Letter from President Ronald Reagan to Howard Baker, Senate Majority Leader, on the need to raise the debt ceiling (16 Nov 1983):
'This country now possesses the strongest credit in the world. Th full consequences of a default — or even the serious prospect of a 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 on 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.'
That Reagan, what a wuss! Doesn't he know that government is the enemy, the problem, not the solution? Wouldn't he change his mind if faced with the mouthwatering prospect of bargaining in the "denigration of the full faith and credit of the United States" with its "costs, disruptions, and incalculable damage" if he could get an okay of the Keystone XL pipeline, repeals of anti-pollution legislation and bank regulation, cuts in Medicare, cut in anti-poverty programs, restrictions on malpractice suits, add drilling on federal land, and, of course, repealing Obamacare? Surely he'd think that was a great deal even if we could "ill afford" it, right? Right?
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