Earlier today, White House Dossier’s Keith Koffler noted that it would be extremely bad optics for Obama to throw a lavish birthday bash for himself so soon after a government default….
…the president is planning an extravagant fundraising bash Aug. 3 at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, including a birthday concert teeming with celebrities and – for couples contributing $35,800 – a private dinner with the president. All this just one day after the government is scheduled to run out of cash!
Undoubtedly, the sight of so much money getting thrown around and dissolute stars crooning to Obama will make a stirring contrast with a federal government bankruptcy featuring unpaid government workers, seniors and soldiers wondering how they’ll afford the groceries, shuttered national parks, and angry investors trying to cash out their Treasury Bills.
If the government defaults, you can be sure the birthday bacchanal will do much more to harm Obama’s reelection prospects than help them.***
The excitement kicks off at 4 pm with a concert that may feature singer Jennifer Hudson and other A-List stars, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
To show that hope and change is for everyone, a pauper section will be included for those contributing a measly $50. But the general admission ticket is $200, and the more you give, the more you get.
For $1,000, you can sit in the rich people’s area with easy access to alcohol. And for $10,000 you not only get a great seat, but a photo with The Birthday Boy.
At some point later in the day, it must have dawned on the White House that this wouldn’t look too good for the Birthday Boy.
(ABC News) — August 2 is the date the US risks defaulting on its good faith and credit. August 4 is President Obama’s landmark 50th birthday.
And August 3 is on hold for Presidential travel.
It is the night that the Obama 2012 campaign has planned a splashy fundraising celebration in the President’s hometown Chicago. The historic Aragon ballroom on the north side of the city is booked for a concert and party. The Chicago Sun Times, which was the first to report on the event, says Jennifer Hudson may be lined up to perform.
But senior White House officials tell ABC News the party would go forward only if the deficit negotiations and deadline to raise the debt limit ceiling have been resolved.
***
The White House seems confident a deal will be made because if one isn’t, we all know that would be a catastrophe of epic proportions – or at least as bad as the Republicans’ short term deal.
… is there any policy reason why Obama won’t agree to a short-term deal or is this really as horribly cynical as it looks — that he simply refuses to do anything that might complicate his reelection campaign, even if that means a default by the United States? Jake Tapper pressed Carney about that in today’s briefing — which is worse, default or a short-term deal? — and Carney actually said, no joke, “Both are bad; I can’t choose which is worse for you.”
***
…there’s no reason to think Debt Ceiling II would necessarily be bloodier than Debt Ceiling I. The only sure thing is that it would take away time from Obama to fundraise and campaign, which, I guess, is worth gambling the full faith and credit of the U.S. government on.
Verum Serum, Ace, and Charles Krauthammer have been making the same case.
See if you can detect a note of disgust in Charles Krauthammer’s tone as he asks, what in the heck took Obama so long:
President Barack Obama is demanding a big long-term budget deal. He won’t sign anything less, he warns, asking, “If not now, when?”
How about last December, when he ignored his own debt commission’s recommendations? How about February, when he presented a budget that increases debt by $10 trillion over the next decade? How about April, when he sought a debt-ceiling increase with zero debt reduction attached?
All of a sudden he’s a born-again budget balancer prepared to bravely take on his party by making deep cuts in entitlements. Really? Name one. He’s been saying forever that he’s prepared to discuss, engage, converse about entitlement cuts. But never once has he publicly proposed a single structural change to any entitlement.
Hasn’t the White House leaked that he’s prepared to raise the Medicare age or change the cost-of-living calculation?
Anonymous talk is cheap. Leaks are designed to manipulate. Offers are floated and disappear.
Say it, Mr. President. Give us one single structural change in entitlements. In public.
As part of the pose as the forward-looking grown-up rising above all the others who play politics, Obama insists upon a long-term deal. And what is Obama’s definition of long-term? Surprise: An agreement that gets him past Nov. 6, 2012.
