In 1983, Reagan Warned Of ‘Incalculable Damage’ If Debt Ceiling Wasn’t Raised

Pat Garofalo | ThinkProgress.com
16 May 2011

Republicans poo-pooing the necessity of raising the debt ceiling might want to look to conservative icon Ronald Reagan. In 1983, Reagan warned that the consequences of failing to raise the nation’s borrowing limit “are impossible to predict and awesome to contemplate”:

The full consequences of a default — or even the serious prospect of default — by the United States are impossible to predict and awesome to contemplate. Denigration of the full faith and credit of the United States would have substantial effects on the domestic financial markets and the value of the dollar in exchange markets. The Nation can ill afford to allow such a result. The risks, the costs, the disruptions, and the incalculable damage lead me to but one conclusion: the Senate must pass this legislation before the Congress adjourns.

In a 1987 radio address, Reagan also said, “Congress consistently brings the government to the edge of default before facing its responsibility. This brinksmanship threatens the holders of government bonds and those who rely on Social Security and veterans benefits. Interest rates would skyrocket, instability would occur in financial markets, and the Federal deficit would soar.”

Read the rest:

FDR’s premonitions about the ways Republicans would treat Social Security, saving homes, and work for the unemployed

Sex, lies & politicos: Porn king Larry Flynt book bares politicians' scandalous lives

By Howard Gensler | McClatchy-Tribune
20 July 2011

PHILADELPHIA — Weary of sex scandals that have rocked all portions of our government in recent years, there's a lot of talk on the campaign trail about getting back to the principles of our nation's Founding Fathers.

That sentiment may change if people read the new book, "One Nation Under Sex," by Larry Flynt and historian David Eisenbach, because men such as Ben Franklin, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson would make Bill Clinton, Eliot Spitzer and Arnold Schwarzenegger seem like choirboys, and the partisan press of their era would make the tabloids of today read like children's books.

...

"Americans need to adopt one simple rule," the authors write. "Don't trust anyone who dedicates his or her life to stomping out other people's consensual sexual activities — it is pretty much guaranteed that lurking behind all the antisex zealotry are deep-seated sexual issues."

That's why former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover also gets his own chapter.

Read it here: