Being the Change I Wish to See

Grover Norquist

Barack Obama is President of the most powerful country on the planet, but he’s not our dictator. Grover Norquist is our dictator. He carried out a very deft coup. He hasn’t taken over the government, but he has taken over enough people in it to paralyze it.

Norquist’s power and control over conservative Republicans and a few conservative Democrats far outweigh any other form of influence they face as legislators. They seem to truly fear him and what they believe he can do to them. Or they are delusional enough to believe their ideology over the realities of the country’s economic position.

Norquist’s pledge is getting more allegiance and compliance than the oath these legislators swore to uphold, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. That could be viewed as treason through some lenses.

The actions of conservatives, especially House Republicans, over raising the debt ceiling show they do not represent the people who elected them. Polls taken last week show 80% of all Americans want the debt ceiling raised for at least 18 months. This will insure stability for the economy to recover without short-term political interruptions to raise the debt ceiling again in a few months.

The debt ceiling has to be raised for at least 18 months. Otherwise, all those partisan fights will make everyone uncertain in this fragile economy, so no one will move. No one will start spending, lending, hiring, etc. to make the economy recover and grow. The markets also signaled they will downgrade our bond and credit ratings if a short-term debt ceiling is passed.

Norquist’s subjects seem quite prepared to plunge this country off an economic cliff that will have us in a deep recession or a second Great Depression just to uphold their pledge to never raise taxes.

If a default happens, taxes will rise on everything to service the higher interest rate we will have to pay on the debt. In fact, all interest rates in the entire economy will rise. The cost of everything will go up, and the American people will have gotten nothing for the extra money we will have to spend.

We can service the high amount of debt we currently have because we are paying almost no interest on any of it. It’s not all about how much you owe, it’s also about what you’re paying to borrow it.

Conservative pledge-signers are playing an ideological game that doesn’t work in the real world.

• If they don’t raise the debt ceiling (do nothing) and we default, taxes will go up and they will violate the Norquist pledge.
• If they can’t get a strict spending cut and cap bill through Congress and get the President to sign it, we will default, everything will go up, and they will violate the Norquist pledge.
• If they work with Democrats and the President on a balanced bill of cuts and revenue increases, they will violate the Norquist pledge.

The only action they can take that won’t violate the Norquist pledge is to pass a clean, one-sentence debt ceiling bill that both raises the debt ceiling amount and specifies a minimum time period of at least 18 months. The President will sign it.

They may lose their constituents if they choose default or their cuts are too draconian. A default will cause more job losses (~700,000) and the economy will shrink (~10%). Everything will cost more for no good reason, or they will be seen as extremely irresponsible for putting the country in this position. Constituents may well vote them out of office for not doing the job they were sent to Washington to do: create jobs and fix the economy.

Conservative signers of Dictator Grover Norquist’s pledge have dug themselves into a deep hole, and now it’s raining hard. So far, they would rather drown for their Dear Leader than act responsibly and do their jobs.

This is exactly why we are a nation ruled by laws and reason, and not pledges and allegiances to one person’s or one small group’s ideology. It’s why our Founders made this a republic instead of a monarchy or dictatorship.

Any pledge any legislator signs or swears concerning their elected position, other than his or her oath of office, is in direct violation of that oath of office. When it interferes with a legislator’s ability to perform his or her duties, he or she should be removed from office by any legal means available.

The pledge is interfering with too many legislator’s ability to perform their jobs, so Grover Norquist has effectively overthrown the proper function of our government. That makes him a dictator.

Technorati Tags: Dictator of America, Grover Norquist, House Republicans in denial, King of America, national debt ceiling, Tea Party Caucus

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In response to a comment on my post Can the President legally raise the debt ceiling? a reader raised a very good question. It’s inflammatory, but I’m posting it as a verbatim quote. Please argue with the commenter about his/her language.

