Republicans at Work – NOT Taking Care of Business

By | | ,

By Patricia L Johnson and Richard E Walrath

Following is an excerpt from a letter written February 7, 2014 to John A. Boehner, Speaker of the House from Department of Treasury Secretary, Jacob J. Lew.

“As you know, the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2014 temporarily suspended the statutory debt limit through today, February 7, 2014. Because Congress has not acted to approve normal borrowing authority, Treasury must begin implementing extraordinary measures that enable us, on a temporary basis, to protect the full faith and credit of the United States and to continue paying the nation’s bills.”.

The reason the paragraph began ‘as you know’ is due to the fact numerous communications have been sent by the Treasury Secretary to the Speaker of the House during the months preceding February 7, 2014 regarding the February 7, 2014 suspension date, yet our ‘do nothing Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives’ has once again done what they do best, which is NOTHING.

What is the debt ceiling and why does it matter whether or not it’s raised?

The definition from Treasury follows:

“The debt limit is the total amount of money that the United States government is authorized to borrow to meet its existing legal obligations, including Social Security and Medicare benefits, military salaries, interest on the national debt, tax refunds, and other payments. The debt limit does not authorize new spending commitments. It simply allows the government to finance existing legal obligations that Congresses and presidents of both parties have made in the past.”

U.S. Debt as of February 6, 2014 follows:

To put it bluntly, the only thing our do nothing Congress would be doing is approving payment of obligations that have already been approved. It’s a no brainer on their part. There is nothing to think about, the debt limit must be raised because the U.S. has to cover its obligations. It is not a complicated issue, yet they attempt to make it one whenever they have the opportunity.

According to Reuters “House Majority Leader Eric Cantor on Friday left a spot open in his weekly House floor schedule for “possible consideration of the legislation related to the debt limit” on Wednesday.

“Possible consideration”? What is wrong with these people?

We still haven’t recovered from Republicans playing games with the debt ceiling. On August 5, 2011 Standard and Poor’s lowered the long term credit rating of the United States one notch from AAA to AA+. On June 10, 2013 S&P revised their long-term rating from negative to stable, but did not increase the reduced sovereign credit rating. It remains at AA+.

Since 1960 the debt ceiling in this country has been raised a total of 78 times, 49 times under Republican administrations and 29 times under Democratic administrations. Why does it become such a major issue for this administration?

President Obama is well past the stage of crying “uncle” when the Republicans make absurd demands in order to do their job. It’s time for Republicans in Congress to get over the fact there is a black man sitting in the oval office and do the job they were hired by the voters to do and that is to get this country moving in the right direction, not see how many obstacles they can put in place on our path to progress.

© 2014 Patricia L Johnson and Richard E Walrath

Patricia Johnson
Latest posts by Patricia Johnson (see all)
Tagged , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

5 Responses to Republicans at Work – NOT Taking Care of Business

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • Recent Articles Posted

    • The Teacher from the Past—A True Story 
      My business partner texted me one afternoon while he was doing some paperwork at our business, The Mayfield Academy of Self-Defense. Dan wrote, “A little old lady stopped in at the school and said she knew you.” I texted back asking if she had left her name. “Mrs. Gronick.”  “Mrs. Gronick, ...
    • How To Survive and Safely Enjoy Hiking in the Woods
      Every year people disappear in the woods without much of a trace. Most get lost or sustain an immobilizing injury. Many of these people are either not found in time to survive their injuries or in some cases, they’re simply never found, even after extensive searches.  Of course, in certain areas, ...
    • Winter in America—Thin Blue Line and Do Something
      Winter in America is sometimes unbearable but fortunately, most of us will hunker down in the warmth, comfort, and safety of our homes. But not everyone. Especially not the people experiencing the nightmares I’ll mention here. In the United States, about 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 13 boys ...
    • The Simple Best Thing You Can Do To Not Become A Victim
      The mother of a murdered girl said, “It’s easy for people to say she should have slept with pepper spray under her pillows or taken other security precautions, but people don’t do those things unless they’ve been victims.”    It's a fact that people don’t take regular security precautions unless they’re reminded ...
    • The Streets are filled with Vipers
      In Bob Dylan’s song, ‘Don’t Fall Apart on me Tonight’ he sings a line that explains a major reason why crime is rampant in the U.S. “The streets are filled with vipers who’ve lost all ray of hope.” Bingo! The genius got it right . . .  almost. He wrote that verse ...
    • Women Taking Charge: A Guide to Violent Attack Survival—Part 2—Weapons
      I just talked to a personal security expert who I respect more than just about any other expert including the loads of experts who have sprouted up on-line. I’ve known this expert for decades and he talks reality. He’s traveled the globe doing security and bodyguard work and has done ...
    • Bones Heal, Pain is Temporary and Chicks Dig Scars—Dealing with Fear
      Years after famous motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel retired he had a business disagreement with someone in Geauga County, Ohio. Geauga County is home to several small police departments and my friend worked for one of them. One afternoon he told me that he had to make an official phone call ...
    • Feet Don’t Fail Me Now and How Not To Get Shot
      Even though violent crime and specifically, shootings are on the rise the odds are good that you’ll never be shot at. But if you could learn simple methods to handle shootings, just in case, in about five minutes, wouldn’t you take the time? Continue reading for that five-minute training that ...
    • What’s In a Name? (5 to Survive) Your Survival, That’s What
      For years, I’ve written articles and done countless seminars on how not to become victims of crime. Throughout those years, I’ve also listened to many others talking on the same topic and one thing that always bothered me was the two words that they almost always said but hardly ever ...
    • Are You a Coward?
      A famous Danish theologian, philosopher, poet and religious author, Soren Kierkegaard once wrote, “Once you label me, you negate me.” Negate means to nullify or make ineffective. In his quote, he’s saying that once you or I are labeled as anything—stupid, brute, irresponsible, brave or a coward, that’s what people ...