Michelle Malkin » ‘Lights Out’: Harry Reid Takes the Debt Ceiling Fear Up a Notch

‘Lights Out’: Harry Reid Takes the Debt Ceiling Fear Up a Notch

By Doug Powers • July 18, 2011 08:07 PM

**Written by Doug Powers

Last week Harry Reid said debt default could mean Social Security checks wouldn’t be mailed out, no paychecks for our troops and closed schools. This week he’s throwing in the kitchen sink — along with the dish cloths, soap, silverware and counter tops:

Senate Democrats sat down with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, and he painted a picture of what our world will look like if Republicans in Congress force this nation for the first time in its history to default on its financial obligations.

The picture was grim. This is how he described the state of our government if Congress allows this unprecedented default: “lights out.”
[...]
Geithner described how the 80 million checks cut by the Treasury every day could simply stop coming. The federal government would, in effect, go dark.

Paychecks for troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and bases around the world could stop. FAA towers could shut down. So could the FBI and the CIA. Border crossings could close [well, that's one way to secure the border - DP]. Safety inspections of the food Americans eat and the cargo that enters our ports could halt. Literally every function of government could cease.

There would be no discussion of which operations and personnel were essential. All the payments would likely stop.

Some have said we could prioritize which bills to pay. Even if that wouldn’t irreparably damage the nation’s credit and our reputation in the global community – which it would – it is also a complete fiction.

Our government won’t even be able to cover the bills due on August 3. It will simply run out of money.

I’ll bet they’d manage to find enough money to pay Congress.

Has anyone asked Reid why they can’t prioritize payments? Is the government so crippled under its own weight that it can’t remotely begin to accommodate an “emergency” using the existing revenue stream? Federal revenue is $200 billion a month. Spending on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, active duty military, veterans affairs and education totals about $145 billion, leaving plenty left for cowboy poets.

Besides, Republicans have offered to raise the debt ceiling by $2.4 trillion, and it includes cuts, a spending cap and a balanced budget amendment. President Obama has already threatened a veto. If Reid wants those checks to go out next month he’d better head to the White House and forcefully express his opinion.

According to Reid’s debt ceiling sherpa, Tim Geithner, “Plan A” is that Congress votes to raise the debt ceiling. What’s “Plan B”? There isn’t one. We’re in the best of hands. Don’t you wish some of these people could be half as creative when it comes to navigating alternative paths through a crisis as they can be when, say, doing their taxes?

And after all of Harry Reid’s debt default Armageddon talk, just to cleanse the palate and provide some contrast, here’s another reminder of what Harry Reid said about raising the debt ceiling in 2006:

“If my Republican friends believe that increasing our debt by almost $800 billion today and more than $3 trillion over the last five years is the right thing to do, they should be upfront about it. They should explain why they think more debt is good for the economy.

How can the Republican majority in this Congress explain to their constituents that trillions of dollars in new debt is good for our economy? How can they explain that they think it’s fair to force our children, our grandchildren, our great grandchildren to finance this debt through higher taxes. That’s what it will have to be. Why is it right to increase our nation’s dependence on foreign creditors?

They should explain this. Maybe they can convince the public they’re right. I doubt it. Because most Americans know that increasing debt is the last thing we should be doing. After all, I repeat, the Baby Boomers are about to retire. Under the circumstances, any credible economist would tell you we should be reducing debt, not increasing it.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

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#101

On July 19th, 2011 at 11:44 am, EROWMER said:

Ubama ain’t scaring the military (active or retired). He’s pissing us off.
#102

On July 19th, 2011 at 11:51 am, hawkeye54 said:

Does any reporter have the guts to throw Harry’s words back in his face and ask how his position has changed other than along party lines?

Perhaps once, then would be censured and sent of to weeks of re-education camp, or exiled to home and garden reporting, if he or she was actually allowed to continue on with a news reporting career within the American Pravda, media wing of the Democrat Party.
#103

On July 19th, 2011 at 12:28 pm, Dexter Alarius said:

On July 19th, 2011 at 11:44 am, EROWMER said:
Ubama ain’t scaring the military (active or retired). He’s pissing us off.

