As National Debt Obama Ran Up Tops $14 TRILLION (with a T), Obamas Architect of Economic Disaster Whines About Debt Limit

Barack Obama Is Against Raising The Debt Ceiling
"The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s Debt Limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. … Increasing America’s Debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that “the buck stops here.” Instead, Washington is shifti...

Republicans Vow to Cut Spending
(FOXNews.com) - As a new and politically divided Congress prepares to convene Wednesday, the newly muscular Republicans and the White House seem to be on a collision course over whether to raise the federal Debt ceiling. Some Republican lawmakers have vowed not to vote to raise the Debt Limit unless there is a plan in place for dealing with long-term obligations, including Social Security, and for returning to 2008 spending levels. But the White House says that refusing to raise the limit would ...

Bill O'Reilly: Nobody will bail out America if our economy collapses (video)
"ObamaCare is a powerful divide between Conservatives and liberals," acknowledged O'Reilly on Talking Points Commentary. O'Reilly spoke of the emotional investment many Americans have in the Repeal  of the federal Health Care takeover. Symbolizing all that is wrong with America, many consider Obamacare an outrageous assault on the Free Market place by an intrusive government as well as  a curtailing of individual freedom. Since the Democrats have controlled Congress, National Debt has ...

Dont raise the debt ceiling
Daniel Foster at NRO Corner thinks Republicans will get a great bargain in exchange for raising the ceiling on the National Debt — which just hit $14 Trillion. That’s the on-the-books figure, by the way. From Daniel Foster: “Unlikely as it may seem at the moment, I’m becoming more and more convinced that congressional Republicans can get a lot — in terms of Spending Cuts, entitlement reforms, and the like — in exchange for agreeing to raise the federal Debt ceiling at s

New Congress and the Spending Thicket
The 112th Congress, convening today, promises to be one of the most politically charged sessions in recent memory--and one in which Government Spending will dominate the agenda. Barring a sudden crisis, Foreign Policy will be an afterthought amid an intensifying debate over the Debt and the Deficit. Both parties have taken one potentially explosive National Security issue--cuts in defense spending--off the table. Obama is unlikely to demand a vote on any Controversial treaties after his bruisi...

Political Quote of the Day
From former Speaker Nancy Pelosi: “Deficit reduction has been a high priority for us. It is our mantra, pay-as-you-go.”A little context from Fox Nation: The numbers tell a different story. When the Pelosi Democrats took control of Congress on January 4, 2007, the National Debt stood at $8,670,596,242,973.04. The last day of the 111th Congress and Pelosi’s Speakership on December 22, 2010 the National Debt was $13,858,529,371,601.09 - a roughly $5.2 Trillion increase in j...

U.S. National Debt Tops $14 Trillion Dollars
Yesterday, the U.S. Nation Debt clock rolled over and topped the $14 Trillion dollar mark! A great way to start the new year as the 112th Congress prepares to be sworn in today and face many serious economic decisions. Not the least of which is further increasing the Debt Ceiling which currently stands at $14.3 Trillion dollars. While some analysts believe the nation’s ‘Credit Card’ will cover the country’s Deficit spending until April, others, including myself, warn tha...

Bond crisis on the way?
With strong Christmas sales and the Stock Market surging to a two-year high, talk is spreading that the long-awaited recovery is at hand. But gleaning the news from Europe and Asia as U.S. cities, states and the Federal Government sink into Debt, it is difficult to believe a worldwide Financial Crisis that hammers governments, banks and bondholders alike can be long averted. Consider. Fitch and Moody's have just downgraded the debt of Ireland, Greece, Portugal and Hungary. In Budapest, the poli...

Ari Melber: New Congress Begins with GOP Charades and Debt Threats
What are we to make of the fact that two of the top priorities for the 112th Congress, convening for the first time today, involve an irrelevant charade and an irresponsible threat? Repealing Health Care, a pure symbolic activity, is one of the first votes scheduled for next week. House Republicans know their bill will not pass the Senate or clear a presidential Veto. Maybe they want to get their irrelevant votes out of the way early. But it gets worse. The bigger story is the truly bizarre t...

Republicans Push Obama, Dems on Spending Cuts
Republicans became the majority party in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday, and they said they're ready to do what voters screamed for on Election Day -- and that's to stop the spending. This effort may lead to some brutal battles between President Barack Obama, Democrats on Capitol Hill and the newly-empowered Republicans. Politicians always make promises to cut spending, but the new Republican majority, backed by Tea Party power, may have the fervor and numbers to really do it....

John Boehner Rises To Role Of Speaker
WASHINGTON — Incoming House Speaker John Boehner says Congress has been humbled by the American People and "can no longer fall short." In remarks prepared for delivery when he takes office Wednesday, Boehner says lawmakers have been reminded just how temporary the privilege to serve is. The Republicans were swept into power in the House in November's election and gained ground in the Senate, too. Boehner says their goal is to give the government back to the people and provide honesty and...

House budget chief wants concessions over debt (Reuters)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The incoming Republican Budget chief in the U.S. House of Representatives said he will demand spending concessions from the Obama Administration in exchange for any rise in the National Debt ceiling. Paul Ryan, who takes over as chairman of the House Budget Committee as the new Congress convenes on Wednesday, said Republicans could seek to impose caps and other spending limits to control the impact of any rise in the government's $14.3 Trillion borrowing li...

