[cabonuserollyo]

Like kids playing with GI Joes. Gohmert also suggested that should the GOP force a default, the US Government can essentially hold a global yard sale, selling off federal buildings, park lands, etc. Going out of business - everything must go. Just leave the guns.

Republican lawmakers are pushing President Obama to put seniors, troops, and bondholders at the front of the line should Congress fail to raise the debt ceiling. The rest? Well, that's up to him.

"We're just calling on the president to assume the role of CEO and prioritize accordingly," Rep. Rick Crawford (R-AR) said at a press conference on the issue. Participants repeatedly accused Obama of trying to "scare seniors" by suggesting Social Security payments might be suspended in the wake of a default crisis.

...

The basic Republican claim that the White House has the ability to neatly prioritize spending is heavily disputed, and not only by the Treasury Department. A recent study by the Bipartisan Policy Commission concluded that "handling all payments for important and popular programs (e.g., Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, defense, active duty pay) will quickly become impossible" and the reality would instead be "chaotic."

Some Republicans at Thursday's presser at least tried to offer up a few creative possibilities to close the gap, however vague. Gohmert suggested using TARP funds. Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-MI) acknowledged to TPM there would need to be a partial government shutdown, but said the Fed could sell back Treasury bonds that it acquired as part of its latest round of quantitative easing.

Of course, Huizenga's idea assumes anyone would want to buy those bonds in the middle of a debt crisis that directly affects them. Huizenga said he believed the market would remain stable so long as the US kept making interest payments, but ratings agencies have made suggested that they will downgrade US debt regardless of whether this occurs.

As for the TARP proposal, budget expert Stan Collender dismissed it as "a joke," since it would still require the government to borrow new funds -- which they can't do without raising the debt ceiling.

[tooratrack]

In the month of August, the U.S. will take in approximately $172 billion in revenue. We'll owe $306 billion. That leaves a deficit of $134 billion (the amount that raising the debt ceiling will cover for that month).

Let's say we paid the bondholders, social security, medicare, defense and unemployment. That's $172 billion. That's one month, August.

If we don't pay the rest of the bills -- active military payroll, veterans affairs, dept. of education, parks services, NOAA, EPA, federal salaries etc., etc., etc., that takes $134 billion out of our economy. That's 10% of the U.S. economy, 10% of GDP. That's recession. Immediate recession. In one month.