In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece https://www.wsj.com/articles/congress-raise-debt-limit-ceiling-yellen-treasury-brinkmanship-federal-budget-11632069056, Yellen said that the crisis triggered by a default would compound the damage from the continuing coronavirus pandemic, roiling markets and plunging the U.S. economy back into recession at the cost of millions of jobs and a lasting hike in interest rates.

“We would emerge from this crisis a permanently weaker nation,” Yellen said, noting that U.S. creditworthiness has been a strategic advantage.

Yellen did not offer a new timeline for a possible default, but described economic damage that would fall on consumers through higher borrowing costs and lower asset prices.

She has said previously that a default could come during October when the Treasury exhausts its cash reserves and extraordinary borrowing capacity under the $28.4 trillion debt limit.

“We can borrow more cheaply than almost any other country, and defaulting would jeopardize this enviable fiscal position. It would also make America a more expensive place to live, as the higher cost of borrowing would fall on consumers,” Yellen wrote. “Mortgage payments, car loans, credit card bills—everything that is purchased with credit would be costlier after default.”

Republicans have refused to support raising or suspending the $28.4 billion. U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy from Louisiana said earlier on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program that Democrats want to increase the borrowing cap to fund trillions of dollars in “Democratic wish list” spending.

Yellen argued the debt ceiling is about paying for past spending obligations, and said waiting too long to lift the debt ceiling can still cause damage, citing a 2011 debt ceiling crisis that pushed the federal government to the brink of default that prompted a credit rating downgrade.

“This led to financial-market disruptions that persisted for months. Time is money here, potentially billions of dollars. Neither delay nor default is tolerable.”

House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in a statement, cited Yellen’s past remarks on the issue and noted that Congress addressed the debt ceiling on a bipartisan basis three times during the Trump administration.

“When we take up the debt limit this month, we expect it to be bipartisan once more,” Pelosi said.

Still, House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn on Sunday that Democrats may have to pass the debt ceiling hike without Republican support.

“I think we ought to do what’s necessary and message to the American people exactly who is trying to destroy this great democracy that we hope to keep in place,” he told CNN.

(Reporting by David Lawder and David Shepardson; Additional reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Diane Craft and Daniel Wallis)

Source: https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-treasurys-yellen-debt-default-205823544.html

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South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, the third-highest-ranking Democrat in the House, said in an interview Sunday that he believes impeachment proceedings ultimately will be launched against Trump at some point in the future. He suggested Democrats are already laying the groundwork in Congress.

DEMS RAMP UP CALLS FOR TRUMP IMPEACHMENT AFTER MUELLER SPEAKS OUT ON RUSSIA PROBE

“I think we’ve already begun,” Clyburn said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”  “We’ve got all of these committees doing their work, we’re having hearings.”

He added: “We do believe that if we sufficiently, effectively educate the public, then we will have done our jobs, and we can move on an impeachment vote and it will stand, and maybe it will be what needs to be done to incent the Senate to act.”

Last week’s public statement from Robert Mueller, the special counsel who led the Russia investigation, emphasizing that his report did not exonerate the president of obstruction of justice accusations has triggered an avalanche of calls from Democrats to begin impeachment.

In a radio interview last week, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., whose committee would lead impeachment proceedings, said “there certainly is” justification for Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against Trump, but said it was critical for the American public to be on board before launching the process.

NADLER: THERE ‘CERTAINLY’ IS JUSTIFICATION TO IMPEACH TRUMP

“Impeachment is a political act, and you cannot impeach a president if the American people will not support it,” Nadler said Friday. “The American people, right now, do not support it because they do not know the story. They don’t know the facts.”

Mueller’s statement has put renewed pressure on Pelosi, who has resisted the calls and questioned the political wisdom of moving forward. During a speech at the California Democratic Party’s convention on Saturday, Pelosi was greeted with “impeach” chants from liberal activists. Pelosi has been non-committal about impeachment and said last week, “Many constituents want to impeach the president. But we want to do what is right and what gets results.”

Despite the momentum, Democrats, even with their congressional majority, still appear to have some work to do in convincing their own party. A New York Times tally says 54 House Democrats support impeachment, 58 do not support it and 123 have not committed. Michigan Rep. Justin Amash is the only House Republican to support impeachment. It takes just a simple majority of the House to impeach.

However, even if they impeach, Democrats do not appear to have the votes in the Senate – where a super majority is required and Republicans have control – to remove Trump from office.

Other top House Democrats, though, are acknowledging the long odds of success.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff  said Sunday on ABC News’ “This Week”  that impeachment “is destined for failure.”

SCHIFF SAYS IMPEACHMENT ‘IS DESTINED FOR FAILURE’

“I think we’re going to do what is right for the country, and at this point, the speaker has not reached the conclusion, and I haven’t either, that it’s the best for the country to put us through an impeachment proceeding that we know will, is, destined for failure in the Senate,” Schiff said.

The momentum inside the party comes as Trump is overseas. On Monday, he met with Queen Elizabeth II and other members of the royal family at Buckingham Palace amid D-Day commemoration ceremonies.

In a tweet on Sunday, the president ripped into Democrats for focusing on impeachment, saying Congress needs to focus on other issues, involving the border, drug prices and infrastructure.

“Democrats can’t impeach a Republican President for crimes committed by Democrats,” the president tweeted, dismissing the Mueller probe as a “witch hunt.”

Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/impeachment-dam-breaking-as-pelosi-deputies-tip-hand-weve-already-begun

The post Impeachment dam breaking as Pelosi deputies tip hand: ‘We’ve already begun’ first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The announcement on Monday by the House Judiciary Committee, which holds the power to begin impeachment proceedings, came as Congress will return later that evening from a weeklong recess and House Democrats will resume its interparty debate on whether to move forward with opening an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.

Witnesses will include the likes of former White House counsel John Dean, who worked for President Richard Nixon during the crux of the Watergate scandal that later led to impeachment proceedings, and other unnamed “former U.S. Attorneys and legal experts,” according to the Judiciary Committee.

“These hearings will allow us to examine the findings laid out in Mueller’s report so that we can work to protect the rule of law and protect future elections through consideration of legislative and other remedies,” Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, said in a statement.

Committee Chairman of U.S. House Judiciary Committee Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) speaks to members of the press on May 29 in New York City.GETTY/STEPHANIE KEITH

The public events, the first of which will be June 10, will play a crucial role in Democrats’ ability to convince the American people that the House should open an impeachment inquiry into the president, as a growing number of party members have called for since the Mueller report’s release. Several Judiciary Committee Democrats viewed Mueller’s public remarks last week, the first of their kind, as a call for Congress to proceed with substantial action, like impeachment.

“Russia attacked our elections to help President Trump win, Trump and his campaign welcomed this help and the President then tried to obstruct the investigation into the attack,” Nadler said. “Mueller confirmed these revelations and has now left Congress to pick up where he left off.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, along with other Democratic leaders in the chamber, have continued to downplay impeachment talk. Speaking at a Commonwealth Club event shortly after Mueller reiterated his report could not exonerate Trump of any criminal wrongdoing, the California Democrat cautioned her party.

“You don’t bring an indictment, or you don’t bring an impeachment, unless you have all of the facts, the strongest possible case, so that the president is held accountable one way or another,” she said.

But patience could be running thing, as one member of leadership—on top of rank-and-file Democrats—warning has now suggested impeachment proceedings could be inevitable.

Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat, told CNN over the weekend he believed that at some point in the future, impeachment proceedings will be brought against the president.

Source: https://www.newsweek.com/house-impeachment-hearing-john-dean-nixon-trump

The post House Democrats to hold hearings on Mueller Report first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.