If Democrats and Republicans don’t make a deal to raise the debt ceiling, our whole way of life could come to an end!
Debtmageddon
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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Nice one.
This exactly one of the major aspects that has me interested in the debt ceiling, it is the litmus test on republican nature. If they are more stupid then they are evil, they may go through with it, even though their funders (and only true base) are the segment of the population that has the most to loose from it. If they are more evil then they are stupid, then this is all just a bluff as again, they would know that they and their true base have the most to loose by going through with it.
It is a little like being mugged on the street where you mugger threatens “give me your wallet, or I will set my pants on fire!”
“give me your wallet, or I will set my pants on fire!” is a pretty effective threat. Ever meet a poor person, someone? They use their combination of patheticness and self-destructiveness to shame you into giving them money.
My so called friends spent this economic downturn getting high and playing X-Box. Meanwhile, I’m buying all the drinks and continuously loaning them money that I never expect to be paid back. I’ve got a gaping hole in my upper left molar and I’m riding on at least two bald tires. Both of these could be easily fixed if I had a pay cycle where I could actually spend a dime on myself. This bleeding heart has been bled dry. Fuck the poor!
People talk about ‘our way of life’ ending like it’s such a bad thing…..who knows what intriguing new levels of human depravity we might experience in the years to come. This is a really clever cartoon, Ted. I don’t know if I’m understanding it correctly, but the smile on the homeless man’s face suggests that the people getting completely screwed right now might welcome ‘a new way of life.’
@Billy Mac….I’m all for fucking the poor if we could verify that they don’t have nasty diseases they could spread to the rest of us…(*sigh*…I type ‘us’ as if I have a job’)
I’m really confused as to why ALEC isn’t actively pushing the Repugs to get the debt ceiling raised.
@Someone…those who are struggling always have the most to lose. Warren Buffet could lose billions for a long time before he is in any real danger of destitution.
You understand the cartoon perfectly, Aggie.
When upper-class people worry that our whole way of life is threatened by this, that or the other menace, I always think of the many people oppressed by that way of life. Surely the homeless, for example, could only benefit from the end of this political and economic system.
Hummm…the guy in the toque looks a lot like Ben Bernanke
🙂
Oh scary stuff, honest. If the politicians don’t do something political, the world will end, oh no, the horror the horror. Oh wait, the whole global economy is nonsense, based on complete BS.
@Aggie_Dude, yes I understand and agree with your point, but we are actually talking about two different things being lost here. You are talking about money, and implicitly about other things that can be lost WITHIN a given system, and you are talking about a fixed percentage (i.e. if Warren Buffet lost 70% of everything he owned, billions, he would still be fabulously rich, where as if someone struggling to survive lost 70% of everything he owned, thousands at most, he might die without the assistance of others). You are right, and this is absolutely true.
What I am talking about is the loss of the system itself, and a % loss that scales exponentially with class. If confidence in the dollar disintegrates due to the debt ceiling being breached for too long, sure it will become harder to buy food, but the people on the very top stand to loose basically all of their international purchasing power (and therefore influence) doing substantial damage to all the transnational corporations stationed in the US who use the dollar power as leverage internationally (this is lots of them). A significant breach of the debt ceiling without immediate damage control would severely undermine the very systems the American aristocracy need to even exist, let alone be wealthy. This is something very different from loosing a fixed % of one’s net worth.
But also it is about perception. A lot of the wealthy don’t even understand your point. So even if this were about a fixed % of worth, the wealthy STILL view it as a greater loss to themselves then the poor. Thus the mega rich would still discourage any actual action among their stooges (like say the Republicans) to follow through with such a course of action. Hence their perception of the weight of the loss on themselves maters more then any reality of the situation in spite of the truth you point out.
Debt-ceiling «discussion» ? Just another way of letting the Chinese know that the US government could default on all that money (~ 2 x 10^12) USD that is owed the them….
Henri
The debt ceiling is meaningless theater, and the current folderol no more than empty posturing.
The Public Debt Law of 1941, embodied in 31 USC 3101, which is what codifies a national debt limit. That law states that:
“The face amount of obligations issued under this chapter and the face amount of obligations whose principal and interest are guaranteed by the United States Government (except guaranteed obligations held by the Secretary of the Treasury) may not be more than [some arbitrary huge number] . . . ”
Please take careful note of the words “EXCEPT guaranteed obligations held by the Secretary of The Treasury”. By undeniably clear law as passed by Congress, such obligations are NOT constrained by any so-called debt limit.