Nothing could be more political. It’s like his Afghan surge wind-down date. September 2012 has no relation to any military reality on the ground. It is designed solely to position Obama favorably going into the last weeks of his re-election campaign.
***
A long-term deal or nothing? The Republican House should immediately pass a short-term debt-ceiling hike of $500 billion containing $500 billion in budget cuts. That would give us about five months to work on something larger.
The fat-cat tax breaks (those corporate jets) that Obama’s talking points endlessly recycle? Republicans should call for urgent negotiations on tax reform along the lines of Simpson-Bowles that, in one option, strips out annually $1.1 trillion of deductions, credits and loopholes while lowering tax rates across the board to a top rate of 23 percent.
The president says he wants tax reform, doesn’t he? Well, Mr. President, here are five months to do so.
Dare him to veto — or the Democratic Senate to block — a short-term debt-limit increase.
This is certainly better than the McConnell plan, which would simply throw debt reduction back to the president. But if the House cannot do Plan A, McConnell is the fallback Plan B.
The narcissist-in-chief has so much confidence in his own communication skills, he told (threatened?) Cantor that he would take his case to the American people before he stomped out of that meeting, last night.
And today, a creepily sycophantic Nancy Pelosi claimed with a straight face, that “nobody can out-debate” Barack Obama. Which is a pretty amazing thing to say because he couldn’t even out-debate a 73 year old RINO has-been in 2008.
Apparently, Pelosi is unaware that a much sharper mind recently challenged Obama to a debate on the budget.
Will it happen? The MBM ignored Ryan’s challenge, last week.
As Ace says: Gotta keep Precious safe from discomfit.
Meanwhile….
Dems: If Debt Ceiling Deal Isn’t Reached By Friday, “We’ll Have No Choice But Some Other Option”…
Well, that other option had better not include some kind of 14th Amendment end-run around congress because the CRS says that won’t fly:
The non-partisan Congressional Research Service has issued a new report saying that if Congress refuses to raise the government’s borrowing limit, the White House cannot do so unilaterally under the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.
“It does not appear that the executive has the constitutional authority to borrow funds, even if they are for the express purpose of preventing a default on the debt,” said CRS, which is the non-partisan advisory research arm of Congress.
Some commenters have argued that the 14th Amendment means the government cannot suspend payments and that President Obama can act to keep funding government even without congressional authorization.
Clause four of the amendment, which was passed after the end of the Civil War, reads: “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payments of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.”
CRS’s experts said that language doesn’t convey any new powers on the president to circumvent Congress when it comes to borrowing or spending.
Obama plans to “take his case to the American people”, tomorrow morning.
Cahn’t wait.
UPDATE:
Ed Morrissey made Obama’s temper tantrum Wednesday, the Obamateurism of the Day:
Yesterday, Barack Obama issued one of the emptiest political threat in modern American history when he stomped out of the debt-ceiling negotiations yesterdayin a fit of pique:
“Eric, don’t call my bluff. I’m going to the American people with this.”
Really? Then Obama will be in for a very rude awakening when he finally meets the American people:
- Gallup: Americans paying attention oppose debt-ceiling increase almost 2-1
- CBS poll shows 69% opposed to a debt-ceiling increase
- Poll: Majority support a balanced budget amendment
- Poll shows more people concerned about national debt than national default
- Poll shows Americans getting more pessimistic on economy, want spending cuts
- Americans oppose raising debt ceiling by more than 2-1 in Gallup survey
- CBS poll shows Americans oppose debt-ceiling hike 2-1
- Hill poll shows 62% opposed to raising the debt ceiling
Seriously, the American people have had it with this corrupt, lying, pompous windbag.
UPDATE II:
Erick Erickson tweets that this epic post of his is being passed around in a closed door meeting with House Republicans:
Red State: Dear House Republicans, This is Your “Time For Choosing”
Linked by Michelle Malkin in Buzzworthy, Hillary Is 44, and Doug Ross, Larwyn’s Links, thanks!
Nice Deb 