Bring Down the Debt Hammer, Mr. President

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Thursday July 28, 2011 · 6:57 AM PDT

2011/07/28 · 06:57

If I had a hammer
I'd hammer in the morning
I'd hammer in the evening
all over this land
I'd hammer out danger
I'd hammer out a warning
I'd hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters
all over this land.
Lee Hays and Pete Seeger

We live in very interesting times.

Today, as in years past, scholars and pundits and armchair political theorists (like myself) contemplate and discuss the power of the American presidency. From Jefferson's purchase of the Louisiana territory to Bush's wiretapping programs, Americans have always been enthralled by and divided over the subject of executive power.

However, no president, not Jackson or Lincoln or Nixon, has ever been able to exert as much influence over the nation and the world as President Obama can at this moment. I don't believe that any leader in the history of our species has been endowed with as much unfettered power as this president currently possesses. I am surprised that nobody else who contributes to this site (so far as I can tell) has come to this realization.

Ironically, the President has come by this newly acquired power as a direct result of the posturing of his opposition during the debt ceiling negotiations, and as Republican intransigence brings us closer to the August 2 debt ceiling deadline, the President's position becomes even more powerful.

The Constitution provides the executive a ten day window, excepting Sundays, to either veto or sign a bill passed by Congress before the bill becomes a law by default. Even if Congress were to convene today and pass a debt ceiling resolution, the resolution would not become law (and the debt ceiling would not be raised) without presidential approval until August 9 - seven days after the August 2 deadline.

To put it another way, we will not have a debt ceiling increase until at least August 9 unless the President allows it to happen. At this point, the President has legal authority to unilaterally send the US government into default. When has one person ever held that much power?

A more pertinent question: what could the President do with that power?

JHestand

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Saturday July 23, 2011 · 4:56 PM PDT

2011/07/23 · 16:56

An often overlooked part of constitutional law is the timeframe given to the President after a bill is passed by Congress, wherein he can choose whether to sign the bill into law or veto the bill before it becomes a law by default. The window provided by the Constitution, under most circumstances, is ten days excepting Sundays.

If Congress were to convene Monday and pass a debt ceiling resolution, the President (by my often flawed math) would not have to sign or veto it until August 5 - three days after the August 2 deadline.

Of course, the President could wait until August 5 and veto the bill at the last possible moment. Then, two-thirds of each chamber would have to vote to override the President's veto. Should either chamber fail to do so, the ten day clock would begin ticking anew with any other debt ceiling resolution that cleared both houses.

The President would not have to muster much support in Congress to prevent a veto from being overridden, especially if congressional democrats were included in the plan. Between the sixty or so house republicans that have refused to vote for any kind of debt limit increase and the eighty or so members of the progressive caucus, the President has very nearly all the no votes he needs in the House to prevent a veto override.

I bring this up, because the President is now in a position to unilaterally dictate the terms of any debt limit increase to Congress. Perhaps more importantly, the President is in a position to play a game of brinksmanship with Congress that he is fully empowered to win or end at any time, thanks to the fourteenth amendment. Should things fall to hell, the President can rectify the situation with the stroke of a pen.

JHestand

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Sunday July 17, 2011 · 11:32 AM PDT

2011/07/17 · 11:32

"...in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie... It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation."
Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf

Lies are useful. First are the little lies we tell one another as a matter of good etiquette. A woman will say a child is intelligent, even if she is firmly convinced that the child is an idiot. A man will seldom confess to his significant other that his beloved does, in fact, look appallingly fat in those pants. When people meet, it is not uncommon for them to exchange pleasantries such as "nice to meet you," even though the statement may be patently false. Lies such as these lubricate the moving parts of our everyday discussions and prevent people from rubbing one another the wrong way.

Some lies are told for selfish reasons. These are the lies men tell women to bed them (I love you), the lies women tell men to marry them (I'm pregnant) and the lies we tell each other to cover our asses when we feel that our interests are threatened (it isn't my fault, because...). They are the lies that help us attain what we cannot come by honestly: the lies that help us avoid unpleasant consequences we honestly deserve.

