My debt ceiling dream sequence.

[grantcart]

First that the President takes it to the Supreme Court. Seems to be contrary to good parliamentary order for a legislative body to pass spending authorization (in one form or another) in specific legislation and then group them together and say that they oppose the aggregate because the total revenue doesn't match the expenditures. Many Democrats are urging the President to take the issue to the courts which I agree with.

If it succeeds then the issue is over.

If it fails then I hope the President doesn't go for a semi inconvenient shut down but bring the entire federal government (excepting emergency and critical public safety functions to a complete and abrupt stop.

Start with the airports (no FAA) and the ports of entry (Customs). Let the business world howl at the Republicans as all business and trade quickly comes to a complete halt.

Cut all of the electricity to Congress and let them enter the chamber by flashlights and take the vote by scratches on paper.

Of course in these circumstances they would pass the extension in the proverbial New York Minute and I know it will never happen, it is fun to think of what all these reactionaries would do if they had to live in a system where the federal government didn't create all of the opportunities that allowed them to gather all of their riches.

Atleast the President is refusing to engage on the issue, a very positive development indeed.

[JDPriestly]

1. I note that the forms necessary to file for a few business-relate tax credits

have to be delayed because of the delay in dealing with the so-called "fiscal cliff" crisis. It's ironic because the delay, delay, delay is going to backfire on the Republican constituency.

And hesitating to raise the debt ceiling will also backfire on them. Lowering Social Security benefits will hurt a large number of Republican voters -- the ones who are most reliable and most likely to vote -- Reagan Republicans who don't recognize how their party has changed.

The OP is correct. If Congress does not want so much spending, it simply has to refuse to authorize specific spending. That is part of its job. Apparently it had no problem authorizing a big, fat defense budget. If it were serious about cutting spending, that authorization would have been much smaller. Guantanamo for starts costs us an absurd amount of money -- and for what?

President Obama does not have to spend all the money that is authorized by Congress. He should pick and choose what he agrees to and what he does not.

And he should struggle hard to increase corporate taxes. Our corporations are not paying their fair share of taxes, not at any level, not to local or state governments and certainly not to the federal government. Look at a chart that shows the expenditures on one side and the revenues on the other according to general category. The problem lies with corporations' tax credits and exemptions.