Given the current political climate and implicit anti-bailout mandate of the new Congress, the Federal government might be powerless to do anything but accept painful state defaults.
Netanyahu responded with thanks, saying Obama spoke of "the great transformation that has occurred in the life of the Jewish people with a rebirth of the Jewish state" that has grown from a once powerless population into a nation that has "both the right and the capability" to defend itself.
The city is powerless, suggests Mr Atrianfar, to force the conservative-run armed forces and the state broadcaster to pay the millions of dollars of back taxes they owe.