Geithner Travels Globe Essentially Begging For Money To Finance U.S. Debt

I know. The actual headline of the referenced article reads “pitching U.S. debt” but we all know what this really amounts to. It is a vindication of Margaret Thatcher when she said: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”

Unfortunately for Obama and his Democrat cronies, it happened much sooner than they expected. So now, Secretary Geithner must go abroad and seek new infusions of funds to support what amounts to a socialist agenda.

From the Associated Press:

Timothy Geithner, architect of bank, auto and economic rescue plans, has another high-stakes job these days: traveling bond salesman. … Geithner, who traveled last week to the Middle East and Europe, has to convince foreign investors to keep buying Treasury bills, notes and bonds; they hold nearly half of the government’s roughly $7 trillion in publicly traded debt.

But all of this comes with very grave dangers to the U.S. economy. Not just selling the debt but the deficit spending which drives the debt up even further.

Read on:

If foreign demand for U.S. debt sags, that could drive up interest rates and spell big trouble for an economy hobbled by 9.5 percent unemployment. Higher rates would make it more expensive for consumers to buy homes and cars, and for businesses to finance their operations. In the worst case scenario, a rush by foreigners to sell their U.S. debt could send the dollar crashing and inflation soaring.

Although some analysts say that this would never happen, don’t pretend that the possibility isn’t there. After all, the analysts were convinced that the Japanese would never be able to attack Pearl Harbor.

But there are some very telling signs about how the rest of the world feels about our government’s current spending spree:

Last month, [Geithner] visited China, the largest foreign holder of U.S. Treasuries. That trip was marked by an extra dose of drama. In March, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said his country was concerned about the “safety” of the large amounts of money it had lent to the United States. … The deficit-cutting proposals the administration has so far revealed would fall far short of what is needed. “If the Obama administration has a credible plan to bring the deficits down, they are keeping it a deep secret at the moment,” said Michael Mussa, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute and former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund. With nearly three months left in the budget year, the Obama administration forecasts that this year’s deficit will total $1.84 trillion, more than four times the size of last year’s record tally. … When Geithner told a packed auditorium at Peking University that Chinese investments in the U.S. were safe, his comment was greeted by laughter.

That should have been a huge eye-opener to Geithner, Obama and the Democrats who continue to call for spending like drunken sailors.

It should be a huge eye-opener for the rest of us as well.

You can access the complete article on-line here:

Geithner Travels Globe, Pitching U.S. Debt
Associated Press via MSNBC
July 19, 2009

Video: Rep. Michelle Bachmann Questions Tim Geithner’s Knowledge Of The Constitution

This is something that all legislators, Democrat and Republican, should be doing. They should always question whether or not a policy or proposed bill has a basis somewhere in the Constitution.

I don’t mean from court rulings or extensions of court rulings. I mean in the document itself. For any particular bill in front of Congress, can the sponsors cite Article and Section of the Constitution that gives the government the power to enact such legislation? If they cannot, then the proposed bill should be immediately thrown out.

For example, not one member of Congress can quote any part of the Constitution that grants Congress the power to retroactively impose taxes on a narrowly defined group of people. But I can certainly point to a section of the Constitution that unambiguously prohibits it.

That is why Michelle Bachmann is such a rising start in the GOP and among Conservatives in general. She is asking such questions. Here is a transcript of the exchange between Rep. Bachmann and Seccretary of the Treasury Geithner:

BACHMANN: What provision in the Constitution could you point to … to give authority for the actions that have been taken by the Treasury since March of ’08? GEITHNER: Oh, well, the — the Congress legislated in the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act a range of very important new authorities. BACHMANN: Sir, in the Constitution. What — what in the Constitution could you point to to — to give authority to the Treasury for the extraordinary actions that have been taken? GEITHNER: Every action that the Treasury and the Fed and the FDIC is — is — has been using authority granted by this body — by this body, the Congress. BACHMANN: And by — in the Constitution, what could you point to? GEITHNER: Under the laws of the land, of course.

You’ll notice that Geithner never answered her question despite the fact that it is a very legitimate question. In fact, Rep. Bachmann had to ask it three times. He punted and simply said “the laws of the land.” Unfortunately for Geithner, the phrase “law of the land” appears in the Constitution only in Article VI and establishes the Constitution as the final authority over the several states. Article VI does not give the government the powers the Obama administration is taking for itself.

As for Old Media reporters, they should be asking the same questions. After all, they do style themselves as “watchdogs of government.”

There are many unhinged libs at websites like the Daily Kos and Huffington Post who are stamping their feet like little children right now over the way Michelle Bachmann exposed Geithner’s ignorance of the Constitution, but none of them are able to answer Rep. Bachmann’s question either.

The truth is, there is nothing in the Constitution that gives the government any power whatsoever to go in and take over the businesses and firms in the private sector. None. If you believe there is, please respond to this post by citing Section and Article of the Constitution.

If you are able to do so, then you will have done something that the current Secretary of the Treasury was embarrassingly unable to do.

You can access the video on-line here:

Congresswoman Bachmann Questions Geithner & Bernanke About A Global Currency
YouTube
March 24, 2009