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	<title>SwamplandCategory: Debt &#124; Swampland &#124; TIME.com</title>
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		<title>SwamplandCategory: Debt &#124; Swampland &#124; TIME.com</title>
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		<title>US Budget Deficit Widens $139 Billion in May</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/06/12/us-budget-deficit-widens-139-billion-in-may/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/06/12/us-budget-deficit-widens-139-billion-in-may/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 12 Jun 2013 18:39:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>AP / Martin Crutsinger</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Debt]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=97735</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[(WASHINGTON) — The government reported Wednesday that the U.S. budget deficit widened in May by $139 billion. But the annual deficit stayed on track to finish below $1 trillion for the first time since 2008. Steady economic growth and higher tax rates have boosted the government&#8217;s tax revenue. At the same time, government spending has barely increased. With the May increase, the deficit through the first eight months of this budget year totaled $626 billion, according to the Treasury. That&#8217;s down $218 billion lower than the same period last year. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the deficit won&#8217;t grow much before the budget year ends on Sept. 30. It forecasts an annual deficit of $642 billion. If correct, that would be well below last year&#8217;s deficit of $1.09 trillion and the lowest in five years. It would still be the fifth-largest deficit in U.S. history. The federal deficit represents the annual difference between the government&#8217;s spending and the tax revenues it takes in. Each deficit contributes to the national debt, which recently topped $16 trillion. At the same time, a smaller deficit has taken pressure off of negotiations to raise the federal borrowing limit. So far this budget year, revenue has risen 15 percent to $1.8 trillion. The government is taking in more money because of higher rates that went into effect on Jan. 1. Modest economic growth has also boosted tax revenue. And this month the government is expecting large dividend payments from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which will keep the deficit from growing. Fannie is expected to pay $59.4 billion; Freddie is expected pay $7 billion. The mortgage giants are profitable again and are paying dividends to the government in return for the loans they received during the financial crisis. While revenue has increased greatly, spending has only risen 0.8 percent this year to $2.43 billion. Military spending has dropped 4.3 percent, reflecting the winding down of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Spending on unemployment benefits, which had swelled as millions lost their jobs during the Great<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=97735&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Debt</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/domestic-policy-2/debt-domestic-policy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/budget-deficit_grod.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Budget Deficit</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">timecontributor7</media:title>
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		<item>
		<title>Build That Pipeline!</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/03/07/build-that-pipeline/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/03/07/build-that-pipeline/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 07 Mar 2013 16:23:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Fareed Zakaria</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Debt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Magazine]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=89921</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[One way to think about the keystone project&#8211;the 2,000-mile (3,220 km) pipeline that would bring oil from the tar sands of Canada to the Gulf of Mexico&#8211;is to ask what would happen if it is never built. The U.S. Department of State released an extremely thorough report that tries to answer this question. It concludes, basically, that the oil derived from Canadian tar sands will be developed at about the same pace whether or not there is a pipeline to the U.S. In other words, stopping Keystone might make us feel good, but it wouldn&#8217;t really do anything about climate change. Given the need for oil in the U.S., Canadian producers would still get Alberta&#8217;s oil to the refineries on the Gulf of Mexico. There are other pipeline possibilities, but the most likely method of transfer is by train. The report estimates that it would take daily runs of 15 trains with about 100 tank cars each to carry the amount planned by TransCanada. That would be a large increase in traffic from what now goes north to south, but it would hardly be an insurmountable problem. Rail traffic in this corridor is already exploding: the number of carloads of crude oil doubled from 2010 to 2011, then tripled from 2011 to 2012. And remember, moving oil by train produces much higher emissions of CO[subscript 2] (from diesel locomotives) than flowing it through a pipeline. Canada could also transport the oil by train or pipeline west to British Columbia and then on to Asia, where demand is booming. Right now that seems a distant and costly prospect, but having visited Alberta recently, I can attest that Canadian businesspeople and officials are planning seriously for Asian markets&#8211;especially since they have come to regard U.S. energy policy as politicized, hostile and mercurial. Whoever uses the oil, the CO[subscript 2] will be released into the atmosphere just the same. Also, if we don&#8217;t use oil from Alberta, we will need to get it somewhere to fuel our transportation needs&#8211;from Venezuela, Mexico, Saudi Arabia<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=89921&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Magazine</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/magazine/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">drogers1271</media:title>
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		<title>Republicans Strike Back In Online Sequester Ads</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/02/26/republicans-strike-back-in-online-sequester-ads/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/02/26/republicans-strike-back-in-online-sequester-ads/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 26 Feb 2013 17:23:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Scherer</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Debt]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=89062</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Last week, we posted the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee&#8217;s online effort to pressure Republicans to cave on the sequester. Above is the concurrent effort by the National Republican Congressional Committee&#8217;s effort to hit back, with a nifty Oscar theme. It&#8217;s a good piece, but it is also a clear example of why Republicans have a somewhat harder argument to make in the coming days and weeks. The main idea in the spot, and in their messaging, is that America needs more spending cuts, and Democrats won&#8217;t give any. But Republicans are also, at the same time, asking people to &#8220;help fight the Obama sequester&#8221; which is a bunch of spending cuts they say the President created. Obama&#8217;s main argument, by contrast, is simpler to digest: We need a combination of tax increases and spending cuts, and the Republicans want only spending cuts that hurt people like you, i.e. the sequester. The difficulty of the Republican line is made clearer when you look at their double messaging on the sequester&#8217;s impacts. In releasing this ad, the NRCC points out that the sequester, if it goes into effect, will &#8220;gut approximately $9.4 million from West Virginia’s teachers and schools, it will result in approximately 2,000 defense workers being furloughed, and U.S. Army base operations West Virginia will be slashed by $1.4 million.