14 TRILLION Dollars And Counting
Jan 3, 2011 Political
Sounds like something one would hear from Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers movies with the little finger to the corner of the mouth and the words “14 trillion dollars”. That is the current debt of the United States and it will only continue to rise unless spending is clamped down on.
Democrats raised the ceiling (Republicans are guilty as well) just enough so that the issue would come up early this year. Democrats want to show Republicans as hypocrites since they were so opposed to raising the ceiling when the Democrats were in charge. This could work or it could be a problem.
Republicans have stated they will not entertain raising the ceiling unless either a balanced budget rule or spending cuts (or both) are put in place. This is a great idea. Republicans can keep the country from defaulting and force Democrats to cut spending.
I would like to see Republicans add the repeal of Obamacare to the bill raising the debt ceiling so that Democrats would be forced to Choose between defaulting or repealing health care. This would allow them to fulfill the promise of repeal and brunt some of the sting of raising the spending limit. I would be willing to see a short term ceiling increase to repeal Obamacare and the increase would give them time to figure spending cuts that would bring the debt down.
No matter what happens we absolutely cannot keep raising the debt ceiling.
It can only do that for so long before we are in default no matter what.
Source:
CBS News
Cave Canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
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Tags: 14 trillion dollars, debt ceiling, Democrats, lies
Democrats To Raise Debt Ceiling Again
Jan 21, 2010 Political
Senate Democrats proposed increasing the debt ceiling another 1.9 TRILLION dollars so the government can pay its bills. This is necessary because of the out of control spending taking place in DC. The Democrats are spending us into oblivion and they keep raising the limit so they can keep spending more. Failure to raise the limit will place America in default.
This is the last thing Democrats need after taking a thumping in Massachusetts. This will give Republicans more ammunition for the upcoming elections and this will certainly be fair. The Democrats were certainly not bashful about commenting when the debt ceiling was raised by Republicans:
- Senate Democrats are expected to use the upcoming debate on raising the limit to highlight the Bush administration’s record on deficits. AP (via Puppet Gov) 9-2007
- “Any objective analysis of our country’s fiscal history would have to conclude this administration and this rubberstamping Republican Congress are the most fiscally irresponsible in the history of our country. In fact, no other president or Congress even comes close.” Harry Reid commenting on the vote to raise debt ceiling March 2006
This does not include the various liberal bloggers who foamed at the mouth like rabid dogs each time the ceiling was raised. These people told us how Bush ruined the economy and spouted that oft told lie about Clinton having a surplus. They all went nuts talking about tax cuts and the war.
I hear none of them talking about Obama and his Democrats raising the ceiling and then spending more and more each time they do. It is like they raise the limit on the national credit card and then go on a spending spree. We have a spending problem, we spend too much.
This exercise is a ritual that plays itself out on occasion and both parties participate and who leads depends on who is in power at the time. This time it is the Democrats and last time it was the Republicans. The minority party usually takes shots at the majority for its fiscal irresponsibility and then once the debt limit is raised they all line up at the trough to spend, spend, spend.
We have this problem because Congress spends too much money. When Republicans were in charge they spent too much and now that Democrats are in charge they spend WAY too much. None of them have any fiscal constraint and they all seem to think money grows on trees.
In the next election we need to remove all incumbents and put some fresh people in there to get the job done. Vote for the challenger in the primaries and put new people in to run against each other rather than allowing incumbents to run unopposed. I will definitely vote for the person on the ticket who is not the incumbent in my state’s Senate race and in my District. This needs to be an anti incumbent year where we get rid of them all.
But until then it will be fun to beat up the Democrats like they did to Republicans. Nothing personal, it just happens to be their turn.
Related:
US Debt
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Tags: debt ceiling, Democrats, Harry Reid, majority, Republicans
By His Own Definition Obama Is A Failed Leader
Dec 12, 2009 Political
I was watching one of the shows on Fox last evening and a Democrat was gushing over Obama’s leadership and how wonderful he was as a leader but Barack Obama is not a leader. Obama could not lead a group of people out of a burning building. Sure, he has followers but more like the Pied Piper had followers. I imagine that people follow him but only out of morbid curiosity.
