The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Boehner Debt-Ceiling Bill Barely Passes House 218-210; 22 GOP ‘No’ Votes

Posted on | July 29, 2011 | 43 Comments

We’ll have the roll-call and other news momentarily.

UPDATE: New York Times:

The House of Representatives on Friday approved a plan for a short-term increase in the debt ceiling and cuts in spending, ending a week of intense fighting among Republicans and shifting the end game of the debate to the Senate.
The vote was 218-210, leaving House Speaker John A. Boehner with 20 Republicans who were unwilling to support his efforts to get a bill approved.
Urging passage for the bill, an emotional Mr. Boehner angrily accused President Obama and his Democratic allies of negotiating in bad faith for weeks and called the bill the only way to “end this crisis now.”
“All they would do was criticize what I put out there,” Mr. Boehner said, his voice rising during a rare appearance on the floor. “I stuck my neck out a mile to get an agreement with the president of the United States. I stuck my neck out a mile. I put revenues on the table.”
He added: “A lot of people in this town can never say yes.”

UPDATE II: Video of Boehner’s speech:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

UPDATE III: Need a good laugh? While accusing Republicans of hostage-taking, White House press secretary Jay Carney expresses concern that “the economy has suffered”:

Where was Jay Carney’s concern for the economy while his boss, Obama, was wrecking the economy?

UPDATE IV: The 22 House Republicans who voted “no”:

Justin Amash (Mich.)
Michele Bachmann (Minn.)
Chip Cravaack (Minn.)
Scott Desjarlais (Tenn.)
Tom Graves (Ga.)
Tim Huelskamp (Kans.)
Steve King (Iowa)
Tim Johnson (Ill.)
Tom McClintock (Calif.)
Mick Mulvaney (S.C.)
Ron Paul (Texas)
Tom Price (Ga.)
Connie Mack (Fla.)
Jim Jordan (Ohio)
Tim Scott (S.C.)
Paul Broun (Ga.)
Tom Latham (Iowa)
Jeff Duncan (S.C.)
Trey Gowdy (S.C.)
Steve Southerland (Fla.)
Joe Walsh (Ill.)
Joe Wilson (S.C.)

(Hat-tip: Politicons.)

UPDATE V: Statement from freshman GOP Rep. Chip Cravaack, explaining his “no” vote on the Boehner bill:

Last week, I voted in favor of the only solution to our nation’s spending spiral to achieve long-term fiscal sustainability – the Cut, Cap, and Balance Act of 2011. We must be responsible now. This includes savings to projected budget levels, enforceable spending controls, and a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution to avert a debt crisis, national default, and credit rating downgrade.
This evening, I could not in good conscience support the Budget Control Act considered by the House because the numbers simply don’t add up. The legislation would enable our nation to continue borrowing on an unsustainable course without the savings it desperately needs, the spending controls to prevent a U.S. credit downgrade, or the guarantee of a Balanced Budget Amendment to ensure prosperity for future Americans.
Last November, I told my constituents in the 8th District that I’m a numbers guy. I gave them my promise and my word that “if the numbers don’t add up, I’m not voting for it.” My constituents know me as a man of principle, and the bill considered by the House tonight is a bad bill that does little to thwart our abysmal economic trajectory.
I applaud the bill’s defense of American working families and job creators and look forward to working with my House colleagues in the coming days to determine a path forward. I urge the House and the Senate to act judiciously in our national interest.

UPDATE VI: Statement from Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) explaining his “no” vote:

I cannot in good conscience vote for a bill that puts the future of my grandchildren and of generations to come in jeopardy. While I respect my Republican colleagues’ efforts to come up with a compromise, the people in the 10th Congressional District of Georgia did not send me to Washington to follow the herd. They sent me here to protect their liberty and to fundamentally change the way our federal government spends their money. I do support a Balanced Budget Amendment, but I do not support raising the debt ceiling and allowing President Obama to put more debt on the backs of the American people. Congress needs to first acknowledge that we have lost all control of our fiscal house, and then we need to focus on finding a real solution for paying down the national debt.

UPDATE VII: Freshman Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-N.C.) explains her “yes” vote on the Boehner bill:

This evening, the House made history by successfully passing the Balanced Budget Act of 2011. This bill, which I am proud to support, is a fiscally sound solution to put an end to this spending-driven debt crisis and will save the people who sent us here and their families from a bankrupt future. We have now sent not one, but two bills to the Senate that promote both common sense and real spending cuts. If the President and leaders in the Senate are serious about balancing our budget and ending this debt crisis, they will allow this legislation to come to the Senate floor for a vote and be signed into law.

