Joe Biden is kept because of Biden’s relationships with Congress.

He will be kept by Mr Obama, despite his gaffes.

Campaign 2012 with Joe Biden? Or with Cuomo or Clinton standing in the wings?

You tell me.

BZ

The first Econo-Quake didn’t stem from not passing any form of debt ceiling increase; oh no. It stemmed from the debt ceiling actually being finally extended after having passed both houses on Tuesday, August 2nd. Go here to see. The market plunged down 266 points in one day. The opposite of what was prognosticated and promised by the Demorats. The seventh straight day of losses.

That slide, in one day, eradicates all the gains made since the entire beginning of 2011.

Still and all, ratings houses are weighing in — Standard & Poor’s, and Moody’s.

Moody’s says:

Moody’s Investors Service said the U.S. credit rating may be downgraded for the first time on concern that fiscal discipline may ease, further debt reduction measures won’t be adopted and the economy may weaken.

The U.S., rated AAA since 1917, was placed on negative outlook, New York-based Moody’s said in a statement today as it confirmed the rating. Moody’s warned on July 29 a negative outlook was “more likely” as lawmakers reduced the size of spending cuts being negotiated to win approval on a plan to lift the nation’s borrowing limit.

A ratings cut would raise the specter that the wrangling between President Barack Obama and Republican lawmakers over spending cuts and taxes will harm American prestige and the global financial system. JPMorgan Chase & Co. estimated that a downgrade would raise the nation’s borrowing costs by $100 billion a year. It could also hurt the rest of the U.S. economy by increasing the cost of mortgages, auto loans and other types of lending tied to the interest rates paid on Treasuries.

“A downgrade is a sign that Congress is failing to address a real fiscal issue,” Guy LeBas, chief fixed-income strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott LLC in Philadelphia, said in an interview before the announcement.

Moody’s Investors Service put the U.S. under review for a downgrade on July 13 for the first time since 1996.

Further:

Standard & Poor’s put the U.S. government on notice on April 18 that it risks losing its AAA rating unless lawmakers agree on a plan by 2013 to reduce budget deficits and the national debt. Fitch Ratings said today the U.S. is under a review as the nation’s debt burden increases at a pace that isn’t consistent with an AAA sovereign credit rating.

Let’s review:

In a recession bordering on an actual depression, with unemployment rates exceeding 30% in some areas, with housing sales stagnant, with the economy growing at .03%, with no hiring occurring, with no durable goods sales occurring, with jobs cut throughout the nation, with smaller government agencies cutting emergency response jobs across the states, with TARP having not helped, with the Porkulus Packages having not helped, with Cash For Clunkers a complete flop, with ObakaKare guaranteeing tax increases for all come 2013 (And people having conveniently, forgotten this fact!), people are shocked that Elder DC Hacks (on both sides of the aisle) voted for a literal piece of shit bill?

And with claimed stress and heartache and hate and discontent and then — zounds — victory?

I’m not surprised. It’s all about “they’ve got theirs” and you can go to Hell.

At the end of each day they all tipped drinks at the Hawk ‘n Dove. Back slapping all around.

As I wrote on April 6th of this year:

And you are being fleeced.

BZ

It’s true; the spending isn’t just out of control, it makes any budgetary discipline potentially unretrievable.

PASSED:

And now, the “Debt Reduction Act” has passed the House. 269 to 161. Likely, the Senate will pass it as well.

The debt ceiling immediately goes higher by roughly a trillion dollars. And it is not, repeat: NOT a “cut.” It only reduces debt increases from $10 trillion to $7 trillion. That’s a cut??

It is, however, a classic win/win for DC Hack Politicians on both sides of the aisle, and for Mr Obama, because it extends the debt ceiling to 2013, AFTER his campaign for 2012 — so it won’t be a stumbling block for him during re-election. That was what he was really after.

This is an abortion on toast, ladies and gentlemen; and YOU, the American Taxpayer, have just been taken to the woodshed by DC. You have been fleeced once again, because:

There are NO CUTS in this bill.

