing. But those other things are not debts. Labeling them “debts” is a deliberate ploy to scare investors in T-bills and T-notes.

Those other things are new and ongoing expenses, the things that households cut back when they have financial problems. Fixed expenses like the mortgage are paid first; current expenses are reduced. And current expenses are not “debt.”

By mixing up the terms—with complicity of most media—Obama is spooking people and markets on purpose.
Our debt payments are fixed. But Congress and the President have not yet decided on total spending levels for FY2014. They should be negotiating that—and not upward as Obama wants but isn’t talking about.

The real issue is not defaulting on our debt. The real issues are how much government do we want, how much can we afford, and what reforms must we make? Only then should we decide if we should borrow money and, if so, how much. And how would it ever be paid back?

As a disciple of big government, Obama makes no distinction between debt and the horde of spending programs that he supports and wants to expand. So he confuses the two and treats them as identical. The media let him get away with it.

We are already over the debt limit

We actually reached our $16.7-trillion borrowing limit back in May. The claim of an October 17th deadline is a fiction used to conceal that we’re already over the limit.
Since May, the Treasury Department has used what they call “extraordinary measures,” known to the rest of mankind as cooking the books and accounting gimmicks. Essentially, they borrow money from federal retirement funds but don’t record it as borrowing. It must be paid back.

Any increase in the debt limit will immediately be tapped to make that repayment, meaning it’s immediately used to increase the official debt. After the government shutdowns of 1995-96, $139-billion of “extraordinary measures” had to be paid back. After the 2011 debt limit fight, the newly-raised debt ceiling was tapped by Treasury for an immediate $238-billion, mostly to repay these “extraordinary measures.”

It is another secret how much the Obama Administration has in fact borrowed since May while pretending that it hasn’t. A safe guess is at least $200-billion.

We should have used the time since May to reduce spending. Instead, we’ve been pushed into a deeper financial hole with that hidden debt, thanks to “extraordinary measures.”
The Dangerous 14th Amendment Ploy
It is total garbage to claim that Obama or any President has 14th Amendment authority to borrow money on their own. Borrowing requires express approval from Congress.

It is in our national interest for Obama to clearly and publicly agree that he has no such power. Instead, this week he merely said he doubts it would work if he exercised what he called “my power under the 14th Amendment.” He has no such power and it’s dangerous that he clings to the notion.

The 14th Amendment says zilch about giving borrowing authority to the President or to anybody. The Constitution’s sole grant of power to borrow is given to Congress in Article 1, Section 8. And no “emergency” or “inherent” borrowing power is otherwise created.

The 14th Amendment simply provides that the United States will never disavow its debt that is “authorized by law.” Banana republics disavow debt; we don’t. Banana republics allow dictators to borrow money on their own; we don’t. The 14th Amendment explicitly states that Congress (not the President) is empowered to legislate to enforce its provisions.

Because power grabs come naturally to Barack Obama, it’s scary that he might try to manufacture a 14th Amendment ploy, possibly in cahoots with the Federal Reserve. And that would indeed put at risk the full faith and credit of the United States.