&#8221; Sounds bad. But Republican leaders are elsewhere pushing the line that the the size of the sequester is relatively small, less than 3% of total spending. Obama and the Democrats are arguing meanwhile a simpler line, though no less burdened by double messaging: That cuts are generally bad when the economy is hurting, but that Obama will still support some cuts and tax increases. Rounding off the message complexity, the oppo dump that accompanies this spot announces accusingly that &#8220;Nick Rahall voted for sequestration,&#8221; as if this is a mark of shame. (Among the other votes for sequestration: John Boehner, Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor, and 171 other Republicans.) Of course, Rahall did not vote for the two Republican efforts to<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=89062&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Debt</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/domestic-policy-2/debt-domestic-policy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/picture-25.png?w=200</featured_image>
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		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/picture-25.png?w=200" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">NRCC Oscar Ad</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/a467a0981ef8e059913a0aa44ba7df1b?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">michaelscherer</media:title>
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		<title>The Trillion Dollar Coin Fantasy: GOP Extremism Can&#8217;t Be Wished Away</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/01/15/the-trillion-dollar-coin-fantasy-republican-extremism-cant-be-wished-away/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/01/15/the-trillion-dollar-coin-fantasy-republican-extremism-cant-be-wished-away/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 15 Jan 2013 10:45:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Grunwald</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Debt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[debt ceiling]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[platinum coin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[republicans]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=84946</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[After I spent the last two weeks explaining that the Treasury would mint a second Joe Biden before it minted a trillion-dollar platinum coin, that President Obama would make Kim Kardashian his chief of staff before making the coin fantasy a reality, it would be easy for me to gloat. So I will! The coin was a self-evidently wackadoodle idea, and the pundits who fell in love with it should have remembered Obama isn’t in vaudeville. But there’s more to say about the coin farce than my four favorite words. (Count &#8216;em: I…told…you…so.) The debt ceiling disaster that the coin was supposed to avoid through metallic magic still looms. And the understandable impulses that led otherwise smart coiners to crusade for a WTF policy are producing equally muddled thinking about the next round of fiscal negotiations. The idea of a trillion-dollar platinum coin was not quite as insane as it sounded. It was a response to the insanity of congressional Republicans, who have refused to raise the debt ceiling and let the U.S. pay its bills unless Democrats agree to massive cuts in Democratic priorities. The GOP is holding the economy hostage, using the threat of a confidence-destroying default to try to extract a policy ransom. The coin would have been an accounting trick designed to allow Obama to ignore the debt ceiling and keep fulfilling obligations Congress had already incurred. I could explain how, but it’s complex, which is why it was such a lousy idea; no politician wanted to explain why his response to a tough fiscal situation was to create a magic trillion-dollar coin out of thin air. Fortunately, now that the Obama Administration has officially rejected the coin, I don’t need to explain it. (MORE: Is a $1 Trillion Coin a Good Way to Avoid Another Debt-Ceiling Impasse?) It was always unrealistic to imagine that Obama could sidestep Republican extremism and obstructionism through a kooky loophole in monetary regulations. Big ideological battles don&#8217;t get settled through technicalities. But especially on the left,  there is still a<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=84946&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Debt</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/domestic-policy-2/debt-domestic-policy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/sl-trillion-coin-0114.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/sl-trillion-coin-0114.jpg?w=200" />
		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/sl-trillion-coin-0114.jpg?w=200" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">image: The Federal Reserve building stands in Washington, Oct. 23, 2012.</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/ddcaf430de0f1a59f27cc4ad614221d9?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">michaelgrunwald</media:title>
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		<title>Hope Lives For $1 Trillion Platinum Coin Enthusiasts</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/01/09/hope-lives-for-1-trillion-platinum-coin-enthusiasts/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/01/09/hope-lives-for-1-trillion-platinum-coin-enthusiasts/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 09 Jan 2013 20:16:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Scherer</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Debt]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=84561</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[White House Press Secretary Jay Carney finally got a question today about the possibility of inventing a a $1 trillion platinum coin to magically solve the coming debt ceiling crises, an outlandish idea that the Internet loves. Despite repeated questioning, he refused to rule out categorically the possibility of minting such a coin. But he also made clear that it is not a current option under consideration. &#8220;The option here is for Congress to pay its bills,&#8221; Carney said, after flipping to a page in his briefing book that appeared to anticipate the question. &#8220;There is no Plan B. There is no backup plan.There is Congress&#8217;s responsibility to pay the bills of the United States.&#8221; The answer was far less direct than the answer Carney has given when asked about another controversial route for the White House to evade the debt ceiling: The unilateral raising of the debt ceiling by the President under the argument that the 14th Amendment of the Constitution grants that power. &#8220;This administration does not believe the 14th Amendment gives the president the power to ignore the debt ceiling,&#8221; Carney said in December. Meanwhile, Republicans have begun to jump on the viral potential of the $1 trillion platinum coin, releasing this graphic over Twitter today. Of course the graphic has little factual relation to the way modern currency works. The value of a dollar bill is not measured by the value of its paper, nor is the value of a quarter measured by the value of its copper and nickel. If the legal theory behind the $1 trillion coin has any merit (and that is a big if) and if the introduction of a $1 trillion coin does not dramatically unsettle currency markets (and that too is a big if), than the weight of the coin should not be an issue. UPDATE: On January 12, the Treasury Department nixed the $1 trillion coin option.  &#8220;Neither the Treasury Department nor the Federal Reserve believes that the law can or should be used to facilitate the production of<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=84561&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Debt</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/domestic-policy-2/debt-domestic-policy/</primary_category_link>