Unfortunately, my wife will have this Complainer-in-Chief’s name on her retirement certificate. She can’t wait until Jan 2013.
#104

On July 19th, 2011 at 1:00 pm, NJ-Aviator said:

If Harry Reid thinks he can shut it down.. well then…

Here’s my “Gordon Ramsay” thought on it.

(not appropriate for work)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFxnBhURO_c
#105

On July 19th, 2011 at 2:01 pm, WaterBoyz said:

Chambliss and the gang of 6 just submitted their plan. In it there is this “details to be worked out later”.

We are so screwed.

Just how hard is it to put your foot down and say “No effin’ way!”

No matter what happens, the pols will not loose one dime of income.
#106

On July 19th, 2011 at 4:10 pm, shimauma2 said:

On July 19th, 2011 at 2:01 pm, WaterBoyz said:
Chambliss and the gang of 6 just submitted their plan. In it there is this “details to be worked out later”.

We are so screwed.

Just how hard is it to put your foot down and say “No effin’ way!”

as hard as it is to get an honest person in the swamp. All these damn lawyers, they’re afraid to say “This is BS” because someone will question the word “is”
#107

On July 19th, 2011 at 4:17 pm, rocketman said:

***
HI FLYOVERMAN and HANGFIRE. I just got back from my first trip to Hawaii–the Pearl Harbor tour was impressive. The Arizona Memorial, the WW2 submarine tour. And the Navy MIRV’d missile displays. And the nuclear armed torpedo that might take out the sub that fired it.
***
No way we will ever be a second rate country. Despite the Good Comrade and his Ilk.
***
And after the Oahu and Maui tourist bus trip–you all really did go to paradise! What a beautiful place.
***
John Bibb
***
#108

On July 19th, 2011 at 5:03 pm, GrnHornet said:

I keep waiting for just one Politician left or right to propose cutting funding for departments like Education, Energy, Agriculture etc. A 69.9 BILLION dollar budget for a worthless department like Education is insane. Lets be honest, there isn’t an ounce of commen sense in all of DC.
#109

On July 19th, 2011 at 5:06 pm, SILVER BULLET said:

Senate Democrats sat down with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner

while House Republicans sat down with President Barack Obama.

Hmm. They need to find one another and negotiate together if they want a (one) solution.
#110

On July 19th, 2011 at 5:40 pm, hawkeye54 said:

I keep waiting for just one Politician left or right to propose ~~cutting funding for~~ eliminating departments like Education, Energy, Agriculture etc. A 69.9 BILLION dollar budget for a worthless department like Education is insane.

FIFY. Most Federal Depts are basically worthless and have no constitutional justification for existing.
#111

On July 19th, 2011 at 5:43 pm, hawkeye54 said:

No way we will ever be a second rate country. Despite the Good Comrade and his Ilk.

Though they keep trying with their utmost to turn us into a 3rd rate country. In a few parts they are coming close to succeeding.
#112

On July 19th, 2011 at 5:59 pm, ChapBix said:

On July 18th, 2011 at 10:58 pm, AmericanGirl30 said:

Seems like vats of boiling oil, devoted exclusively to them and bearing their names, would be too kind of a way to let Dingy Harry the Mortician and his ilk know that we don’t take kindly to what they have been doing.
#113

On July 19th, 2011 at 6:27 pm, ChapBix said:

On July 18th, 2011 at 9:41 pm, Pasadena Phil said:

Any word yet on what they plan on doing to the puppies?

The puppies will be appointed forthwith to replace the elite ruling class currently screwing everything up for the rest of us. As for the elite ruling class, they go out on the dung heap to smolder.
#114

On July 20th, 2011 at 3:55 pm, wckelly60 said:

Sheriff Buford T. Justice, a lawman of over thoity yeahs experience, had this to say about Senator Reid. “Moose twit!”