Quickies: The Demons, Not The Lunatics, Are Running The Asylum.

     This left me absolutely speechless:

     Senate Democrats on Wednesday couldn't agree that federal debt is a national security problem, in a hearing aimed at assessing the long-term strategic implications of the government's $19 trillion debt.

     "A realistic discussion about it, and accepting expert opinion that this debt that we have is not actually right now a threat to our country, is I think a more realistic and honorable way of talking to the American people about it," Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Wednesday.

     What’s that you say? Federal borrowing is crowding private enterprise out of the credit markets? The interest on the debt is squeezing the rest of the federal budget near to collapse? The dollar has weakened so greatly from federal borrowing that major countries are leaving the “dollar standard?” Sorry, Ed Markey can’t hear you. It might endanger his precious social programs.

     And on that note:

     Markey also insisted that Republicans drop their interest in changing entitlement programs as they try to mitigate the projected federal debt.

     Gee, with entitlements near 70% of all federal spending and accelerating toward the stratosphere, wherever shall we look for reductions? Markey has the answer to that, too:

     Markey suggested that nuclear weapons represent one of the top targets for such debt reduction. "There's a proposal to [spend] $1 trillion of new nuclear weapon systems in our country over the next 20 years," he said. "That's a crazy number from my perspective."

     But never fear, there are other Democrats who have the answer:

     "I don't want you to leave with the impression that the Democratic side of this committee is insensitive to the deficit. We're not," said Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin, the ranking Democrat on the panel. "I think Democrats are very concerned that there be adequate revenues in order to be able to make the investments that we think are important for the growth of our nation."

     Yes, I added the emphasis.

     Hide your cattle in the woods, Francois,
     The lord is looking your way.
     Hide your women and your goods, Francois,
     They're coming around to make you pay.

     [Tom Paxton, “When Princes Meet”]

     It’s impossible to believe that anyone that stupid could attain a seat in the United States Senate. They have to be evil...but they’ve both been there for quite a while, so what does that say about their constituents?

     “We are doomed.” – John Derbyshire