{"id":717,"date":"2011-08-08T07:00:03","date_gmt":"2011-08-08T11:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/philosophicalfragments\/?p=717"},"modified":"2011-08-08T07:00:03","modified_gmt":"2011-08-08T11:00:03","slug":"political-quotes-of-the-day-debt-ceiling-and-standard-and-poors-special-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/2011\/08\/08\/political-quotes-of-the-day-debt-ceiling-and-standard-and-poors-special-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"Political Quotes of the Day: Debt-Ceiling and Standard and Poor's Special Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I\u2019m going to begin a series that I\u2019ll try to post every day. \u00a0It will be called Quotes of the Day. \u00a0It will take quotations from both sides of the aisle, and link to some of the better commentary on the day. \u00a0The viewpoints represented below are not necessarily (and in some cases obviously not) my own. \u00a0Enjoy:<\/p>\n

Senator Tom Coburn<\/strong>: \u201cFor decades, political careerism has trumped statesmanship in Washington,\u201d Coburn said in a statement yesterday. \u201cBoth parties have done what is safe, not what is right. The dysfunction in Washington is the belief that we can live beyond our means forever. We can\u2019t.\u201d \u00a0Link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Former Senator Alan Simpson<\/strong>, on the S&P downgrade: \u201cIt ought to push [Congress] more toward reality and the reality is if you spend a buck and borrow 41 cents, you have to be very stupid.\u201d \u00a0Link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Robert Samuelson<\/strong>: \u201cAlthough Obama said he was willing to trim \u2018entitlements\u2019 \u2014 presumably, Social Security and Medicare \u2014 he never laid out specific proposals or sought public support for them\u2026Even if Obama had been more aggressive, he probably wouldn\u2019t have carried most liberals, who adamantly oppose cuts. They regard Social Security and Medicare as sacrosanct. Not a penny is to be trimmed from benefits. \u00a0This is an extreme, even fanatical stance. Social Security and Medicare do create a safety net for many millions of poor and near-poor retirees. But for millions of wealthier retirees, they are handouts. Liberals\u2019 unwillingness to admit and act on this distinction has long stifled meaningful budget debate. This would have doomed a bigger agreement.\u201d \u00a0Link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Paul Krugman<\/strong>: \u201cBefore downgrading U.S. debt, S.& P. sent a preliminary draft of its press release to the U.S. Treasury. Officials there quickly spotted a $2 trillion\u00a0error<\/a> in S.& P.\u2019s calculations. And the error was the kind of thing any budget expert should have gotten right. After discussion, S.& P. conceded that it was wrong \u2014 and downgraded America anyway, after removing some of the economic analysis from its report.\u201d \u00a0Link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Walter Russell Mead<\/strong>, commenting on the New York Times\u2019 apparent astonishment that Rick Perry and others at \u2018The Response\u2019 prayed to Jesus Christ: \u201cShocking.\u00a0 And in Texas. What next?\u00a0 High school football players praying before a big game?\u00a0 Coaches praying with them, even though their salaries are paid by taxpayers?\u00a0 Clearly, we are just one short step from witch burnings and a worse-than-Iranian theocracy.\u201d \u00a0Link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

John P. Judis<\/strong>, demonstrating he\u2019s never actually read Kierkegaard\u2019s\u00a0The Sickness Unto Death<\/em>: \u201cSome economists and conservative politicians have swallowed the laissez-faire Kool-Aid, and simply don\u2019t get it. In some quarters, rampant confusion prevails. But with a liberal like Klein, I suspect that despair\u2014what Kierkegaard called \u2018the sickness unto death\u2019\u2014over getting Congress to agree to a dramatic boost in government spending is really behind his thinking there is no economic solution.\u201d \u00a0Link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Leonard J. Pitts:<\/strong> \u201cIt is time Obama quit being surprised by the predictable, time he understood this is not politics as usual, not Ronald Reagan and Tip O\u2019Neill snarling at one another by day and having drinks by night, like that old cartoon where the sheepdog and the coyote punch a time clock to signal the beginning and end of their hostilities. It is not Bill Clinton living in a state of permanent investigation, nor even George W. Bush being called incompetent all day every day.\u00a0No, this is a new thing, repulsion at a visceral, indeed, mitochondrial, level. Obama\u2019s denigrators are appalled by the newness of him, the liberality of him, the exoticness of him and, yes, and the blackness of him. \u00a0Link<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m going to begin a series that I\u2019ll try to post every day. \u00a0It will be called Quotes of the Day. \u00a0It will take quotations from both sides of the aisle, and link to some of the better commentary on the day. \u00a0The viewpoints represented below are not necessarily (and in some cases obviously not) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1351,135,153,164,264,310,331],"class_list":["post-717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-barack-obama","tag-conservative-politics","tag-debt-ceiling","tag-downgrade","tag-liberal-politics","tag-obama","tag-president-obama"],"yoast_head":"\nPolitical Quotes of the Day: Debt-Ceiling and Standard and Poor's Special Edition - Philosophical Fragments<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I'm going to begin a series that I'll try to post every day. \u00a0It will be called Quotes of the Day. \u00a0It will take quotations from both sides of the aisle,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/2011\/08\/08\/political-quotes-of-the-day-debt-ceiling-and-standard-and-poors-special-edition\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Political Quotes of the Day: Debt-Ceiling and Standard and Poor's Special Edition - 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