Loadingdata | Daniel Bos

Ah! The show has started again, as usual just two weeks before the dead­line. In pol­i­tics it’s com­mon to delay impor­tant deci­sions to the very last moment, so there is barely time for dis­cus­sion or alter­na­tives (what are those peo­ple doing any­way?)

The rhetoric of “avoid­ing an unprece­dented default”, “col­lapse of the econ­omy” and I expect very soon “vul­ner­a­ble to ter­ror­ism” has already started, and even­tu­ally the dept seal­ing will be increased, as per usual. Expect Pres­i­dent Obama say­ing some­thing along the lines of “If we don’t raise the debt ceil­ing now, we won’t be able to sup­port our troops who are fight­ing to keep our glo­ri­ous coun­try free of ter­ror­ists. Once that hap­pens, noth­ing will stop Al Qaeda from launch­ing another attack on our soil. Is this really want you want?”

Edit:
Kudos to a red­di­tor who pointed me to the fol­low­ing quote from Barack Obama, just a few years ago when the Repub­li­cans were in power¹:

The fact that we are here today to debate rais­ing America’s debt limit is a sign of lead­er­ship fail­ure. It is a sign that the U.S. Gov­ern­ment can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongo­ing finan­cial assis­tance from for­eign coun­tries to finance our Government’s reck­less fis­cal policies.

[…]

Some peo­ple may won­der why they mat­ter. Here is why: This year, the Fed­eral Gov­ern­ment will spend $220 bil­lion on inter­est. That is more money to pay inter­est on our national debt than we’ll spend on Med­ic­aid and the State Children’s Health Insur­ance Pro­gram. That is more money to pay inter­est on our debt this year than we will spend on edu­ca­tion, home­land secu­rity, trans­porta­tion, and vet­er­ans ben­e­fits combined.

The Democ­rats and Repub­li­cans are exactly the same, they just switch roles once in a while, to trick peo­ple into believ­ing they actu­ally have a say in the course of their country.

In fact, I just read the most aston­ish­ing argu­ment from a Repub­li­can of all people:

In an inter­view with radio talk-show host Laura Ingra­ham, McConnell warned fel­low con­ser­v­a­tives that fail­ure to raise the debt limit would prob­a­bly ensure Obama’s reelec­tion in 2012.
Source: The Boston Globe

But after all, the Repub­li­cans want exactly the same thing as the Democ­rats. I recently learned one of the rea­sons why: no law can be passed with­out at least 60% of the peo­ple present being in favor. Now this may sur­prise you, as it did me. Isn’t a sim­ple major­ity (50% + one vote) sup­posed to be enough?

Turns out that a sim­ple major­ity is offi­cially enough, how­ever, every sin­gle per­son oppos­ing can stall the process indef­i­nitely, by just con­tin­u­ing talk­ing. (A tech­nique per­fected by the ancient Romans, most notably Cato, who used to tech­nique to obstruct Julius Cae­sar). The only way to stop a fil­i­bus­terer is by bring­ing Clo­ture, a process requir­ing three-fifth of all Sen­a­tors to vote in favor.

As a result, it is point­less to bring up any­thing not hav­ing at least 60% sup­port, which basi­cally means, it is point­less to bring up any­thing con­tro­ver­sial, even if you hold a major­ity.

They should invent a new term for “Amer­i­can democ­racy”, ide­ally some­thing includ­ing “fil­i­bus­ter­ing” or maybe “farce”.

Posted from Bei­jing, Bei­jing, China.

Related posts:

1. “The fact that we are here today to debate rais­ing America’s debt limit is a sign of lead­er­ship fail­ure. It is a sign that the U.S. Gov­ern­ment can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongo­ing finan­cial assis­tance from for­eign coun­tries to finance our Government’s reck­less fis­cal policies.

   Over the past 5 years, our fed­eral debt has increased by $3.5 tril­lion to $8.6 tril­lion. That is “tril­lion” with a “T”. That is money that we have bor­rowed from the Social Secu­rity trust fund, bor­rowed from China and Japan, bor­rowed from Amer­i­can tax­pay­ers. And over the next 5 years, between now and 2011, the President’s bud­get will increase the debt by almost another $3.5 trillion.

   Num­bers that large are some­times hard to under­stand. Some peo­ple may won­der why they mat­ter. Here is why: This year, the Fed­eral Gov­ern­ment will spend $220 bil­lion on inter­est. That is more money to pay inter­est on our national debt than we’ll spend on Med­ic­aid and the State Children’s Health Insur­ance Pro­gram. That is more money to pay inter­est on our debt this year than we will spend on edu­ca­tion, home­land secu­rity, trans­porta­tion, and vet­er­ans ben­e­fits com­bined. It is more money in one year than we are likely to spend to rebuild the dev­as­tated gulf coast in a way that hon­ors the best of America.

   And the cost of our debt is one of the fastest grow­ing expenses in the Fed­eral bud­get. This ris­ing debt is a hid­den domes­tic enemy, rob­bing our cities and States of crit­i­cal invest­ments in infra­struc­ture like bridges, ports, and lev­ees; rob­bing our fam­i­lies and our chil­dren of crit­i­cal invest­ments in edu­ca­tion and health care reform; rob­bing our seniors of the retire­ment and health secu­rity they have counted on.

   Every dol­lar we pay in inter­est is a dol­lar that is not going to invest­ment in America’s priorities.”

   Sen­a­tor Barack Obama
   Sen­ate Floor Speech on Pub­lic Debt
   March 16, 2006

   [↩]

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Ah! The show has started again, as usual just two weeks before the dead­line. In pol­i­tics it’s com­mon to delay impor­tant deci­sions to the very last moment, so there is...