Though it was decades ago, I have never forgotten my first real-life lesson in naked extortion. It's how local governments work; when voters won't give you the tax increases you demand, retaliate by threatening to withhold the few legitimate government services they actually desire and need. i.e. Holding back police protection ... between midnight and 8 a.m. every day.
This is what we are seeing now on a cosmic scale with the debt-ceiling crisis in Washington, D.C.
Barack Obama and his administration's propaganda ministry (formerly known as the "mainstream media") constantly repeat the mantra that failure to raise the debt ceiling will result in "default." It's no longer a question to them; "default" is presented as a given in their dishonest little universe. There is no default. It's a lie.
Let's break it down one more time.
In his Marketwatch blog today, investment guru Kurt Brouwer explains what all honest economists readily concede – "The U.S. Treasury will not default
" – and he does so in a way that makes the ongoing deception crystal clear to any 8-year-old:
Q: What is a default?
A: In this case, a default would be the failure by the U.S. Treasury to make payments of principal or interest on its debt in a timely manner.
Q: In a given month how much does the Treasury owe as interest on its debt?
A: Roughly about $15-20 billion.
Q: How much revenue does the Treasury take in on average in a month?
A: Roughly about $200 billion.
Q: Are you saying the Treasury could pay interest on its debt 10 times over (or more) from monthly income?
A: Yes. Therefore the likelihood of not paying interest on its debt is zero.
Let's sum up so far: If you are telling people the U.S. government will automatically "default" if the debt ceiling isn't raised, you ARE lying.
Now upping the ante, Obama is threatening to withhold old people's Social Security checks
if he doesn't get his way in the current extortion – I mean, negotiation. Believe me, if he could threaten to eliminate police protection throughout America, and get away with it, he would probably do that too.