BZ

P.S.

PASSED!

The Senate passed the bill, 74 to 26, and Mr Obama signed it this morning. With that, everything should be wonderful, should it not? The resulting econo-quake — as per the Demorats — has been averted, yes? Uh, no, not quite. . .

“We don’t have any grown-ups making any purchases for this country.”

This is the reality of the debt situation, as verbally and visually displayed by Senator Tom Coburn (R – Oklahoma) in the US Senate on Saturday, July 30th. Yes, granted, it’s a lengthy video but well worth watching because the devil — because everything — is in the details.

So please listen as he speaks about just some of the details and the duplication of government on every level to the point where one could logically ask: before you can cut government, do you even have the ability to identify and know all the myriad and convoluted arms and offices and programs of government??

Listen very, very closely to what he says — please.

And yes, Senator Marco Rubio made a recent eloquent statement with regard to the debt ceiling debate, again with Senator John Kerry involved:

But as I wrote above, the devil is in the details. And it is in those details where the Demorats, predominantly — and the Republicans as well — fail.

One reason I so much enjoy and respect my district’s congressman, Tom McClintock, is that not only isn’t he afraid to discuss details in depth when addressing budgetary issues (and every issue is a budgetary issue at its core), but he is completely knowledgeable in those issues and well schooled in the political history of their origins and, further, how they can be resolved. Mr McClintock actually has answers and has had answers for many years — but they fall on deaf ears.

The crash is coming, ladies and gentlemen, and we know it.

So far we’re hearing nothing more than DC Mouth Music and it isn’t cutting the mustard. It isn’t cutting anything at all because — in DC Speak — not increasing a given program’s budget from one year to the next is considered a “cut.” Politicians have hijacked even the common sense and meaning of the American language.

Because the American public doesn’t much care and certainly hasn’t been paying attention. As long as they get their Free Cheese.

Because we’ve lost sight of the horizon, lost sight of perspective, logic, facts, common sense, rationality and proportion. We’ve lost sight of what made this country exceptional. “Exceptionalism” — now — is a Bad Word.

At this point, I’m almost of the opinion that, in order to extricate ourselves, we’ll simply have to let it all fall and then attempt to rebuild from another foundation entirely.

But when we fall, everyone must understand, our neighbors will fall. Other countries and their economies will fall. The literal balance of world power will morph and change. In my opinion, Evil will flourish and grow stronger. The weak will become weaker and lack defense. It may even come to be that entire philosophies will shred and crumble.

It’s past time for a Second American Revolution.

But frankly? There isn’t one coming.

No one will be saved.

You are all, personally, on the chopping block.

Mind your heads — in more ways than one.

BZ

From CNBC’s John Carney:

I just got off the phone with a source on Capitol Hill who has spent the past few days trying to convince Republicans to vote for a debt ceiling hike.

He told me that the biggest obstacle he faces has been “market complacency.”

“Frankly, a bit of panic would be very helpful right now,” he said.

As he explained it, lots of people in Washington, DC expected that this would be a week marked by panic in the markets. Stocks would tank. Bonds would get clobbered. The dollar would do something dramatic. And all of this would help convince reluctant lawmakers that they had to reach a compromise on the debt ceiling.

“Every day we wake up and think that stocks will send a shock up to Capitol Hill. And every day nothing happens,” the source said.

He’s still holding out hope for a panic sell-off at the end of the day.

“It’s the only thing that’s going to bring everyone together on this,” he said.

And isn’t that telling?

The Demorats — and some Republicans! — hope the market tanks, that you and every other citizen of the United States are assaulted, hurt, punished, for failing to completely step aside and allow the debt ceiling to be hiked at will by Leftists and RINOs in DC.

People, let me reiterate: they want you hurt. They want you PUNISHED. They want the country to enter a death spiral. So that they may continue their profligate spending ways unimpeded. And, damn it, it hasn’t happened yet! How terribly inconvenient!

Think about that for a few moments. Does the phrase “torches and pitchforks” come to mind, perchance?

BZ