		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/a467a0981ef8e059913a0aa44ba7df1b?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">michaelscherer</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/titaniccoin.jpg?w=400" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">TitanicCoin</media:title>
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		<title>How to Win When Everyone Loses</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/01/08/how-to-win-when-everyone-loses/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/01/08/how-to-win-when-everyone-loses/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 08 Jan 2013 14:03:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Scherer</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Debt]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=84350</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There are, in theory, a few months every two years when the next election is supposed to matter less. The horse race, as it were, has been run. The chance to govern is at hand. That&#8217;s the theory, anyway. In these days of divided dysfunction, the practice is different, as the new Pew poll about public reaction to the New Year&#8217;s fiscal-cliff deal beautifully illustrates. It is, in short, still possible to win when everyone loses. First the poll asked about the substance of what Congress and the White House accomplished as the rest of the country recovered from their New Year&#8217;s hangovers. On this score, the numbers are dismal. Just 38% of the country approves of the deal, compared with 41% who disapprove, and the share of the country who thinks the deal will help people like them, improve the economy or lessen the budget deficit hovers around 1 in 3. These are not the sort of numbers that incumbents of either party like to see. But in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. So Pew followed up the substantive questions about the deal with horse-race questions about who won the day. On this score, there is a clear winner: Barack Obama, with 57% of the country as a whole, 74% of Republicans, 53% of Democrats and 55% of independents saying he got more of what he wanted in the deal than GOP congressional leaders did. Asked another way — who handled the negotiations better — Obama wins again, by slightly lower margins, with 48% of the country approving of his approach, vs. 19% of the country approving of the Republican approach to negotiations. Much of this difference can be attributed directly to the way the bases of the respective parties judged their own teams. While 81% of Democrats approved of Obama&#8217;s handling of the deal, only 40% of Republicans approved of the congressional GOP&#8217;s handling of it. So Washington failed, and there was still a winner, which just may be the pattern of the<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=84350&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Debt</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/domestic-policy-2/debt-domestic-policy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/1500_wcliff_0114.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/1500_wcliff_0114.jpg?w=200" />
		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/1500_wcliff_0114.jpg?w=200" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Barack Obama</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/a467a0981ef8e059913a0aa44ba7df1b?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">michaelscherer</media:title>
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		<title>The Weird Resonance of #Mintthecoin</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/01/04/the-weird-resonance-of-mintthecoin/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/01/04/the-weird-resonance-of-mintthecoin/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 04 Jan 2013 21:07:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alex Altman</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Debt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=84195</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Here is a thought exercise. It&#8217;s 3013. You&#8217;re a historian, and you want to teach your students about the temporary dementia that gripped the political-media complex a millennium ago. I submit that you could do worse than to give them this article, a snapshot of how dysfunctional national politics converges with cable yakk-bait. Start with a problem: Congressional Republicans are hellbent on using another round of debt-ceiling brinkmanship to win the kind of sharp spending cuts they were denied in the fiscal cliff negotiations. Last time they played chicken with the U.S. economy, our debt was downgraded. Despite his vow not to let Republicans use our full faith and credit as a bargaining chip, there is no obvious way for Barack Obama to avoid it. Congress controls the power of the U.S. borrowing authority. Republicans control the House. Therefore they can prevent our debts from being paid, even though they rung up the debts themselves. A lot of people, cringing at the idea of another debt-limit standoff, are hunting for a work-around. Enter the trillion-dollar platinum coin solution. According to U.S. law, the Treasury Department &#8220;may mint and issue platinum bullion coins and proof platinum coins in accordance with such specifications, designs, varieties, quantities, denominations, and inscriptions as the Secretary, in the Secretary’s discretion, may prescribe from time to time.&#8221; The obscure provision is apparently meant to deal with minting collector&#8217;s items. But it appears to be sound, albeit wacky, support for the notion that Treasury could mint, say, a couple of trillion-dollar coins and deposit it at the U.S. Federal Reserve as a way to circumvent Congressional Republicans&#8217; unwillingness to pay the debts we have racked up. Some respected journalists, thousands of activists, a Nobel-winning economist and at least one congressman are pushing the idea. There is a White House petition and a Twitter hashtag (#mintthecoin) and a handful of cable hits on a slow news day. This idea isn&#8217;t new. It surfaced the last time Republicans threatened to dash the economy to extract policy concessions, just 18 months<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=84195&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2013/01/04/the-weird-resonance-of-mintthecoin/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Debt</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/domestic-policy-2/debt-domestic-policy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/sl-coins-0108.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">image: Stacks of Coins</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/41a5f1af68b9fd647df540c67f1a464a?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Alex Altman</media:title>
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		<title>Why John Boehner Wants Another Grand Bargain (And Why He Probably Won&#8217;t Get One)</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2011/11/17/why-john-boehner-is-going-for-another-grand-bargain-and-why-he-probably-wont-get-one/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2011/11/17/why-john-boehner-is-going-for-another-grand-bargain-and-why-he-probably-wont-get-one/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 17 Nov 2011 10:00:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jay Newton-Small</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Debt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[John Boehner]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=59873</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Twice this summer House Speaker John Boehner tried for a grand bargain on deficit reduction and twice the deal collapsed, in part because there just wasn’t support from within his own conference for the increased tax revenue that Democrats demanded. Fast forward three months, and Boehner is in much the same place.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=59873&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2011/11/17/why-john-boehner-is-going-for-another-grand-bargain-and-why-he-probably-wont-get-one/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>John Boehner</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/congress/john-boehner/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/sl_boehner_1116_blog.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">sl_boehner_1116_blog</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/557ff2649ffce53285c86e4b694cff6d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">jnewtonsmall</media:title>
