David Stockman was not our cup of tea back in the day. As Director of the Office of Management and Budget under Reagan we thought his statements to the press during and after his tenure could have been delivered more in the demeanor of loyal dissent then it came off. He became the favorite of Reagan antagonists both within and without the Republican Party. He delivered a few commentaries that Democrats loved to quote, not in context of course, but one liners they could use as a cudgel while endorsing his expertise. We suspect that Democrat operatives will not be quoting him regarding the current so called debt ceiling “crisis.”
In an interview with Lauren Lyster of the Yahoo Finance blog Daily Ticker, Stockman speaks with the authority of having run the OMB and having been through many so called government shutdowns. He explains that the President has the authority to prioritize the inflow of revenue, of which there is plenty to pay interest on the debt, and avoid any default.
Furthermore, that because the ongoing receipts into the Treasury are extensive enough, the President can also prioritize payments to Social Security recipients and others the Democrats are trying to scare and use as tools in their obstinate effort to inculcate Obamacare regardless of general public dissatisfaction. He is very clear and convincing that the talk of government default is a red herring. He encourages TEA Party Republicans to use the debt ceiling to extract concessions from the Democrats on Obamacare. Listen to the very compelling four minute interview segment here.
The bogus nature of the debt ceiling default scare being perpetrated by Democrats and big-government Republicans are also articulated in this article in RedState and also via the financial publication The Daily Crux entitled Shutdown update: Why there is no chance of a U.S. default unless Obama chooses it.
The usual suspects are making great hay out of the comments of an economist associated with the financial firm Morgan-Stanly raising grave concern over the prospects of default. In one related article available here, the M-S economist Vincent Reinhart refers to a dilemma (imagined) faced by Obama’s Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew to the effect he must chose what law to break in order to avoid default and save the country, unless Republicans roll over. By our reading the laws cited as supposedly creating the dilemma more so compel Obama and Lew to do as outlined by Stockman and others and prioritize incoming revenue under existing legal authority.
It is all bogus theater and Republican leadership should hold firm to protect the country from Obamacare and Obamanomics. Doug Kelly and R Mall