Freshman Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) explains his “yes” vote on the Boehner bill:

The Budget Control Act is far from perfect but the hard reality is that fiscal conservatives control only one-half of one-third of our government. This bill will make sure the President does not receive a blank check to continue his spending binge and the old ways of Washington, DC – blindly increasing the debt limit without spending cuts- are over. This vote is historic- it’s the first time we are raising the debt ceiling with cuts greater than the increase.
I learned when I was a solider at Fort Irwin National Training Center that when Officers waste too much time trying to come up with the perfect plan, they fall short because they are too inflexible or divided to see the path to victory. However, if you can come up with a 70-75 percent plan and execute it well, then you can win- and that’s what we have in the Budget Control Act.
The Budget Control Act is not perfect, but it is the 70 percent plan that my colleagues and I can execute to 100 percent.
It is now time for the focus to be on the United States Senate to produce a plan to take this country forward.
My fellow Americans, I ask you: If I had voted “No” on the Budget Control Act, who would I have been voting for?

UPDATE VIII: Bryan Preston notes that the entire South Carolina GOP delegation voted “no,” as did 2012 presidential candidate Michele Bachmann.


Category: Budget, Congress, John Boehner

Fake Boob News Update

Posted on | July 29, 2011 | 10 Comments

No — not talking about Harry Reid, but about an item that Wombat linked this morning in his “Live at Five” headline roundup:

Denise Richards hasn’t always been happy with her body. In the new issue of Us Weekly (out now), the 40-year-old actress opens up about her series of botched boob jobs — and why she decided to show them off in Playboy.
“When I was 19, a doctor put in bigger implants than what I asked for. I was in such a hurry to get them that I didn’t research my doctor,” Richards says. . . .
So why did the Real Girl Next Door author decide to doff her top for Playboy in 2004? “A couple reasons: I wanted to encourage women that it’s OK to embrace your sexuality even though you’re a mom,” Richards explains. “At the same time, I was having some problems in my marriage [to Charlie Sheen] and I didn’t feel sexy and felt I had to prove something.”

Some advice, ladies:

  • Sexy is not something you can buy from a plastic surgeon.
  • If you’re going to get naked in a magazine, OK. But don’t try to tell us it’s about altruism, a selfless effort to “encourage women that it’s OK to embrace your sexuality even though you’re a mom.” You’re not Gandhi. And Playboy magazine isn’t about feminist consciousness-raising.
  • Don’t ever get involved with Charlie Sheen.

And now for news a different kind of fake boob: Hollywood is using CGI to fake nude scenes, so if you think you’re going to see Olivia Wilde’s nipples in a movie, you’re wrong.

Category: Celebrities, Hollywood

Pete Wins the $10. I Blame Soros.

Posted on | July 29, 2011 | 10 Comments

The Dow Jones Industrial Average failed to drop by the 200 points I’d predicted. It was down badly, off 96.87 to close at 12,143.24, but that wasn’t enough to win my $10 bet against Pete Da Tech Guy, so I’ve already paid off.

It’s obvious to me that George Soros manipulated the market today just to screw me out of that $10. Some may call it “paranoia” to blame Soros — why should an evil billionaire care about a small wager between two minor right-wing bloggers? — but the evidence is clear enough.

Never mind that now. The Dow has fallen in each of the past six sessions, losing more than 580 points since closing at 12,724.41 July 21 — Wall Street’s worst week in a year.

Not bad enough to win me $10, but pretty bad.

UPDATE: Fox Business:

A stalemate in Washington over lifting the debt ceiling, combined with gloomy economic data, sent the blue chips tumbling more than 4% for the week. . . .
Amid the volatility, traders once again flocked to gold, which has continually hit record highs. The precious metal gained $15.00, or 0.93%, to $1,631 a troy ounce. Silver climbed 31 cents, or 0.78%, to $40.11 a troy ounce. 

More gold news from the Wall Street Journal:

The most actively traded gold contract, for December delivery, settled at a record $1,631.20 a troy ounce, up $15.00, or 0.9% on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract touched an intraday record of $1,637.50.
August-delivery gold rose $14.90, or 0.9%, to settle at a record $1,628.30 a troy ounce. It earlier touched an intraday record of $1,634.90.
Gold surged on weaker-than-expected U.S. growth data, which fortified investor concerns about the economy and pressured the dollar. The nation’s gross domestic product grew at 1.3% in the second quarter this year, well short of the 1.8% growth forecast by economists. The government’s first-quarter growth reading was slashed to a paltry 0.4%.