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		<title>S&amp;P&#8217;s Political Miscalculation</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2011/08/06/sps-political-miscalculation/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2011/08/06/sps-political-miscalculation/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 07 Aug 2011 01:11:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Adam Sorensen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Debt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Congress]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[downgrade]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[s&p]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=53997</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Over at the Curious Capitalist, Steve Gandel offers an approving take on Standard &#38; Poor&#8217;s downgrade of U.S. debt. &#8220;The ratings agency&#8217;s decision on Friday to downgrade the credit rating of the U.S. government to AA+ from AAA — stripping the U.S. of the highest rating for the first time in 70 years — was 100% correct,&#8221; he writes. In Gandel&#8217;s estimation, economic factors such as slowing growth, higher household debt and other social trends justify the ratings change. But he also writes, &#8220;The fracturing of our political system has led to the rise of political parties that are unwilling to compromise on our biggest challenges. It is clear that the rise of the Tea Party and the pledge of Republicans in general to never raise taxes, along with the Democrats&#8217; unwillingness to cut Social Security, produced the downgrade.&#8221; I think this is 100% incorrect.  (MORE: Standard &#38; Poor&#8217;s Downgrades Itself) Those might be the reasons that S&#38;P cited in its downgrade, but that doesn&#8217;t make them legitimate. Let&#8217;s start with the tax claim. Gandel is basically saying that in the current political environment, tax increases are impossible for the foreseeable future. One gaping hole in this theory is that under the law, tax rates will revert to near Clinton-era levels if no extension of the Bush tax cuts is passed. Now, while that&#8217;s not likely, all it will take is for one Democratic President (probably in his second term) to use his veto pen sometime down the road and the Bush tax cuts will be no more. Moreover, the distinction between taxation and spending is much blurrier than many people realize. There are a vast number of credits and exemptions in the tax code. If and when Congress takes up comprehensive tax reform — there are already plenty of proposals out there, and the debt deal&#8217;s special commission is a natural venue for discussing them — Republicans could be coaxed into talks with the promise of lower marginal rates, and in the end, they could deny that any tax<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=53997&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Debt</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/domestic-policy-2/debt-domestic-policy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/sandp.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/sandp.jpg?w=200" />
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			<media:title type="html">at Times Square on August 5, 2011 in New York City.</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/7666b70a5b0305bd59953f5bca02cce5?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Adam Sorensen</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/ssprojection.jpg?w=450" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">ssprojection</media:title>
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		<title>The Debt Debacle Explained</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2011/08/04/the-debt-debacle-explained/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2011/08/04/the-debt-debacle-explained/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 04 Aug 2011 14:25:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Crowley</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Debt]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=53797</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The new print issue of TIME (available to subscribers) tries to make sense of the debt-limit mayhem that just consumed Washington. In it, I have a piece taking stock of the Tea Party&#8217;s amazing ability to commandeer the debt debate. What interested me most is how the Tea Party succeeded through playing by its own set of rules. Daniel Patrick Moynihan liked to say that people are entitled to their own opinions but not their own facts. But when it came to the risks of not raising the debt limit, the Tea Partyers simply refused to believe the dire warnings issued by everyone from Barack Obama to John Boehner to Ben Bernanke. How can Congress work productively when its members don&#8217;t even agree on the most basic truths? That&#8217;s the new political reality on Capitol Hill, and somehow Obama and the Democrats must figure out how to deal with it. But enough about me. The main cover story is a terrific essay by Fareed Zakaria explaining what the past few weeks have revealed about our political system and the health of our country. Fareed writes that the budget deal itself is neither as good as its supporters claim nor as bad as its opponents fear, and that &#8220;the largest impact will be political, and there it has been a disaster.&#8221; Thanks to a dysfunctional political system, America&#8217;s global standing has been undermined&#8211;while our long-term debt problem remains unsolved. Fareed&#8217;s historical context and wise prescriptions are invaluable, but ultimately it&#8217;s a grim tale. Read it and try not to weep.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=53797&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Debt</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/domestic-policy-2/debt-domestic-policy/</primary_category_link>
		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/25edc643b57a776abbc75835c699af51?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">crowley100</media:title>
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		<title>Is the Debt-Ceiling Hostage Scenario Really Bound to Repeat Itself?</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2011/08/03/is-the-debt-ceiling-hostage-scenario-really-bound-to-repeat-itself/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2011/08/03/is-the-debt-ceiling-hostage-scenario-really-bound-to-repeat-itself/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 03 Aug 2011 17:00:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Adam Sorensen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Debt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[2012]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Congress]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[debt ceiling]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[obama]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=53770</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The conventional wisdom now dictates that every time a debt-ceiling hike comes up for a vote, Republicans will threaten to torch Uncle Sam&#8217;s credit rating unless their demands are met. Just take Senator Mitch McConnell, Washington&#8217;s most transparently devious operator, at his word: &#8220;In the future, any President, this one or another one, when they request us to raise the debt ceiling it will not be clean anymore. This is just the first step.