It does not matter what I think about Obama’s leadership (even though I have more leadership experience than he does) what matters is what Obama says about leadership and what he said is that he is not a leader or more accurately, he is a failed leader.
The Democrats are set to raise the debt ceiling to 14 TRILLION dollars. They say only raise it 1.8 trillion to make it sound better but they are raising it to 14 TRILLION. This is the Democrat party that voted as a group not to raise the debt ceiling when Bush asked for it. Obama was one of the Senators who voted against it and he gave an impassioned speech (he is good at speeches) on the floor in opposition to raising the debt ceiling:
“Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren,” Obama said in a 2006 floor speech that preceded a Senate vote to extend the debt limit. “America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.” The Hill
OK Obamabi, if Washington was shifting the burden of bad choices onto the backs of our children when the debt ceiling was being raised to a lower amount back then, what changes anything now that you are raising it higher?
If it was a debt problem back then why is it not a debt problem now? And the kicker is, Obama said that this was a failure of leadership which means that raising the debt ceiling now, to an even higher level, is a failure of leadership.
I know that B-HO is now running around saying that deficits are bad and we have to curb spending but he spent like there was no tomorrow and ran up huge deficits in 11 months. He has spent more than any other and we still have three years to go.
So let’s be clear, Obama has stated that raising the debt ceiling is a failure of leadership and he is raising the debt ceiling. Therefore, it is a failure of his leadership. Additionally, those Democrats who voted en masse not to raise the limit are going to vote to do it now. This is all coming from the people who brought you the collapse of our economy, the Democrats who were in control when it happened. The Democrats who promised the most transparent, honest, ethical, and open government (Pelosi made that promise) are the ones who crashed the economy and are hiding everything. The Democrats who told you America’s debt problem and raising the debt ceiling were the results of failed leadership are now the leaders raising the ceiling. They have failed us and Obama is a failed leader.
But it will be hard to convince Democrats of this. There is a woman named Deborah White who wrote a scathing post about the Republicans and spending and discussed how responsible Democrats were. Her post came when Republicans raised the debt ceiling to 9 Trillion so I wonder how she will handle this Democrat raise to 14? I am willing to bet that White will not change what she wrote even though Obama has broken all the records and exceeded the things she discussed as bad when Republicans did them.
Democrats like to point to the so called four straight years of surpluses in government revenue just prior to 2001. Of course there was no excess because of intergovernmental debt and because of the way they count but if I give the Democrats the benefit of the doubt on this and agree then I would have to be willing to admit that Republicans “balanced” the budget and created surplus. If there was a surplus then Newt Gingrich was responsible for it because Congress is responsible for the budget. Liberals credit it to Clinton but presidents do not have the authority to spend or money (or not spend it). Congress makes the budget, not the president.
So we went from being fiscally responsible and balanced when Gingrich did it to overspending after Gingrich was gone to a collapse once Democrats took over…
And we have gotten a man, who by his own admission, is a leadership failure.
I am willing to bet that some liberal will comment here and say it was Bush’s fault or different because Obama must save us all…
Related Items:
USA Today
Cleveland.com
Osmoothie
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Tags: debt ceiling, deficit, failed leadership, Obama
Democrats Flip-Flop On Raising The Debt Limit
Oct 23, 2009 Political
When Republicans were in charge they spent like, well Democrats. They ran up huge deficits and asked for an increase in the debt limit (raising the debt ceiling) and that move was opposed by Democrats. Barack Obama was opposed to it when he said it burdened our children with our debt. He was absolutely correct when he said it.
“Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren,” Obama said in a 2006 floor speech that preceded a Senate vote to extend the debt limit. “America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.”
Obama later joined his Democratic colleagues in voting en bloc against raising the debt increase. The Hill
That was then and this is now. Like Obama’s stance on the war in Afghanistan, the “war of necessity” that must be won, which changed and on which he is now floundering, the issue of the debt ceiling is just as fluid.
