Apparently the Ghost of Christmas Future flew Senator Rand Paul over the Graveyard of Presidential Hopes and showed him the lonely, untended gravestone of his ambitions. Carved on the stone was the legend :
Untimely Choked on Intemperate Utterances
Debt Ceiling Default, October 2013
It came upon him all at once that the men in the street who refused his fundraiser because the lunch was inferior, the person peddling his prized autographed copy of We the Living on Craigslist, the poor couple in Kentucky dancing and weeping with joy because of the 2014 Senate election, were all a reflection on him and his coal hearted, flinty disregard for the weaker among us as well as his dim grasp of economics. His rising star had streaked so briefly across the heavens, to culminate in
this?
Rand Paul trembled at seeing the results of his Libertarian struggle ended so ignobly. He dropped to his knees and clutched at the hem of the black robed figure.
“Mens courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead,” said Paul. “But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change. Say it is thus with what you show me!”
The Ghost remained silent. Senator Paul stood.
"I am not the man I was! Tell me that I may sponge away the writing on this stone!"
***
Ok. Maybe it wasn't as dramatic as Dickens. But, something has happened . Without further ado:
Rand Paul: Not a Good Idea To Go Through The Debt Ceiling Deadline
In case you missed it, just days ago Rand Paul was making a spectacle of himself by pushing a laughable and irresponsible position that default of the debt ceiling was no big deal:
Paul: There's No Reason To Raise The Debt Ceiling
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) argued Wednesday that there’s no need to raise the debt ceiling because the U.S. can pay the interest on its debt with existing revenue.
Read more: http://thehill.com/...
Follow us: @thehill on Twitter | TheHill on Facebook
This is mind-boggling stupid, as many have rushed to point out.
Rand Paul Has A Debt Ceiling Plan?
"The way to think about Rand Paul's plan is, imagine I said to you that unless you give me what I want, I'm going to burn down the studio. You said to me, 'That sounds like a very bad idea if you burn the studio, nobody will have a studio.' And I said, 'No, no, I've got a plan. While it's burning down, I will run in and grab all the things of value amidst the chaos, so that will all be fine.' That's basically the theory that he's come up with here."
The United States has a series of obligations and debts. For Paul, default is apparently an impossibility -- the government will continue to collect a certain amount of revenue, which we can use to pay creditors. Once they're paid, we can see if there's money left for Social Security recipients and the military. If we still have a few bucks lying around, we can ignore some obligations and pay the others. Problem solved!
I imagine that they don't require a whole lot of economic study in order to become an Ophthalmologist, but Paul kind of blew his cover and revealed himself to be a dangerous lightweight who should never even be considered as a Presidential candidate. He wandered into Sarah Palin territory. Thankfully for the rest of us, he has probably supplied enough clips during this standoff to make the words on the gravestone of his ambitions unspongable.