&#8221; Even more bluntly, he called the economy &#8220;a hostage worth ransoming.&#8221; Joe passionately made the case last week that this marks the first deployment of an incredibly dangerous political weapon that will threaten proper functions of democracy for a long time. I&#8217;m not so sure. Whether their calculations were right or wrong, Democrats and Republicans both thought they could play this last deb-limit showdown to their political advantage. “Let the Republicans have some buy-in on the debt. They’re going to have a majority in the House,” Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid said last December, explaining his inclination to put off an adjustment to federal borrowing authority. “I don’t think [we should raise the debt ceiling] when we have a heavily Democratic Senate, heavily Democratic House and a Democratic President.” Similarly, President Obama went from calling for an unconditional debt-ceiling hike to pushing for a deficit-reducing grand bargain because he thought it would undermine Republicans&#8217; persistent claim that he is profligacy incarnate. Meanwhile, Republicans have been trying to turn their mandate from the 2010 elections into a shrink ray for federal government. This dynamic gave way to a debt fight in which Republicans made a lot of demands and Democrats acceded to them in the broadest sense. Want to borrow more? Need to cut first. But both parties got the politics wrong. Everyone involved ended up looking foolish and irresponsible &#8212; Republicans more so than Democrats, according to Pew &#8212; and the American public was simply turned off. It&#8217;s unclear if purely political incentives for another hostage situation are really there. Furthermore, the public learned something about<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=53770&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Debt</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/domestic-policy-2/debt-domestic-policy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/120252785.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/120252785.jpg?w=200" />
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			<media:title type="html">mcconnell</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/7666b70a5b0305bd59953f5bca02cce5?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Adam Sorensen</media:title>
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		<title>The Unelected Winners and Losers of the Debt-Limit Showdown</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2011/08/03/the-unelected-winners-and-losers-of-the-debt-limit-showdown/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2011/08/03/the-unelected-winners-and-losers-of-the-debt-limit-showdown/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 03 Aug 2011 09:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Scherer</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Debt]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=53745</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[So we already know what the debt-limit debate did for leaders in Washington: nothing pretty. By and large, the American people were turned off by both parties, infuriated that political squabbling might do measurable damage to the nation&#8217;s bottom line. Some politicians, of course, lost more than others. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell proved, once again, to be the city’s most savvy dealmaker, while Speaker John Boehner was forced to reveal just how little sway he holds over his caucus. Barack Obama proved, once again, that he is unable to control Washington dysfunction, though he may have given his re-election campaign a new focus beyond jobs. But enough with the political scorecards. What about everybody else? Herewith is a quick look at the unelected winners and losers of the debt-limit debate.  Lobbyists: Winners Lawyers tend to make money on complexity, and the compromise Obama signed into law on Tuesday is nothing if not complex, with multiple phases, conditional phases, nonspecific spending caps and the unstated siren song of a tax-code revamp. More important, it promises many more legislative fights to come, involving just about every deep-pocketed interest in town: hospitals, doctors, military contractors, Big Business, small businesses, seniors, investors, hedge funds, etc. Tax reform, which Obama has effectively vowed to force in some form by the end of 2012, threatens higher (and offers possibly lower) taxes on every business, investor and wage earner in the U.S. Business on K Street is about to pick up. (MORE: Top 10 Government Showdowns) The Unemployed: Losers As the conversation in Washington has shifted from stimulus to deficits, no one has been more vulnerable than the long-term unemployed. The federal extension of emergency unemployment benefits is set to expire at the end of the year. Obama has said he wants another extension, but he has not proposed a way to pay for it. And with Congress still looking for another $1.5 trillion in cuts or tax increases, the President may have a hard time getting another extension. Graduate Students: Losers As part of the compromise,<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=53745&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Debt</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/domestic-policy-2/debt-domestic-policy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/capitol.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">capitol</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/a467a0981ef8e059913a0aa44ba7df1b?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">michaelscherer</media:title>
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		<title>Debt Deal Ushered into Law as Obama Hails &#8216;Important First Step,&#8217; Pivots to Next Fight</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2011/08/02/debt-deal-passes-as-obama-hails-important-first-step-pivots-to-next-fight/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2011/08/02/debt-deal-passes-as-obama-hails-important-first-step-pivots-to-next-fight/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 02 Aug 2011 18:19:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jay Newton-Small</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Debt]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=53702</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[With less than 11 hours left before the U.S. faced taking drastic action to avoid a default, the Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed legislation to raise the nation’s debt ceiling and trim federal deficits. The measure passed 74-26, mostly on Democratic support — 45 Democrats, one independent who caucuses with the Dems and 28 Republicans voted yes — a reversal of the House vote on Monday night, which relied mostly on Republican support. The legislation, which has already been signed into law by President Obama, will raise the debt ceiling by $917 billion, taking the country through the end of the year. Early next year, it will be extended again through a process in which Republicans will get to vote their disapproval of the Democrats’ handling of the debt crisis. Separately, a supercommittee of six Republicans and six Democrats will look for an additional $1.5 trillion in savings. If they cannot agree — the key argument will be whether to include revenue increases — then automatic across-the-board cuts of $1.2 trillion will be triggered in early 2013. The last-minute resolution of the debt debate produced palpable relief in Washington but offered little reason for celebration. Recent polls suggest the American public was turned off by the whole affair, and approval ratings for members of both parties have suffered. In a speech at the White House, Obama hailed the legislation as &#8220;an important first step to ensure that the nation can live within our means,&#8221; but he chided Congress for pushing the nation to the brink.  &#8220;Voters may have chosen divided government,&#8221; he said, &#8220;but they sure didn’t vote for dysfunctional government.&#8221; Neither party was satisfied with the final product. Progressives were disappointed that the bill thus far has not included any revenue increases. There are 23 Senate seats that Democrats must defend in the 2012 elections. With a large number of their would-be GOP opponents likely to support the deal, Senate Democrats had little political choice but to hold their noses and vote for it. “It helps by not hurting<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=53702&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2011/08/02/debt-deal-passes-as-obama-hails-important-first-step-pivots-to-next-fight/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Debt</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/domestic-policy-2/debt-domestic-policy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/obama1.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">obama</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/557ff2649ffce53285c86e4b694cff6d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">jnewtonsmall</media:title>
