Obama's options to break the budget impasse

Obama has an interesting card he can play if the GOP House insists on defunding the government. He could wait, maybe a week, and then announce that the FAA will furlough all of its Air Traffic Controllers. Since most US controllers work for the FAA, that would effectively shut down the movement of aircraft over the entire country - similar to what happened during 9/11. Obama could use this as a threat, saying: "In one week, I will order the FAA to furlough all controllers unless one of two things happens: Either Congress passes a budget bill that I can sign or private donations will have been received sufficient to pay controllers' salaries and to sufficiently fund all other government operations for two months. As the two months near their end, I'll reevaluate the situation with an eye toward repeating this process.  All donations would be returned - at no interest - but only if Congress, when it passes this budget, authorizes such reimbursement."

The President wouldn't be doing anything to hurt the controllers. Congress would, by failing to pass that budget. Or the public would, by failing to donate. Actually, I had in mind that donations would only be accepted from corporations or the 1%. That ought to put a finer point on things.

Some people might consider stopping air traffic to be drastic. But what would be worse - taking decisive action or letting the USA's economy suffer a slow but sure death over a period of several months? To be sure, there's no need for Obama to act immediately. He would have everything to gain by continuing his refusal to "negotiate" Obamacare in exchange for funding the government. I say, let the GOP twist in the wind for a while longer, for surely more people would blame them than him. But my advice to Obama would be: "Don't wait too long or else people will perceive you as indecisive."

The GOP better think long and hard about how long they want this shutdown to go on. Sooner or later, Obama might decide to exercise yet another option, by whispering in Boehner's ear, "Either you take charge and pass a budget bill that doesn't mention Obamacare or I'll introduce you to certain executive powers I have to declare an emergency and take care of this thing myself. Think about it and have a nice day."

In that vein, there was an interesting story in the news about how two US generals were sacked for failure to take appropriate and obvious security measures to protect a US base in Afghanistan from the Taliban. I don't see how a general gets dumped for this, let alone two generals. There's way more going on here than meets the eye, more than anything going on in Afghanistan. I'm betting it's a form of warning to other generals, in terms of how Obama will use the budget crisis (this one or another one in the future) to claim executive authority to override Congress's impasse. He can do this, but first he has to make sure the military brass is sufficiently cowed into inaction. Firing a couple of generals is a good warning shot across the bow, since firings at this level are virtually unheard of.

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Steven Searle, former candidate for US President (in 2008 and 2012)
Founder of the Independent Contractors' Party

Contact me at bpa_cinc@yahoo.com