Walking on the supply side with Obama
Larry Kudlow likes what he see so far: The point is, if Team Obama is moving towards an entrepreneurial incentive model of growth, and away from the false consumption model of big-government spending, it’s very good news. Already we have seen a new free-trade initiative. And there’s even talk of broad-based, personal-income tax-rate flattening that could be part of a big-bang tax-reform package. And the congressional momentum is decidedly toward lower spending. Without question there’s go

Pelosi: Hey, we were all about deficit reduction!
When a leader leaves an organization, or at least leadership of it, one expects a rather rosy take on the leader’s stewardship of it. But come on: Deficit reduction has been a high priority for us. It is our mantra, pay-as-you-go. Fox makes sure everyone understands the context: When the Pelosi Democrats took control of Congress on January 4, 2007, the National Debt stood at $8,670,596,242,973.04. The last day of the 111th Congress and Pelosi’s Speakership on December 22, 2010 the ...

Court Slams FDIC for Failing to Abide by FOIA Law in Judicial Watch Bailout Lawsuit
On December 23, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia denied a motion by the Federal Deposit Insurance Company (FDIC) to dismiss a Judicial Watch FOIA Lawsuit filed on behalf of our client, former FDIC employee Vern McKinley. Actually, U.S. District Court Judge Emmett G. Sullivan did more than deny the motion to dismiss.  He also granted, in part, Judicial Watch’s motion for summary judgment and criticized the FDIC by saying the agency “has not fulfilled its obliga

Rep. Issa to Business: What Regulations Do You Hate Most? (The Atlantic Wire)
WASHINGTON, DC – Darrell Issa, the California Republican who recently called the Obama Administration one of the "most corrupt" in recent history, is asking America's business titans which Obama regulations are inhibiting job growth, Politico reports. Issa sent letters last month to over 150 trade associations, companies, and Think Tanks in which he solicited lists of existing and proposed regulations he should investigate and elements of the rulemaking process he should reform in his ne...

New Tea Party Reps Tell Diane Sawyer Pain Should Be Shared By Everyone
As the new Congress settles in, ABC World News‘ Diane Sawyer spoke with eight new representatives and two senators-elect about what they have planned. Among the topics discussed: raising the National Debt limit as The Continuing Resolution and the vote to raise the Debt ceiling loom over Washington. The “new kids” in Congress shared with Sawyer that they are willing to support a higher limit for our national debt, just as long as it is accompanied by an agreement to achieve a b...

The tax deal and Obamas reelection chances
It looks like Robert Gibbs will be leaving the White House to run his own consultancy and work on Obama’s 2012 Campaign. Ruy Teixeira, a politics guys not an econ guy, thinks the Obama-Republican tax deal makes it far more likely that campaign will be a successful one: A significantly better economy is certainly the key to reaching voters in the white Working Class, which supported House Republicans by an unprecedented 30 points in 2010. To be reelected, Obama needs to bring that gap down...

Losing Well Can Be A Win
Mike Konczal at Rortybomb makes an excellent observation in his post responding to Jonathan Bernsteins' query to liberals about what disappointed/surprised them the most about the Obama Administration (which I answered here.) Konczal writes: I expected Obama to be a better loser, specifically to be better at losing. There were a lot of items on the table, a lot of them weren’t going to happen, but it was important for the new future of Liberalism that the Obama team lost them well. And that ...

As A Senator President Obama Voted Against Raising the Debt Ceiling, Called it Leadership Failure
My, oh my, how things change. In 2006 President Obama, who at the time was a First Term US Senator with ambitions, voted against raising the Debt ceiling. He said: “The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s Debt Limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. … I...

Early Morning Swim: Republicans Playing Chicken with Debt Ceiling, Reports Chris Hayes on MSNBC
Batshit. Tea Party champion Sen. Jim DeMint says he’s ready for a “showdown” with President Obama over raising the government Debt ceiling. DeMint’s threat is setting up a high-stakes game of chicken on Capitol Hill with Republicans demanding stark Spending Cuts before they consider raising the Debt Limit and Democrats warning that a failure to do so would trash the country’s Credit Rating and risk a government shutdown. “This needs to be a big showdown,R...

WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Using The Debt Ceiling To Send A Powerful Message. Austan Goolsbee, Obamas
Washington Examiner: Using The Debt Ceiling To Send A Powerful Message. Austan Goolsbee, Obama’s chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, expounds in horror that not raising the National Debt ceiling yet again would be “insanity.” Goolsbee should consult a floor Speech delivered not so long ago by a certain member of Congress who offered this counterargument to automatic debt ceiling increases: “The fact that we are here today to debate raising America&...

Sen. Tom Coburn: Lessons from 1994 and why it's D-Day on the national debt
Sixteen years ago I was among a class of 73 freshmen Republicans who came to Washington for reasons very similar to why 87 freshmen Republicans were just elected. The country was alarmed by Washington’s attempts to take over our Health Care system and disgusted with Congress’ spending and self-indulgence. It’s well-known that the 1994 Republican Revolution sputtered and failed to turn the country around. The failure of that revolution though was not so much a matter of failed ...

Howard Dean Rips Obama Regime For Treating Left Wing With Contempt
Nothing like a little red-on-red action to brighten up your day. Former DNC chairman and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean said Wednesday that William Daley would be a “huge plus” for the Obama Administration if he is tapped to be the president’s new Chief of Staff. Dean praised Daley as someone “who knows Washington, but he also is not of Washington.” At the same time, the former Presidential Candidate excoriated Obama’s senior staff. At a breakfast sponsored b...

Muni Investors Beware: America Is Full Of Chowchilla, Calif. Death Traps (MUN)
Email Sent! You have successfully emailed the post. Andrew Haigney is Managing Director of El CAP, a Registered Investment Advisor in the state of Vermont that provides investment-consulting services to individual investors, corporations, foundations, trustees, and endowments. Just prior to the full onset of the Financial Crisis, my wife and I left our jobs and put our belongings into storage and with our two toddlers embarked on a 12-month trip around the United States in a converted tour bus...