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		<title>Don&#8217;t Be Distracted: The Top Four Red Herrings of the Debt Debate</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2011/07/29/dont-be-distracted-the-top-four-red-herrings-of-the-debt-debate/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2011/07/29/dont-be-distracted-the-top-four-red-herrings-of-the-debt-debate/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 29 Jul 2011 13:30:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Scherer</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Debt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[eric cantor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[John Boehner]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[red herrings]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=53253</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The day-to-day of Washington political debate is often little more than misdirection. All sides craft messages aimed at attracting the sympathies of select groups of voters, even if the soundbites have little or nothing to do with what is actually happening. These red herrings make headlines, but they poorly reflect policy or political realities. Here&#8217;s a look at the biggest red herrings of the debt ceiling debate: President Obama doesn&#8217;t have a plan. First, the back story: Earlier this year, Republican Rep. Paul Ryan put out a budget plan that would eventually transform Medicare into a voucher system. Democrats pounced, attacking it as an effort to take money out of seniors&#8217; pockets, but refused to release their own plan for dealing with the unsustainable entitlement. Republicans found this unfair and cowardly, and so began the &#8220;Where&#8217;s their plan?&#8221; refrain. At some point in July, this same refrain was transferred over to a new debt ceiling debate. Republicans began saying that Obama had no plan to craft a compromise that would lift the debt ceiling. &#8220;He doesn&#8217;t like our plan, but he has not put a plan forward yet,&#8221; announced House Majority Leader Eric Cantor on July 26. This &#8220;Where&#8217;s his plan?&#8221; refrain quickly became a GOP koan, repeated ad nauseam on cable television and later by reporters in the White House briefing room. In fact, the President has presented House Republican leaders dozens of different plans behind closed doors in the hopes of crafting a compromise. After talks collapsed on July 22, White House aides briefed reporters about one version of this compromise plan, including $425 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid and $1.2 billion in new revenues. The White House never released the plan as legislative text, but that was a strategic political decision. In fact, House Republicans have been told exactly what sorts of plans the White House was willing to accept. (LIST: Top 10 Government Shut Downs) Republicans reject the idea of compromise. White House officials have made &#8220;compromise&#8221; and &#8220;balanced approach&#8221; their watchwords during this<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=53253&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2011/07/29/dont-be-distracted-the-top-four-red-herrings-of-the-debt-debate/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Debt</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/domestic-policy-2/debt-domestic-policy/</primary_category_link>
		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/a467a0981ef8e059913a0aa44ba7df1b?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">michaelscherer</media:title>
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		<title>Don&#8217;t Let Wall Street or Washington Fool You: The Danger Is Default, Not Downgrade</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2011/07/27/dont-let-wall-street-or-washington-fool-you-the-danger-is-default-not-downgrade/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2011/07/27/dont-let-wall-street-or-washington-fool-you-the-danger-is-default-not-downgrade/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 27 Jul 2011 15:59:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Massimo Calabresi</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Debt]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=53143</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There are serious financial and economic dangers in the game of chicken Congress and the President are playing over raising the debt limit, but downgrades by the ratings agencies are not among them. Sure, it sounds ominous: If Republicans and Democrats can&#8217;t agree on a deal for at least $4 trillion in deficit reduction over ten years, Standard and Poor’s says, there’s a 50-50 chance they’ll take America’s AAA rating down to AA+. But in the muddle of conflicting plans and partisan recriminations, the President and Democrats are conflating two different threats for political purposes: the downgrade by Standard and Poor&#8217;s that might follow a short-term debt deal, and a default that would come if Congress fails to get any deal. The latter would be truly disastrous: if the U.S. failed to pay any of its obligations—at home or abroad—not only Standard and Poor&#8217;s, but Moody’s and Fitch would also declare the U.S. in default, dropping them not just a notch but all the way to Selective Default. Markets would drive up interest rates on everything from home loans to interbank lending and a double dip recession could ensue. But Standard and Poor’s judgment about the significance of a short-term deal to raise the debt ceiling is different. First, ratings agencies don&#8217;t exactly drive markets the way they once did, thanks to their lackluster performance in the run up to the 2008 crash. Second, S&#38;P is an outlier among the top three ratings agencies: Moody&#8217;s and Fitch say they won&#8217;t even consider a downgrade unless there&#8217;s a danger of an actual default. Third, S&#38;P&#8217;s rating&#8217;s downgrade threat is based on a judgment about politics in Washington and the likelihood of Congress to manage its finances down the road. S&#38;P may know a lot about businesses, especially businesses whose proprietary accounting they get access to in order to provide their impartial ratings of company’s bonds. But S&#38;P doesn’t know a lot about politics—certainly not more than your average connected lobbyist&#8211;and they&#8217;re making their judgment based on the same public information available to<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=53143&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2011/07/27/dont-let-wall-street-or-washington-fool-you-the-danger-is-default-not-downgrade/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Debt</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/domestic-policy-2/debt-domestic-policy/</primary_category_link>
		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/afd9484b1bca74216e145d2c49c8af45?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">calabresim</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">6318926</media:title>
