Ron Paul is Done with Congress, Speaker of the House Says Debt Ceiling "Not My Problem", Freedom to Buy Light Bulbs At Risk, Science Wants Senate Leader’s Brain If it Can be Found . . .

And Other News That Gets Commented On

Rep. Ron Paul (R, Tx) announced that he would not be running for re-election to the House in 2012.  Mr. Paul is currently making his second bid for the Republican Presidential nomination, a race he is expected by one and all to lose by a large margin.  His constituents had mixed feelings, sorry to see him go, but happy to get to stop hearing the question, “Why on earth did you ever elect this guy to Congress?”

Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner (R, Oh) has said that raising the debt ceiling was Mr. Obama’s problem.  When reminded that it was the Congress and not the Executive branch that authorized and appropriated every expenditure of the United States Mr. Boehner admitted that he did not know that, and that if that were the case he didn’t understand why Congress wouldn’t allow borrowing to pay for money they had authorized the government to spend.

Some House Republicans are saying that “Having to buy a squiggly fluorescent light bulb is an affront to personal freedom”, and they want to repeal the law.   The same group also feels that laws requiring one to drive on the right hand side of the road restrict the freedom of people who want to drive down the middle of the road, and that requiring employees in a restaurant to wash their hands after, well you know after what, is government imposed hygiene.

Senate Minority Leader McConnell (R, Ky) has proposed a plan in which the debt ceiling can be raised without Congressional approval.  Under his plan the President would request an increase in the debt ceiling and submit a list of non-binding spending cuts equal to the amount of the request.  The request would be allowed unless the Congress passed a resolution denying the request, which they would.  The President would then veto the resolution and Democrats would vote to uphold the veto, thus keeping the resolution from becoming operative and the debt ceiling would be raised.

The result, Senator McConnell summarized would be that the Debt Ceiling would be raised, Republicans would avoid blame for not raising the debt ceiling, Republicans could campaign against raising the debt ceiling, the Democrats could be blamed for raising the debt ceiling, the deficit would not be cut, and Republicans could campaign against the cuts in government spending that did not take place. 

 Several research groups have expressed interest in examining Mr. McConnell’s brain (presumably after his death, although The Dismal Political Economist is not entirely sure about that), saying that any intelligent (?) being that could come up with this plan was well worth studying.  Mr. McConnell supported the idea of having his head examined saying he didn’t understand any of what he proposed and that maybe the scientists could explain it to him.

The Financial Times has reported that Dominique Strauss-Kahn , the former head of the International Monetary Fund, the once and possible future candidate for the Presidency of France and a person accused of an attack on a New York hotel maid, has filed charges of slander against him in France.

As readers of this Forum will have long ago noted, The Dismal Political Economist rarely has a good word to say about anyone at anytime.  However, given the disclosures about the personal life of Mr. Strauss-Kahn (and setting aside the criminal charges against him), The Dismal Political Economist just cannot think of any way to slander Mr. Strauss-Kahn.  Like explaining the popularity of Lady Gaga, it just doesn't seem like something that could be done.