Fire! Nah, Just Kidding

Do not speak untruths.

The Boy Who Cried Wolf suffered a form of punitive peer judgement from the village to whom he repeatedly asked for help when none was actually needed. We all know how that turned out. Today, the punishment is on the books. One cannot yell "fire" in a crowded theater, e.g., just to see people flee in a panic and possibly trample one another. Of course, if there is a fire, by all means please yell.

There are also penalties for telling untruths by even the President of the United States, particularly if those lies are designed to cause a similar panic, such as the frequent warnings that House Republicans will cause the United States of America to "go into default on our obligations for the first time in history". Not only does this make the financial markets jumpy, but it's also simply not so.

The United States is not going to default, period.

The debt limit restricts government expenditures to the amount of its incoming revenues -- which is still quite substantial -- and does not prohibit the government from servicing its debt. To compare to a household budget; if your bank says it will not lend you any more money, that does not mean that you can't spend your paycheck.

Obama has also lied about...well,  everything, to be honest, but for now let's just stick to some specifics. Obama recently said that it was "unprecedented" for the raising of the debt ceiling to be linked to unrelated budget issues, calling the Republicans' demands "extortion", and accusing the Republicans of "strapping bombs on their chests". The only thing unprecedented is the president's rhetoric in dealing with members of the opposition party.

Obama also said recently that raising the debt ceiling has no effect on the deficit. Despite being a whopper of unprecedented proportions, the products of the State-sponsored school system believe it because the president said it. Now, it could be argued that the statement itself is technically true, since the immediate effect would be nil unless the government begins spending. Have we ever seen the government stop spending? Slow spending? Spend wisely?

Not that it would ever happen, but there is an argument to be made that Obama's constant harping on the possibility that America could default on its debts is an impeachable offense. See Dan Calabrese's article here  from www.Caintv.com.

Personally, I think Obama could be impeached on a variety of charges, but with a Democrat controlled Senate, we're stuck with him for another 1,124 days.

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