The Politico article which we referred to in an earlier post and which listed 10 “great” quotes about the debt ceiling, did not include Senator Chuck Grassley. While those Republicans quoted deserve praise for their clarity we find our own Senator’s comments just as clear and quotable. Indeed we find them more compelling because he is a senior Republican member of the Senate Committee on Finance and former ranking member and chairman of that committee. He is also senior member of the Senate Committee on the Budget. Here is what Senator Grassley had to say as quoted and referred to here by Ed Tibbitts of the QC Times:
“If the definition of default is not paying your interest on the national debt, it seems to me that it’s just a matter of prioritizing,” Grassley said. “Pay the interest on the national debt, pay a lot of other things common sense says you need to pay, and then 20 percent you won’t be able to fund.”
Grassley was echoing an increasingly popular viewpoint among Republicans in Congress, and he, like others in his party, say the president has the authority to prioritize the nation’s debt.
So with prominent Republican Senators calling the default threat what it is, scare mongering, or a red herring, and having no real concerns that it will actually happen, why is Republican leadership allowing itself to be rolled by the threat?
Every utterance ought to contain words to the effect that President Obama is threatening to default on the debt when no such action is necessary, much less lawful. Republicans need to sustain the fight to deny funding to Obamacare in furtherance of protecting the family budget, preventing the denigration of our health care, and stopping the unsustainable growth of the federal budget. R Mall
