Democrats and the Debt Ceiling; Chicken Little or Crying Wolf?

As the debt ceiling clock runs out, Obama and the Democrats are running the only economic play they've had since 2008 -- the Chicken Little plan. The only problem is, they sky isn't falling. So, are they simply crying wolf?

"Republicans in the House of Representatives just spent precious days trying to pass a plan that a majority of Republicans and Democrats in the Senate had already said they wouldn't vote for," the Hill reported Obama saying in his weekly message on Saturday morning.

No, it was the Democrats who said they wouldn't vote on the Republican plan. But we will never know how the vote would have played out because Harry Reid and the Democrats "tabled" the bill Friday night and never allowed it to go to the floor for a vote. Harry wants to push his own plan through the Senate where, according to Harry, "The only compromise there is mine."

And to think that DNC Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Shultz (D-Fla.), says it's the GOP imposing a "dictatorship."

And "there is now another filibuster," Harry whined later according to the Washington Times. "That's what this is. It's a filibuster to stop us from moving forward." But it's the Democrats enforcing the filibuster on their own legislation, insisting on delaying a vote until 1 a.m. Sunday morning.

But shortly after 10 p.m, as talks between McConnell (R-Ky.) and Vice President Biden had made significant progress, Harry begrudgingly announced that the vote on bill has been pushed to 1 p.m.

It' for the best. Harry's plan is a waste of time. As it turns out, the $1 trillion he proposed in spending cuts are comprised of spending that was never requested and would never have been spent to begin with. Even with a Democrat controlled Senate he couldn't get it passed.

Republicans "refuse to negotiate in good faith," Reid pouted. "The process has not been moved forward during this day."

"I'm more optimistic than my friend the majority leader," McConnell countered. "I think we've got a chance of getting there."

Sunday morning, the Washington Post reported Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announcing that congressional leaders and the White House were "very, very close" to a deal. It includes raising the debt by $2.4 trillion in two stages - $1 trillion now and the rest later in the year - the Associated Press reported with $3 trillion in cuts and no tax increases. But ABC reports that the "deficit reduction could take the form of spending cuts, tax increases or both." Just like Obamacare, I guess we'll have to wait until lawmakers in Washington pass the debt ceiling bill before the rest of us can find out "what's in it."

"There are many elements to be finalized," Harry whined. But he is not involved in the current negotiations and has to rely on information scraps from those behind the doors. "There is still a distance to go."

He knew his plan was DOA and, now that he has been sidelined and a real progress has ensued, Harry must settle for trying to be seen as the inspiration behind the new bipartisan progress. At 1 p.m., Harry's bill was unceremoniously euthanized in the Democrat controlled Senate.

The "very, very close" deal seems closer to the Republican plans than anything proposed by Democrats; cuts exceeding a two-stage increase, Medicare reform part of the package, a balanced budget amendment... So who has been holding out, using fear to push their agenda and refusing to "negotiate in good faith"?

In his weekly address earlier on Saturday, Obama said that if congress doesn't reach an agreement quickly to raise the debt limit by Tuesday the U.S. was going to lose its AAA credit rating for the first time in our history. According to The Hill, Moody's said the threat of downgrade stems from a failure to implement significant "deficit reductions" to existing debt, not because of a delay in raising the debt limit further "quickly".

This week, Obama said he needs a bill to sign by Tuesday, "so that our country will have the ability to pay its bills on time, bills like Social Security checks, veterans' benefits, and contracts we've signed with thousands of American businesses."

But last week Obama said he wants to raise the debt to pay for new stuff, "things like new roads and bridges, medical research and weather satellites" the Huffington Post reported. Those are things that $787 billion stimulus package '" which the Congressional Budget Office said really cost American taxpayers $821 billion - was already supposed to have covered. Remember, that's where all of those shovel ready jobs were supposed to come from, the "shovel ready jobs" that wound up not being "as shovel ready" as Obama lead us to believe.

Obama and the Council Chair of his Presidential Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt thought that was so funny.

"There are multiple ways to solve this problem," the president said.

No, there isn't. On July 14, Standard and Poor said there's only one way. "If Congress and the Administration reach an agreement of about $4 trillion, and if we [were] to conclude that such an agreement would be enacted and maintained throughout the decade, we could, other things unchanged, affirm the 'AAA' long-term rating and A-1+ short-term ratings on the U.S."

Remember, back in April, Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) proposed a plan that would cut $5.8 trillion over the next decade. Obama and the Democrats summarily rejected that plan.

As far as Moody's is concerned, the nation will only default if it misses an interest or principal payment on U.S. debt, not if it misses payments on other obligations like federal employee salaries or Social Security benefits.

Al Franken already admitted that "the Bipartisan Policy briefed members of the House Republican Caucus on the actual implications of the Aug. 2nd deadline" and "we could pay our debt interest, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, vendors for defense projects, and unemployment insurance."

So why did Sen.Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) stand on the Senate floor and push the 'what happens if we can't pay our bills for the first time in history' meme again?

While Obama is amused by those who say he should be more involved with the process, Valerie Jarret assured America that, "He's getting absolutely no sleep," the Washington Examiner reported "He's working tirelessly, meeting with his economic team, doing a lot of outreach, exploring all kinds of possibilities for compromise..."

Like scaring off his fans through Twitter-stalking, engaging for months in behind-the-scenes efforts to keep credit rating companies from issuing threats that they might downgrade the United States over the swelling size of the federal debt - or at least getting them to publicly back the Reid plan - and exploring the possibilities of using the Fourteenth Amendment to bypass the Republican controlled House and raise the debt ceiling on his own.

"I have talked to my lawyers," Reuters reported the president admitting. But so far, "they are not persuaded that that is a winning argument."

"I'm trying to save the planet," said Nancy Pelosi said when the deficit was only at $500 billion. "I'm trying to save the planet." It was 2008, back when Democrats controlled both houses of congress, she was Speaker of the House. A month later she would chair the convention in Denver to nominate Barack Obama - "the next president of the United States."

After two and half years years of Democrat legislation later our national debt stands at $14.5 trillion and Nancy wants everyone to believe her party is "trying to save life on this planet as we know it today."

In the meantime, NBC's John Carney spoke to an unnamed White House source who is fretting that the stock markets aren't cooperating with their efforts to inspire Wall Street panic.

"We were following the script from 2008," the source lamented, remembering the good old days when the market collapsed on queue and the failure of TARP "spooked everyone enough to get them to fall in line."

The White House is very distressed about that. They've been trying so very hard.

"We thought the same thing would happen this week," Carney bemoaned. "Frankly, a bit of panic would be very helpful right now."

And little Debbie (D-Fla.), says it's the GOP trying to "spark panic and chaos."