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		<title>Unable to Deal With Each Other, Obama and Boehner Invade Prime Time</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2011/07/26/unable-to-deal-with-each-other-obama-and-boehner-take-debt-talks-to-prime-time/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2011/07/26/unable-to-deal-with-each-other-obama-and-boehner-take-debt-talks-to-prime-time/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 26 Jul 2011 04:53:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Scherer</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Debt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Boehner]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[debt talks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gop]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[House]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[White House]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=53031</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[“I won’t bore you,” President Obama said, as he broke into America’s prime time TV lineup on Monday night. This was ironic, because he went on to talk about Triple A credit ratings, Dwight Eisenhower and the debt limit. If not for him, America could have been slouching toward another Law &#38; Order rerun, or watching a British guy with hair plugs yell about food, or a bachelorette in Fiji pretend that exhibitionist polygamy was a workable method for discovering true love. In fact, President Obama had come to bore us all. He had no new announcement to make, no breakthroughs to share, no facts to utter that had not already been uttered. He spoke 2,264 words with a single purpose: To posture in public for political advantage on the issue of reining in federal deficits and raising the debt ceiling. This too was ironic. Pretty much the only thing most Americans dislike more than being governed by people who can’t get important stuff done are politicians who posture in the meantime. “I believe that enough members of both parties will ultimately put politics aside and help us make progress,” Obama said. Just not yet. The President, of course, was not alone in his trespass. It takes two to make a “stalemate,” after all, which incidentally was the unfortunate metaphor Obama used for the state of our nation, a term from chess that means both players have exhausted their ability to move and the game is over. Obama’s political rival, House Speaker John Boehner, followed the President&#8217;s appearance on the boob tube with an address of his own, filled with even more biting zingers meant to win the same political high ground. The Speaker said, “The President would not take yes for an answer.” And, “He wants a blank check.” And even, “The bigger the government, the smaller the people.” (MORE: Six Possible Paths Ahead in the Debt-Ceiling Debate) The spectacle that ensued was of exactly the sort that this nation has come to expect from Washington. But it was<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=53031&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2011/07/26/unable-to-deal-with-each-other-obama-and-boehner-take-debt-talks-to-prime-time/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Debt</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/domestic-policy-2/debt-domestic-policy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/split1.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">split</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/a467a0981ef8e059913a0aa44ba7df1b?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">michaelscherer</media:title>
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		<title>Debt-Limit Divide Deepens as Talks Approach the Brink</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2011/07/13/debt-limit-divide-deepens-as-talks-approach-the-brink/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2011/07/13/debt-limit-divide-deepens-as-talks-approach-the-brink/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 13 Jul 2011 10:50:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alex Altman</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Debt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[debt ceiling]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[debt-limit negotiations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[eric cantor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[john boehner]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mitch McConnell]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nancy Pelosi]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[steny hoyer]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=52125</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As the U.S. hurtles toward a potential debt-limit default that would shake the fragile economy, the chasm between the two parties widened on Tuesday, as Republican opposition to tax increases calcified and Democrats bristled at the inclusion of cuts to entitlement-program beneficiaries without &#8220;shared sacrifice&#8221; from the wealthy. After meeting for more than 90 minutes in the basement of the Capitol, House Republicans emerged preaching party unity and vowing not to cave to mounting political pressure for a compromise. GOP lawmakers have three demands: a package that includes enforceable caps and controls on spending, with cuts commensurate to the increase in the U.S.&#8217;s borrowing authority and no tax hikes. Republicans also issued a withering critique of President Obama, suggesting that the prospects for a deal have darkened. &#8220;The President talks a good game, but when it comes to actually putting these issues on the table and making decisions, he can&#8217;t quite pull the trigger,&#8221; House Speaker John Boehner said. Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader, went farther in his criticism of Obama. &#8220;The President has presented us with three choices: smoke and mirrors, tax hikes or default. Republicans choose none of the above,&#8221; McConnell said. On Tuesday afternoon McConnell unveiled his alternative: a patchwork plan that lets Obama request three short-term debt-limit increases between now and the 2012 election, which would together usher in spending cuts of some $2.5 trillion without prior Congressional approval. Though designed to lift the burden on Republicans leery of backing a debt-limit increase, it&#8217;s unclear the idea would find any traction in the House, where Republicans have eschewed a piecemeal approach. Even if it did, Obama has said he won&#8217;t sign it. It&#8217;s a gambit to assign blame to Obama, whom Republicans believe would endure the brunt of the blowback if a congressional impasse produces a fiscal calamity. &#8220;This debt-limit increase is his problem,&#8221; Boehner said, &#8220;and I think it’s time for him to lead by putting his plan on the table.&#8221; (MORE: Eric Cantor, the GOP’s Hard-Line Lieutenant, Sways Debt Talks) It is not<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=52125&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Debt</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/domestic-policy-2/debt-domestic-policy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/debt_ceiling.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">debt_ceiling</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/41a5f1af68b9fd647df540c67f1a464a?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Alex Altman</media:title>
