Politico has an article  Debt ceiling debate turns ‘scary’.  Here are a few quotes from the article.

President Obama has threatened to veto House Republicans’ debt plan.

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Washington’s frayed nerves showed through Monday amid tough talk on the right, a White House veto threat, canceled weekend passes and the top Senate Democrat likening default to a “very, very scary” outcome even for those “who believe government should be small enough to drown in a bathtub.”

Finally we get to the word veto.  It is about time.

To let you know how serious I take this, here is an investment change I made today.  I had a variable annuity that has been invested in an investment grade bond fund.  It is my only investment in bonds. I have been thinking for a long time that I ought to turn it into an income producing annuity.  The application papers to do this are on the way to me for signature.  In the mean time, I locked in the value of the investment today by exchanging the bond fund for a money market fund in the variable annuity.  By the end of the week this money will be invested in a fixed income annuity.  Decisions like this are what drive bond prices down (and bond yields up).

At ALEC Politicians, you’ll find a partial list of politicians involved with ALEC.

… Trove of Over 800 “Model” Bills Secretly Voted on by Corporations to Rewrite Your Rights. Learn More at ALECexposed
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ALEC is not a lobby; it is not a front group. It is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, behind closed doors, corporations hand state legislators the changes to the law they desire that directly benefit their bottom line. Along with legislators, corporations have membership in ALEC. Corporations sit on all nine ALEC task forces and vote with legislators to approve “model” bills.

Here is an email I received today.

Paul Krugman’s piece, Getting to Crazy, repeats a question on commentators lips,

A number of commentators seem shocked at how unreasonable Republicans are being. “Has the G.O.P. gone insane?” they ask.

You can probably figure out the answer without even clicking on the link above to see the whole article.

Thanks again to LlandaR for suggesting this post.

The quotes below are from the article Koch Brothers’ ALEC Tentacles Creep Into Your State by Allison Kilkeny.

we now know that ALEC (the American Legislative Exchange Council), a front group for major corporations, the Koch brothers and right-wing lobbying groups, actively disseminated model bills promoting its agenda to state leaders.

ALEC creates plausible deniability for state legislators by claiming it’s not lobbying, of course, but merely making friendly suggestions and, in turn, the legislators ultimately reap the rewards of being extra nice to ALEC’s corporate clients.
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ALEC’s Public Safety and Elections Task Force approved a piece of model legislation called the “Voter ID Act,” that calls for voters to have IDs with both a photo and expiration date, which, of course, rules out college IDs from young voters who historically vote overwhelmingly Democrat. These types of bills also discriminate against poor and minority voters, who again, tend to vote for Republicans’ ideological opponents.
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An ALEC model called “Prevailing Wage Repeal Act” would repeal all laws requiring administratively determined employee compensation rates, including wages, salaries and benefits. CMD notes that paying the prevailing wage is designed to ensure quality work is done on public projects and also helps keep wage standards in the construction industry.
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“The Employer Standing Act” gives an employer preferential standing before the appropriate boards or commission to dispose of a workers’ compensation claim if they can convince the board the claim was filed fraudulently. This bill gives rights to corporations and employers at the expense of workers, notes CMD.

When you consider how benign it is to watch NOVA on PBS sponsored by one of the Koch brothers or for MIT to accept huge amounts of money to build a cancer research building and name it after this Koch brother, let this post flit through your brain for just a moment.

The article Texas’ Fast-Growing Debt Tops That Of U.S. Government’s shows one way to get around Constitutionally mandated balanced budgets.

For all the controversy over the national debt ceiling, here’s a surprise: Since 2001, the debt load in conservative Texas has grown faster than the federal debt.
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Local borrowing accounts for almost 85 percent of public debt in Texas, because the government is so decentralized.
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Still, the trend is undeniable. While Texas lawmakers have refused to raise taxes — and often criticize Washington for borrowing and spending — the state has been paying for much of its expansion with borrowed money.
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Texas doesn’t appear to be overextended. In a May report, Standard & Poor’s gave the state an AA+ rating, citing its outperforming economy, strong cash management and constitutional limits on debt.

The Texas state government finds it east to stay within its constitutionally mandated balanced budget limits.  The state just pushes off the task of coming up with the money onto the local governments within the state.

You don’t suppose that if we had a federal balanced budget constitutional amendment, the state and local governments would be forced to pay for what the federal government could no longer fund?