Other categories of untruths exist in the hierarchy of lies. However, all of them fall short of the truly elite falsehoods: the real whoppers and long-cons that when taken together form not only a category of untruth but an overarching fictional narrative - the Big Lie. Lies of this order transcend the everyday needs and doings of individual people. Instead, the myriad falsehoods that comprise the Big Lie shape our very perception of what is necessary and worth doing in the first place.

JHestand

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Tuesday July 24, 2007 · 11:09 AM PDT

2007/07/24 · 11:09

I have spent the last few months observing the the political campaigns of the various democratic presidential candidates with indifference. The process had left me feeling a little like Goldilocks. I watched the debates and read the blogs and kept thinking to myself why don't any of these candidates feel right?

And so I have waited. More often than not, I have been waiting for Gore to relent and say "Ok, WTF, I'll run." But those magic words have been long in coming. And I'm tired of waiting.

JHestand

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Tuesday June 19, 2007 · 11:06 AM PDT

2007/06/19 · 11:06

This is really less a diary and more a question to the vastly more computer literate DKos community at large.

I've been reading about the missing emails at the RNC, and I am curious, how does an email disappear?

Sure, if I click "delete" after selecting an email it is "deleted." But doesn't a copy of it remain on the server I used to send it? Doesn't a copy remain on the server to which it was sent? I always just assumed these things were compressed and stored in the event they ever needed to be retrieved.

Does anyone know how these things generally work?

Pace Refused to Resign Voluntarily

JHestand

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Friday June 15, 2007 · 11:03 AM PDT

2007/06/15 · 11:03

According to a recent statement released from Marine General Peter Pace's Pentagon office, the presiding Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff refused to resign voluntarily when asked to do so by Robert Gates.

http://news.yahoo.com/...

Perhaps the most interesting twist to this recent discovery is General Pace's reason for refusing to quietly resign.

JHestand

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Tuesday June 05, 2007 · 10:53 AM PDT

2007/06/05 · 10:53

Don't tell Wall Street that President Bush's Iraq policy has failed. There are many statistics that point to the contrary.

In January of 2003, one share of stock in Lockheed Martin fethced a price of roughly $49. At the end of April 2007, that same share was valued at approximately $98. In January of 2003, one share of stock in General Dynamics was worth about $63. In May of 2007, that same share was worth roughly $77. However, the stock was split in 2006, so the real value of one share from 2003 is actually closer to $154 today. Northrop Grumman has enjoyed similar success. In January of 2003, a share of Northrop Grumman would put an investor out to the tune of $88. By the end of May, 2007, the stock had also split, and an investment of $88 in 2003 was now worth roughly $145. Boeing has also seen its stock value double since January of 2003.

This rate of growth far outpaced the growth of the S&P 500 during the same period. These statistics are easily verified using any stock tracking software or website.

JHestand

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Monday June 04, 2007 · 10:58 AM PDT

2007/06/04 · 10:58

When General George Washington and his army were settling in at Valley Forge in the winter of 1777-1778, the population of the American colonies was less than half of the current population of the city of Chicago. Washington tended to his broken, hungry, half-naked army, and in the summer of 1778 initiated a new campaign against the British.

In the decades that ensued, Washington's generation provided our new nation with an abundant supply of able statesmen: Adams, Hamilton, Jefferson and Madison are but a few. Today, the United States can boast of a population in the neighborhood of 300 million, but able statesmen are apparently nowhere to be found.

JHestand

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Thursday May 24, 2007 · 9:57 AM PDT

2007/05/24 · 09:57

Senator Obama,

I am writing you today in an effort to dissuade you from voting to support the Iraq Funding Bill that will soon come to a vote in the Senate. More importantly, I am writing in an effort to convince you to filibuster this offensive piece of legislation.

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Bring Down the Debt Hammer, Mr. President

Turning the Tables: Using the Debt Ceiling Debate to Fracture the Republican Party

The Big Lie

No More Waiting

How does an email disappear?

Pace Refused to Resign Voluntarily

War Profiteering in the New Millenium

How did it get so bad?

A letter to Senator Obama