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		<title>The U.S. Is Not Going to Default. It&#8217;s Going to Stop Sending Checks.</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2011/07/12/the-u-s-is-not-going-to-default-its-going-to-stop-sending-checks/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2011/07/12/the-u-s-is-not-going-to-default-its-going-to-stop-sending-checks/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 12 Jul 2011 18:08:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Adam Sorensen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Debt]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=52114</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There&#8217;s an important distinction sometimes lost in the current debate over raising the debt ceiling. On Aug. 2 (or thereabouts), the U.S. government is not going to default on its credit obligations, not just yet anyway. If the borrowing limit isn&#8217;t increased, the Treasury Department is going to start taking some very unpleasant steps that everyone will regret in order to prevent a default. While the public may have mixed feelings about &#8212; and a tenuous understanding of &#8211;  raising the debt ceiling, there&#8217;s certainly no ambivalence about getting active duty troops their pay or receiving Social Security checks. Obama made this point in the abstract at Monday&#8217;s press conference, and he&#8217;s able to make it directly to &#8220;the folks at home&#8221; in this interview with CBS News, albeit with a big assist from the interviewer.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=52114&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Debt</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/domestic-policy-2/debt-domestic-policy/</primary_category_link>
		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/7666b70a5b0305bd59953f5bca02cce5?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Adam Sorensen</media:title>
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		<title>Behind One of These Three Doors Is a Debt Ceiling Deal</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2011/07/07/behind-one-of-these-three-doors-is-a-debt-ceiling-deal/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2011/07/07/behind-one-of-these-three-doors-is-a-debt-ceiling-deal/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 07 Jul 2011 13:27:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jay Newton-Small</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Debt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Boehner]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[debt ceiling]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[deficits]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[medicare]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[White House]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=51751</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Washington these days feels like a 1960s game show. Our lucky contestants, House Speaker John Boehner and President Barack Obama, are on the stage in front of three doors, listening intently to the audience cheer before they choose which door to open. As the President and congressional leaders meet at the White House Thursday to find common ground on a deal to raise the debt ceiling and reduce deficits, three possible &#8220;prizes&#8221; are emerging. Door Number One: a grand bargain the likes of which is described in the New York Times on Thursday morning. Such a deal could go as high as an eye-popping $3 trillion in overall deficit reduction, but as much as $1 trillion would be in revenues: $700 billion from letting the Bush tax cuts for the highest income brackets expire and another $300 billion from increased revenues, from auctioning off frequencies, increased payments to federal pension plans and ending agriculture subsidies in addition to ending tax breaks such as deductions for corporate jets, yachts and race horses. The deal would come with a pledge, or clawback provision, to revisit comprehensive tax reform in the coming years so as to offset the higher taxes on the wealthy by eventually flattening and broadening the tax base. Such a deal would be, according to GOP House sources, very hard to get through the House in the current climate. The &#8220;Grand Bargain&#8221; would also potentially include sweeping entitlement reforms, including raising the retirement age for Medicare and cuts to Social Security, moves that would meet with Democratic resistance in both chambers. Door Number Two: a more modest package for roughly $1.7 trillion to $2.3 trillion in cuts with upwards of $500 billion in revenue increases, including $40 billion to $60 billion from ending tax breaks for corporate jets, yachts and race horses (and, possibly, a proposal to stop taxing hedge fund managers&#8217; income as capital gains, thus subjecting it to a higher rate); plus $150 billion to $200 billion in increased revenues from requiring more pension contributions from federal employees, broadcast<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=51751&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Debt</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/domestic-policy-2/debt-domestic-policy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/boehnerobama.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">boehnerobama</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">jnewtonsmall</media:title>
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		<title>How the Debt Debate Might Lead to an Impeachment Frenzy</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2011/07/06/how-the-debt-debate-might-lead-to-an-impeachment-frenzy/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2011/07/06/how-the-debt-debate-might-lead-to-an-impeachment-frenzy/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 06 Jul 2011 15:59:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Crowley</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Debt]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=51680</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[At Tuesday&#8217;s White House press briefing, Obama spokesman Jay Carney was asked whether the President might circumvent the tortured efforts to strike a debt-ceiling deal with Republicans and invoke the U.S. Constitution&#8217;s 14th amendment, which contains a clause providing that &#8220;The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law…shall not be questioned.&#8221; Carney wouldn&#8217;t go there: &#8220;I don’t think that I want to get into speculation about what might happen if something does or doesn’t happen,&#8221; he said. But Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has gone there, and David Frum imagines the chaotic way things might play out if Obama were to take that route: Public talk of the &#8220;constitutional option&#8221; creates a third even more dangerous incentive: It opens the door to a future in which the president and the secretary of the Treasury issue bonds over the refusal of the House of Representatives. Yet Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution provides that &#8220;all bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives.&#8221; Bonds raise revenue. You don&#8217;t need a crystal teacup to foresee how the Tea Party will react to a bond issue in disregard of the debt ceiling. They will accuse the president of trashing the U.S. Constitution, and somebody will commence impeachment proceedings. This shift of topic is pure win-win for the Tea Party. Unperturbed by the risk of national bankruptcy, they can now hurl charges of tyranny and usurpation against the president through 2012, reserving impeachment as a back-up plan should the GOP candidate somehow lose. Chait, meanwhile, argues that the 14th Amendment option could be John Boehner&#8217;s secret preference: If you&#8217;re John Boehner, it&#8217;s going to be very hard to navigate this issue without infuriating either your voting base or your financial base. You want this issue to go away. In that sense, the 14th Amendment solution might be your best outcome. Indeed, Boehner&#8217;s ideal scenario may be if Obama came out for the 14th Amendment solution and it passes legal muster, allowing him to avoid any ideological compromise<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=51680&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Debt</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/domestic-policy-2/debt-domestic-policy/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">crowley100</media:title>
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