Everybody keeps saying it’s a “bubble,” but gold just keeps going up, up, up.


Category: Budget, Economics

Renee Ellmers, GOP ‘Rock Star’

Posted on | July 29, 2011 | 41 Comments

It was June 14, 2010, and the notorious video of Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-N.C.) manhandling a videographer had just hit the ‘Net when I wrote:

A “macaca” moment for the Democrat. His Republican challenger is Renee Ellmers.

That was the first time Etheridge’s Tea Party-backed GOP challenger was mentioned on the blog. We frequently mentioned Ellmers during the course of the campaign — I’m sure many of y’all contributed to her — and I interviewed her at the Capitol the day she was sworn into office.

Yesterday, Ellmers was featured in the Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer:

This year, Ellmers caught people’s attention in late June when she confronted U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on whether a tax increase on 3 percent of small-business owners should be coupled with spending cuts to reduce the national debt and national deficit. Geithner said there is no other alternative.
“You are wrong,” Ellmers told him. A tax increase would stifle job creation, Ellmers said.
A few days later, the House leadership had Ellmers deliver the Republican Party’s official response to Democratic President Obama’s weekly national address. She talked about Republican ideas on how to create jobs.
Since then, Ellmers has appeared on national television at least eight times. Several of those appearances focused on the debt ceiling. . . .

Read the whole thing.

Category: North Carolina, Renee Ellmers, Republicans, Tea Party

A Smitty Favorite

Posted on | July 29, 2011 | 3 Comments

“It is not book-learning young men need, nor instruction about this and that, but a stiffening of the vertebrae which will cause them to be loyal to a trust, to act promptly, concentrate their energies: do the thing — ‘Carry a message to Garcia!'”
— “Management Delegation, Staff Initiative: A Message to Garcia, By Elbert Hubbard,” quoted by JackYoest

Category: Culture

Obama Speaks, Markets Fall

Posted on | July 29, 2011 | 13 Comments

Before President Obama’s speech, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 90 points. Now — as of 10:45 a.m. ET — it’s down 110 points.

Why? Because he used his speech for a partisan hit on the GOP as offering a bill that “does not solve the problem” and can’t pass Harry Reid’s Democrat-controlled Senate.

But the big question is: Will I win that $10 bet?

UPDATE: Hmmmm. Now a slight bounce — at 10:55, DJIA is off about 40 points around 12,200.

Nothing like a little wager to make you watch this stuff.

UPDATE II: David Dayen at liberal Firedoglake:

Obama says “The House is still trying to pass a bill that the Senate won’t vote for. It does not solve the problem and it has no chance of becoming law. Any bill to avoid default must be bipartisan. It will have to have support of the House and the Senate.” . . .
This is a nothing speech, actually.

Exactly — a mere repetition of his earlier talking points.

UPDATE III: A few financial/economic headlines:

Data shows deeper recession, sharper slowdown
— Reuters

Economy Grows at Sluggish 1.3%; Consumers Pull Back
— CNBC

Economy in U.S. Grows Less Than Forecast After Almost Stalling
— Bloomberg

Arizona Republican Rep. Jeff Flake just said that changes in the Boehner bill make it something he can vote for. And the DJIA just broke into positive territory, so my $10 bet is looking shaky.

Category: Barack Obama, Budget, Economics

Pamela Geller Linked by New York Times

Posted on | July 29, 2011 | 28 Comments

Not in a good way, but by a couple of Norwegian writers blaming her (and “Islamophobia”) for the Oslo massacre:

Hatred of Muslims and resentment of the left — one of us has repeatedly received resentful diatribes against the “multiculturalist elite,” and was mentioned in Mr. Breivik’s own writings — is not confined to Norway. Mr. Breivik has praised Gates of Vienna, a Web site that compares contemporary Europe to long-ago wars with the Ottomans. He has praised writers like Bruce Bawer, the American author of “While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within,” and Bat Ye’Or, the pseudonym for the British author of the conspiratorial “Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis.” He is an enthusiastic reader of the virulently anti-Islamic blog of Pamela Geller, an American who leads the group “Stop Islamization of America” and gained notoriety for her opposition to an Islamic center near ground zero in Manhattan.
Europe’s new right is, in other words, not neo-Nazi; it has swapped anti-Semitism for Islamophobia. After a hiatus of several hundred years, fear of Islam reemerged around 1989, as the Cold War was ending and Iranian mullahs issued a fatwa against the British writer Salman Rushdie. It gained popularity as increasing numbers of Muslims entered Europe as immigrants in the 1990s, and became widespread in the aftermath of 9/11. Traditional racism may actually be waning in several European countries, but hostility toward Islam and animosity toward Muslim immigrants and their children is on the rise. . . .

