I\u2019m not sure what droll engraver put the words \u201cIn God We Trust\u201d on the back of the $50 bill\u2026 right above the Capitol Dome.<\/p>\n
Obviously, we can trust in God.\u00a0 That goes without saying.\u00a0\u00a0 But\u2026 trust the people who work inside the Capitol Building?\u00a0 You gotta be kidding.<\/p>\n
The latest joke is the arguments over the debt limit.<\/p>\n
Last week, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said her department will begin taking \u201cextraordinary measures\u201d to prevent the United States government from defaulting on its payment obligations, as lawmakers in Washington jockey for position in the debt limit showdown.<\/p>\n
\u201cExtraordinary measures\u201d will no doubt be more useful than \u201cordinary measures\u201d.\u00a0 Because they are \u201cextra\u201d. \u201cExtraordinary\u201d is probably what a government ought to be, in this situation. We can only hope God is paying attention.<\/p>\n
Secretary Yellen says she thinks her department can juggle the books for a few months, before the proverbial \u2018something\u2019 hits the fan.\u00a0 Apparently, she\u2019s the main person in charge of the over-limit credit card.<\/p>\n
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy \u2014 who won the House gavel after 15 rounds of voting \u2014 has indicated that Republicans could push for cuts to the federal budget, but he said they \u201cdon\u2019t want to put any fiscal problems through our economy, and we won\u2019t.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 He didn\u2019t clarify who, exactly, he means by \u201cwe\u201d.\u00a0 There doesn\u2019t seem to be an obvious \u201cwe\u201d in Washington at the moment.<\/p>\n
Some people who might consider themselves to be \u201cwe\u201d are opposed to unrestrained federal spending, while other people who might consider themselves to be \u201cwe\u201d want our federal government to keep writing an endless string of IOUs and selling Treasury notes to Japanese and Chinese investors.<\/p>\n
Unlike our United States government, I\u2019ve been pretty careful about staying under my personal debt limit, which is considerably lower than the government\u2019s debt limit.<\/p>\n
I find the best way to stay under my debt limit is to stop buying stuff.\u00a0 I\u2019ve had to learn that, the hard way.\u00a0 Which is not to suggest that my credit card company is happy about my efforts. They would probably love to see me go over my debt limit, so they could jack up the interest rate on my card.<\/p>\n
But I wonder if the United States government has learned anything, the hard way?<\/p>\n
If I know anything about credit card companies, they are probably urging the government to begin \u201cextraordinary measures\u201d to increase their credit card limits. That would be, actually, the taxpayers\u2019<\/em><\/strong> limits, since you and I are on the hook, ultimately, for the debt.\u00a0 Although it seems like debt limits are not a real thing for the United States government in the same way they are for us ordinary mortals.<\/p>\n The aforementioned Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, wrote to Congress last week:<\/p>\n \u201cI am writing to inform you that beginning on Thursday, January 19, 2023, the outstanding debt of the United States is projected to reach the statutory limit\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Like it\u2019s no big deal to exceed a $31 trillion debt limit.\u00a0 Like, just another normal Thursday, with the government spending money it doesn\u2019t have.\u00a0 Like, money grows on trees.<\/p>\n If I were writing a note \u2014 for example, to my wife \u2014 informing her that we were about the reach our debt limit on January 19, the language might be a bit more harsh than what Secretary Yellen used. Maybe even \u2018extraordinarily\u2019 harsh.<\/p>\n Coincidentally, January 19, 2023 is also National Popcorn Day,<\/a> according to the U.S. Census Bureau website.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not sure if that\u2019s related to Janet Yellen\u2019s prediction about exceeding the debt limit.<\/p>\n Anticipation is half the fun, as a number of highly intelligent people have reminded us, and as even more people have shared as memes.\u00a0 I am anticipating a flurry of entertaining excuses coming from the White House and Congress on January 19, and plenty of sarcastic and droll commentary on late night TV.<\/p>\n Break out the popcorn!\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t Louis Cannon\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n I\u2019m not sure what droll engraver put the words \u201cIn God We Trust\u201d on the back of the $50 bill\u2026 right above the Capitol Dome. Obviously, we can trust in God.\u00a0 That goes without saying.\u00a0\u00a0 But\u2026 trust the people who work inside the Capitol Building?\u00a0 You gotta be kidding. The latest joke is the arguments …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[161],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42510"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Louis](\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e2ccf4fc2b03a98f52a19dede693ec21?s=96&d=mm&r=g\")
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"