So, the Republican-lead House of Reprehensibles is having a grand old time, coming up with objection after objection to every reasonable budget proposal that's made before they'll agree to lift the debt ceiling. And our weenie of a President, after locking Democrats from the House out from talks, is apparently so cowed that he's offering up Social Security -- which, remember readers, has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH THE BUDGET PROBLEMS -- on a platter, hoping that in exchange for letting the Republicans try their knives on Social Security, they'll be distracted from trying to destroy the economy through the general budget.
But Obama's a fool: he's the one who should be having a grand old time, not the Republicans. Because, what happens if the debt ceiling isn't raised? Obviously, a lot of payments end up not being made. But who decides which payments don't get made? Well, that's not entirely clear, but the branch that would have to implement whatever decisions get made about that -- and, obviously, the branch that would have to make decisions in a hurry in the absence of direction from anywhere else -- is the Administration.
So, rather than sabotaging what pathetic little economic safety net we have in this country, Obama should be announcing, week-by-week, which military installations and other government offices will be subject to furloughs in the event that no budget is agreed upon and the debt ceiling is reached.
And, coincidentally, there would be a perfect correlation between the sites targeted for furloughs and the districts of the Representatives who are being most asinine about the budget.
For remember, it's the responsibility of the House of Representatives to originate any spending bills, and if they can't get their house in order enough to have a plan for meeting scheduled payments, it's not the President's fault if some of the payments don't get made; and indeed we should be glad someone's there to try to make sure that the missed payments are appropriately designated.
