Obama schedules potentially ‘catastrophic’ debt-ceiling ‘fiscal cliff II’ for February.

The Cloward-Piven Strategy

Obama schedules potentially ‘catastrophic’ debt-ceiling ‘fiscal cliff II’ for February.(DC).
President Barack Obama scheduled another so-called “fiscal cliff” crisis for February by announcing late Jan. 1 he would refuse to negotiate any curbs on his use of the nation’s maxed-out credit card.
“I will not have another debate with this Congress over whether or not they should pay the bills that they’ve already racked up through the laws that they passed,” he claimed during a late-night appearance on the last-minute resolution to the December 2012 fiscal cliff.
However, the GOP-led Congress wants to use its authority over the nation’s debt ceiling to pressure Obama to shrink future spending, not to repudiate existing debts. (RELATED: House Republicans approve Senate fiscal cliff bill)
Obama is expected to add $3.4 trillion to the national debt by 2017. In his first term, he boosted the national debt by $5.8 trillion, up to $16.4 trillion.
But on Dec. 31, his government hit the $16.4 trillion limit agreed by Congress and Obama in 2011.
Federal officials say they’ll use a series of financial maneuvers to postpone any problems until February. But sometime after that, Obama’s administration won’t be able to borrow more money, and will have to use day-to-day tax revenues to fund the government’s myriad popular and unpopular programs.
Without any negotiations, Washington will be gripped by another fiscal crisis sometime in February, while the GOP and Obama battle for public support and international lenders consider further downgrades to the nation’s credit ratings.
Obama used his brief appearance Jan. 1 to claim that any limits on the government’s ability to borrow funds would be extremely dangerous.
“If Congress refuses to give the United States government the ability to pay [its] bills on time, the consequences for the entire global economy would be catastrophic,” he claimed. Read the full story here.