One of the most interesting interventions while I was away was from the UK's Liberal Democrat cabinet minister Vince Cable. He said the world's economy was being put in peril by "a few right-wing nutters" in the American Congress.I've been watching Chris Matthews and Lawrence O'Donnell tonight (as usual). I think the President should just state flat-out that he's not going to let the country go down the tubes, that it would be a dereliction of his sworn duty as president, and that if Congress doesn't pass a debt-ceiling in a few days, he'll intervene and raise the debt ceiling himself, no strings attached. I've read up on this, and it sounds perfectly reasonable to me. (See here.) We can't keep kicking this can down the road [as even Obama said later in his speech].
Don't know how long the speech will last, but the Naples show will repeat at midnight (but also next week, I'm sure). I'll watch it one way or the other, even if I watch the last half at 9:30 and the first half at midnight. (I really look forward to watching these shows.)
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Well, the speech was about 17 minutes long. He called for a "balanced approach" to the debt-ceiling legislation (i.e., including revenues and not just cuts) and asked that if we agreed with him, we were to let our members of Congress know. I surely will. He talked about the intransigence of the Tea Partiers (not by name) and how basically un-American it was (i.e., not to entertain compromise), and warned of the disaster that would ensue should the U.S. ever default on its financial obligations. And just kicking the can down the road could in itself bring on disaster, with all the uncertainty roiling the markets. See here ("John Boehner Debt Ceiling Plan May Still Trigger S&P Downgrade: Report").
Clearly, however, the market isn't enamored with going through the same political drama once more. As The New York Times' Nate Silver noted, the Dow Jones futures dropped sharply during the course of Obama's and Boehner's speech.Back to Naples.
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