Meant to call Robert Ariail today and suggest a cartoon idea to him. It would be based on the classic National Lampoon cover seen at right. Only it would have Jim DeMint holding the pistol to the head of the U.S. economy (some variation on Uncle Sam, perhaps), saying, “If you don’t do my will, the old guy gets it!”
I don’t know if Robert would have done it or not, but it’s the kind of thing I would have been eager to suggest to him in the morning when we worked together. Not that he necessarily would have listened. He probably would have come up with a better idea. But we’d enjoy the brainstorming process…
What brought this on? Oh, this story in the paper this morning:
DeMint to fight debt limit hike
Senator vows to block measure unless future federal deficits banned
WASHINGTON — Sen. Jim DeMint, who has wrought chaos in Congress over earmarks, immigration and health care, is preparing to launch a crusade that would make those fights look tame.
DeMint, a Republican from South Carolina early in his second term, is vowing to block any vote on raising the U.S. debt ceiling unless Congress moves to amend the Constitution by banning future federal deficits.
“I will oppose any attempt to vote to raise the limit on our $14 trillion debt until Congress passes the balanced-budget amendment,” DeMint told McClatchy.
DeMint’s stance puts him on a collision course with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who is warning congressional leaders of cataclysmic consequences if Congress fails to authorize a higher debt limit by mid-May, when he predicts the current $14.3 trillion ceiling will be reached.
“Defaulting on legal obligations of the United States would lead to sharply higher interest rates and borrowing costs, declining home values and reduced retirement savings for Americans,” Geithner wrote last week in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
“Default would cause a financial crisis potentially more severe than the crisis from which we are only now starting to recover,” Geithner wrote….
Our junior senator is really something, isn’t he?
I wonder what he’s really thinking. Does he really believe that he WOULD do it, and destroy the U.S. credit rating, pulling the world down with us?
Does he think everybody ELSE believes he would, and will therefore do his will?
Does power mean this much to him?
Hey, Jim, I’m really disturbed about the towering U.S. debt, too. I have been for as long as I can remember, and never more than now. To be racking up this kind of debt when we aren’t in an existential war (and folks, the proportion of GNP going to military activities in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya is pretty small compared, say, to the kind of national effort required in WWII — or at the height of the Cold War) is pretty scary, and a testament to a lack of political will, courage and wisdom.
But the reason it’s a concern is what it could do to our economy, how it could substantially and materially affect our futures and those of our children and grandchildren. It’s not that it offends us ideologically or something.
And yet, in service of his ideology, he wants to threaten to do something potentially every bit as damaging as out-of-control debt.
Pretty scary.
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I’m curious — why is it that earmarks were bad, but riders were good?
Does he still have a handler?
Sen. DeMint is more than scary; he’s downright terrifying. His “I’ve made up my mind and won’t be confused by the facts” attitude has no place in our national government.
The reason why he doesn’t want to be President is that he is limited to eight years in office. What you gonna do after you’ve been President? Go back to the Senate and live off the taxpayers dime?
I don’t think so. Instead he wants to be Senator for life
Jim Demint(ed) is a spoiled brat; unwilling to compromise as adults often have to do. Fortunately, we avoided a government shutdown.
Demint is as dangerous as Newt Gingrich.
Just curious, Brad, is Senator DeMint as well qualified to be a U.S. Senator from SC as Lindsey is?
If not, what does he lack that Lindsey does not, and how should we know?
Still think the 2 parties are the same? DeMint is actually pretty middle of the pack in the GOP. But he seems like a raving lunatic in the world of reality.
We would not be discussing Jim DeMint if the good people of South Carolina stopped voting for idiots only concerned about self interest and personal power. Get it?
Oddly, Karen, many people view his position as a virtue. “Convictions” seem to be good, regardless of how contrary to fact.
Why don’t they just raise the limit to “eleventy bazillion dollars”? I don’t understand why asking the government to act like adults when it comes to overspending is anything less than the best course of action. It’s not like they haven’t known the day was coming for months… Tome to get serious…
If there is no intent by Congress to be limited by the debt limit, maybe we should stop calling it the debt limit.
Didn’t Lindsey just do the same thing over money the study for the port of Charleston?
Did anyone see the piece in Huffington Post about his ridiculous behavior?
Lindsey could have done a lot more for this state and himself if he had changed party before he went off the deep end. Playing both sides against the middle certainly appears to be a sure way for a politician to implode.
Yeah, DeMint is just plain sick. But, the C Streeter’s God is on his side. This is part of their theology. The group was founded in the 30s to fight the New Deal. Isn’t that exactly what we are seeing?
Who said this?
““I released the holds I had placed on Senate business because I believe we are making good progress,”Senator XXXXXX said in a statement on Friday. “I’m optimistic about the progress being made that will ensure the deepening study will be allowed to proceed this fiscal year.”
Placing holds on the Senate business to get his way on an issue? The horror…
He’s a Senator. From South Carolina. And its not Jim DeMint.
Mmmm… and it’s not DeMint?
That’s a toughie…
By the way… Standard & Poor’s cut its outlook on the triple-A rating of U.S. debt to negative.
That happened today.
How can anyone with a straight face say that either one of our United State’s senators has one lick of integrity. Both of them are destructive hypocrits.
Demint is perfect for most of South Carolina.
He’s going to hold to his position even if everyone, including his own family, suffers for it.