Senate joins the House in kicking the can down the road
February 4, 2013 at 10:24 am in News by Dustin Siggins 3 Comments
Last Thursday, the Senate followed the House’s lead in kicking the can down the road on the debt ceiling. From CNN:
The Democratic-controlled Senate passed legislation on Thursday extending the federal government’s ability to borrow new money through mid-May, delaying a partisan standoff that some analysts warn could derail a fragile economic recovery.
The bill, which passed in a 64-34 vote, cleared the Republican-run House of Representatives last week. It now advances to President Obama’s desk to be signed into law.
While the measure suspends Washington’s $16.4 trillion debt ceiling through May 19, some budget analysts estimate it will give the U.S. Treasury the ability to meet all federal spending obligations through at least the end of July.
In exchange for temporarily suspending the debt ceiling, the bill requires lawmakers in both chambers of Congress to pass a budget by mid-April or have their pay withheld.
Here is what Tea Party Patriots wrote when the House passed the legislation:
As Washington kicks the can down the road yet again, it is important to remember what Tea Party activists were told the last time the debt ceiling was raised. At that time, we were told to give Congress time to get its fiscal house in order.
What was meant by this was never made clear. One can reasonably assume Republicans were waiting until President Obama lost re-election and/or the Senate was taken over by Republicans. With neither of those options on the table for the next four and two years, respectively, Republicans are out of excuses to offer real debt solutions.
To be fair, this debt ceiling deal does have one positive characteristic: it attempts to force the Senate to get back to regular budgetary order for the first time in four years. However, that should happen regardless of outside pressure – the Senate is breaking the law, after all. In essence, this means the House Republican leadership gave Congress and President Obama room to spend hundreds of billions of dollars with no changes to any public policies.
I’m not sure of the significance of CNN’s mention that the government could spend through late summer with the current deal, but if the government gets the ability to keep spending past May 19, it would be just one more example of how kicking the can down the road on spending discipline in Washington simply does not work.
A total of 34 Senators opposed the legislation – 33 Republicans and Democratic Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV). Here is the roll call. Be sure to call and thank the Senators who stood with the American people.
One Key to Stopping to Big To Fail, the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act
Activist from every political spectrum should contact their U.S. representatives and U.S. senators and demand they amend The Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act to read. The U.S. Federal Reserve system shall not buy the debt of foreign nations. This would prevent our federal reserve from bailing out U.S. banks and U.S. businesses doing business overseas. It would also prevent our U.S. Federal Reserve system from bailing out foreign governments.
It was all perfectly legal. Unbeknownst to most of its members, in March 1980 Congress voted a bank bailout into law when it approved the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act. The main purpose of the eighty-five page act had been to require banks to belong to the Federal Reserve system and to allow commercial banks to accept Negotiated Order of Withdrawal (NOW) accounts.
However, just before the bill was approved by a joint house-senate committee six lines were added at the request of the Federal Reserve Board. It is estimated that no more than ten congressman were even aware of the insert that gave the Federal Reserve the right to buy securities of foreign governments just as it buys securities issued by the U.S. Treasury, thereby allowing the FED to prop up U.S. banks by covering the deficits of foreign governments.
According to congressional and Federal Reserve sources, the inspiration for the insert came from Fed Chairman Paul A. Volcker, an alumnus of Chase Manhattan, which, with other major U.S. banks, stood to gain most from the authorization. The never-publicized legislation explains why U.S. banks continued to lend to countries like Mexico long after the Europeans took Fright. (pg.247 In Banks We Trust 1984,1986 By Penny Lemoux
Visit page 131 of the Federal Reserve GAO report http://www.scribd.com/doc/60553686/GAO-Fed-Investigation
The list of institutions that received the most money from the Federal Reserve can be found on page 131of the GAO Audit and are as follows..
Citigroup: $2.5 trillion ($2,500,000,000,000)
Morgan Stanley: $2.04 trillion ($2,040,000,000,000)
Merrill Lynch: $1.949 trillion ($1,949,000,000,000)
Bank of America: $1.344 trillion ($1,344,000,000,000)
Barclays PLC (United Kingdom): $868 billion ($868,000,000,000)
Bear Sterns: $853 billion ($853,000,000,000)
Goldman Sachs: $814 billion ($814,000,000,000)
Royal Bank of Scotland (UK): $541 billion ($541,000,000,000)
JP Morgan Chase: $391 billion ($391,000,000,000)
Deutsche Bank (Germany): $354 billion ($354,000,000,000)
UBS (Switzerland): $287 billion ($287,000,000,000)
Credit Suisse (Switzerland): $262 billion ($262,000,000,000)
Lehman Brothers: $183 billion ($183,000,000,000)
Bank of Scotland (United Kingdom): $181 billion ($181,000,000,000)
BNP Paribas (France): $175 billion ($175,000,000,000)
Related articles:
Major U.S. Banks At Risk If European Debt Crisis Spreads
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/06/banks-wall-street-europe-crisis_n_999204.html
Half Of Top U.S. Banks Made Loans To European Banks: Fed
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/07/us-banks-european-banks_n_1080237.html
I just read the bill’s summery. Their pay is withheld in escrow. They get it when they pass a budget, OR when the congressional session is over. So even if they DO NOT PASS A BUDGET they STILL GET PAID!! They just have to wait for it. I’m Skeptical about them doing anything!
If you can not do your job and pass a budget and quit spending what you don’t have get the heck out of DC, it’s not for your pleasure it’s a job! Do you need the definition of your job? Quit spending and giving away. Why would you cut hot meals out of our Military while allowing the President Million Dollar vacations on the Tax Payers. Why do you give Armor to Terrorist while stripping the Military? Why are you harder on the working class in American than you are on the Terrorist? I think people in DC must be on DRUGS. You are not there for lobbies and back handed money you are there for the people of the United States, QUIT destroying our Country!