At least the authors don’t pretend that “hostility toward Islam” arose without any provocation.

The question, I’d say, is which is the greater danger: Islamicization or Islamophobia? And if you believe the former is the greater danger, then the latter is actually rational — even when it presents itself in “virulent” fashion.

Category: Atlas Shrugs, Islam, New York Times, Norway

BLACK FRIDAY? Betting Market Reaction to Failure of Boehner’s Debt-Ceiling Bill

Posted on | July 29, 2011 | 29 Comments

Drudge Report headlines:

Boehner Delays Vote on Debt...
Limbaugh: We've Been Played...

GALLUP: Obama Rates Higher Than Boehner, Reid on Debt Situation!

Ron Paul: 'Default Is Coming'...

Treasury Contingency Plan on Debt Gives Priority to Bondholders...
Carney: If We Have No Other Alternative We Will 'Take Action'...

Obama faces legal bind if time runs out...

When word came late last night that House Speaker John Boehner didn’t have enough GOP votes to pass his bill, I wrote:

The most obvious possible prediction: The Dow Jones Industrial Average will drop at least 200 points Friday.

Rather than merely predict such a result — talk is cheap — I decided to make the proposition interesting:

Pete Da Tech Guy took the bet. The DJIA closed at 12,240.11 Thursday, so if it closes at 12,040.11 or less Friday, I collect $10. But if the Friday close is 12,040.12 or more, Pete collects $10.

After Pete and I made our friendly wager last night, my buddy John Guardiano started giving me flak about it, saying that among other things I was “playing into the Left’s eagerness to stoke a market downturn so they can force House Republicans to capitulate.”

Here’s the thing: I’m not making a value judgment. It’s irrelevant, as regards my $10 bet, whether the House should or should not pass the Boehner bill. I’m just acting on the knowledge that the market hates uncertainty, which is why the DJIA lost a total 484 points in the past five sessions. And here are the headlines in Friday’s papers:

House Puts Off Debt Vote as Press by Boehner Fails
— New York Times

House Leaders Postpone Vote on Debt Plan
— Washington Post

House Vote on Boehner Plan Is Delayed
— Wall Street Journal

Are you getting my drift here? If the DJIA was losing an average 97 points per day before last night’s big flop, doesn’t it just make sense that Wall Street will be having a Freakout Friday Fire Sale today?

Drew M. at AOSHQ says: “Tomorrow (Friday) is 2Q GDP report day. Should be fun. And by fun I mean, awful.”

The initial reaction to the Big Boehner Bungle from both U.S. futures markets and the Asian markets indicated my common-sense hunch was right. But markets are notoriously unpredictable (otherwise we’d all be rich), so it’s anybody’s guess whether Pete or I will be smiling when the closing bell rings on Wall Street this afternoon.

If you think I’m going to win, you should hit Pete’s tip jar. 

However, if you think Pete’s going to collect the bet, hit my tip jar.



UPDATE: Morning headling from Bloomberg:

Asian Stocks Decline on U.S. Debt Deadlock

. . . “If a resolution in the U.S. is not reached, clearly the economy will suffer so that demand will wane significantly, and we’ll see pressure on Asian exporter earnings and shares,” said Chris Hall, who helps manage $4 billion of assets at Argo Investments Ltd. in Adelaide. “Earnings are mixed across the spectrum. There are still a lot of unknowns right now, and everyone’s incredibly cautious.” . . .
“Its unbelievable, these guys are not just playing with financial markets but their own constituents’ jobs,” said Sydney-based Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy at AMP Capital Investors Ltd., which has almost $100 billion under management. “It’s certainly adding to stock-market nervousness. I think they will eventually get a deal that avoids massive spending cuts or default, but the risk is growing that they won’t.” . . .

UPDATE II: Wall Street Journal headline:

European Stocks Plunge on Debt Fears

Category: Budget, Da Tech Guy, Economics, John Boehner
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