Yes Republicans spent like there was no tomorrow and yet the Obama Administration has managed to outspend them. Obama’s deficit for this year will be 1.4 TRILLION dollars, nearly twice the deficit of Bush’s last year in office. Now there is an argument to be made that there is an overlap in administrations (though Congress was controlled by Democrats) but the bulk of the spending has come from Obama and his Democrats and the future spending is just as bad.
The Democrats are trying to use parlor tricks to hide the request to raise the debt limit. They are trying to add it to a Defense Authorization Bill. They are trying to hide their vote to raise the debt ceiling by claiming that they had to vote for the bill because it is a necessary one. Given that, why is the debt ceiling increase in it to begin with? Congress does this all the time. They add items that are unpopular to bills that must be passed so they can have cover when people get upset. “Why, I had to vote for it in order to save the three toed pygmy sloth from extinction. It was a choice of not voting to save the little fella or swallowing hard and voting for it while adding the other nasty things.”
Knowing they will face unyielding GOP attacks for voting to increase the eye-popping debt, Democrats are considering attaching a debt increase provision to a must-pass bill, possibly the Defense Department spending bill, according to Democratic and Republican sources. Politco
Their motives are presented as pure but the reality is that they know what they want. If it is so undesirable to vote for extraneous items in bills then they would not ADD them to the bills. They want to vote for the items but they want it to appear as if they had no choice.
These kind of tricks are used all the time. They have attempted to remove the increase in the health care bill with regard to payments to doctors who take Medicare by making it a separate item that adds directly to the deficit. This way they can claim the health care bill was deficit neutral (it is not and it never will be).
Senator Barack Obama correctly stated that raising the debt limit saddles our children with debt. He then voted against the increase (one can debate if that was party alliance or conviction but he voted against it). Now it is time for him to show he truly believed what he said when he was a Senator by vetoing any bill that increases the debt limit.
If he does not, it will show once again that all of his statements and positions have an expiration date.
Big Dog Salute to Gator Sports
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Tags: Congress, debt ceiling, Democrats, dishonesty, Obama, parlor tricks
Debt Ceiling Continues To Rise As Congress Continues To Spend
Aug 10, 2009 Political
The Democrats went nuts when George Bush asked them to raise the debt ceiling. To be fair, the party not in power usually raises hell when the majority party asks for the ceiling to be raised. Both parties are guilty of spending more rather than spending less and this causes havoc with our budget process. The Obama administration is adding to the debt at record levels (the previous record was set last year by Bush and the Democratically controlled Congress) and there appears to be no end in sight. On top of the stimulus that did not stimulate, Obama and the Democrats are pushing for a health care overhaul that will tremendously increase the US debt burden. Obama has been in office for 7 months and already his Treasury Secretary is asking that the debt ceiling be raised:
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner asked Congress to increase the $12.1 trillion debt limit on Friday, saying it is “critically important” that they act in the next two months. WSJ
The federal deficit grew by $181 billion in July and will likely continue to grow. Tax revenues are way down because of the bad economy and the Obama Administration has spent a fortune on a stimulus package that added to the burden and produced no positive results. The cap and trade legislation will further burden taxpayers, including those in the middle class (particularly those in the middle class) and the health care overhaul will likely be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
Congress will likely approve the increase in the debt limit and the vote will probably be party line (or close to it) as it usually is.
The funny thing is that the very same Democrats who balked when Bush wanted to increase the limit and claimed he had no plan to reduce the deficit are the ones asking for an increase when they have no plan to reduce the deficit. By all accounts the Democrats will only continue to add to the problem.
Democrats blamed Bush’s tax cuts on the problem. When taxes are cut the revenue to the treasury increases but that is often ignored for the sake of political grandstanding. Obama has not cut taxes and the deficit is still rising out of control. That is what happens when they spend more money than we have.
Our government needs to go line by line, program by program and make meaningful cuts just like Obama promised to do. Until the out of control spending is reigned in there will be more and more debt and future requests to raise the ceiling.
That is no way to do business.
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Tags: debt ceiling, deficit, geithner, Obama, spending