I have not read anywhere of a timeline if the prez raises the debt ceiling? If he invokes the 14th Admendment, HOW LONG DOES THE CEILING LAST??????? Six months? A year? Until it’s struck down by the neo-fascist supreme court majority? –venire23

I believe the President could raise the debt ceiling by invoking his emergency powers and the 14th Amendment. (Full disclosure, I’m not a lawyer, let alone a Constitutional lawyer). Here’s my argument.

The President would invoke the 14th Amendment if Congress fails for any reason to get a debt ceiling bill to his desk before midnight on August 1, 2011. At midnight, the date will change to August 2, and the U.S. will officially be in default. The President will therefore be compelled to act immediately.

The President’s debt ceiling would remain in force until Congress passes a new debt ceiling of greater or equal amount and time period to the President’s amount and time period. If Congress tries to pass a debt ceiling bill that doesn’t meet the President’s demands, he can veto the bill.

There is no precedent on this issue. There is a precedent of use of presidential extraordinary action. President Harry S. Truman invoked emergency powers and took extraordinary measures to avert a steel workers’ strike at the start of the Korean War. He was sued in 1952 and eventually lost, but between the time he nationalized the steel mills and the case was settled, his actions avoided the strike and the war was over.

There is no specific precedent of invoking the 14th Amendment to raise the debt ceiling. Section 4 was included in the 14th Amendment to make sure the Union’s Civil War debts were paid and the Confederacy’s debts were not paid with federal money.

I argue that the Supreme Court would not strike the President’s actions down because:

• The President has emergency powers to step in and protect or save the country in case of a crisis, which this would be.
• The 14th Amendment clearly states America will pay all its debts without question. That means the Supreme Court would have to uphold it no matter what they want to do.
• When there is a conflict between a law and the Constitution, the Constitution trumps the law.
• There are 2 conflicting laws in force at the same time: the budget law, passed by Congress; and the debt ceiling law, also passed by Congress. The Supreme Court would have to revoke one law to uphold the other. They would not revoke the budget law to uphold the debt ceiling law. If they did that, the entire budget would be revoked and nothing would be paid. The country and economy would come to a screeching halt. That would be unthinkable.
• The President would have to wait until the crisis becomes real, at midnight on August 2. By the time the House sues the President over invoking emergency powers and gets it to the courts, they will have (hopefully) realized the error of their ways and fix the problem, because we’ll be in a depression.
• Therefore, the courts will likely refuse to hear the case at all.
• The President will have averted economic Armageddon. He will be viewed as a hero, and the House Republicans will be the villains.
• The Roberts Court would not want to give President Obama such a huge trophy by dragging this out any longer than necessary, and would likely not hear the case.

As far as legal action against President Obama is concerned and the House’s desire to impeach him:

The plaintiffs in those cases [see full article] were able to demonstrate standing, the legal doctrine under which parties must show they are harmed in order to bring a case in court. Anyone suing Obama over the debt ceiling would confront that same burden.

It wouldn’t be enough for a plaintiff to claim that Obama is overstepping his authority or acting illegally. “In order to sue, you have to have injury in fact. The touchstone issue is, can someone get to court?” said Jonathan Zasloff, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

That same standard would apply if a party pre-emptively filed a lawsuit to stop Obama invoking the 14th Amendment.

Challengers might argue that relying on the 14th Amendment to raise the debt ceiling qualified as an abuse of executive power. But it would be extremely difficult for them to show that they would suffer specific harm such as lost money, property or rights, legal experts said. –Jonathan Zasloff, law professor at UCLA

There should be no debt ceiling law. Congress should repeal it. If a budget is passed into law, it’s deficit should be automatically covered by the same law. The deficit is required to be covered because that money has already been spent. That’s where and how it should be handled, in my opinion.

What is your argument for or against the President’s use of emergency powers?

Technorati Tags: debt ceiling talks continue, national debt ceiling, U.S. Constitution 14th Amendment

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