Battle over the debt ceiling heats up

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...

The Unseriousness Of The Right
Their healthcare proposal? Nothing that would begin to cover what ObamaCare would - but an increase in the Deficit and Debt. Their Budget proposal? No cuts to entitlements or defense, no tax hikes, and pathetic squabbling over Discretionary Spending. I'm with James Hamilton: If you have a concrete proposal to raise Tax Revenue or cut spending, then put it on the table. But if you simply want to grandstand on the debt ceiling as if it were a stand-alone issue, it is clear that you have nothing ...

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...

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

Republicans abandon pay-as-you-go budgeting (Rep. Lloyd Doggett)
On day one of this new Congress, the House Republicans first step is backwards. While professing great concern about spending and Debt, they abandon pay-as-you-go budgeting, returning to the Bush-Cheney approach -- endless borrowing. They claimed so much wasteful spending could be eliminated, but reject the very rule that required them to cut spending as one way to offset the revenue loss from each new Tax Break they give away. Their misleading “Cut-Go” just cuts fiscal discipline and says...

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 ...

Time to grab the third rail, Madame Governor
Soon, Governor Martinez sends the 2011 Legislature her Budget for fiscal 2012. At last count, she is looking to plug a $400 million gap. She campaigned on the promise that she would not make Spending Cuts to education or Medicaid. Read my lips: ‘Where are you going to find $400 million to plug the gap, Madame Governor?’ The “Third Rail” of politics refers to extremely Controversial issues in which it is observed that, when acting unilaterally, “touch it, and you die...

The Debt-Ceiling War: Wall Street Could Be a Casualty
When the new Congress meets for the first time this week, Debt and Government Spending will sit firmly at the top of its agenda. Unlike past debates, this one could have a chilling effect on Wall Street -- as worried traders wonder if the U.S. could end up on the same chaotic economic path taken by Greece or Spain. No one really thinks the U.S. can't pay its bills anymore. But a threat by some Republicans to vote against raising the Debt ceiling -- currently at around $14 Trillion -- could cau...

Kansas' Pompeo joins the new Republicans in the house
Mike Pompeo will be amoung the new Republican Representatives taking over today in Congress. Pompeo is a conservative Republican who was elected to fill the seat left by Todd Tiahrt in the 4th Kansas District for the US House of Representatives. Kansas politicians, he did not make a point of identifying himself with the Tea Party during his election campaign. He seems to be a more conventional conservative. He does share many of the Tea Party platforms. On Health Care he opposes the Obama Heal...

Republicans take over House, dilute cuts
By Thomas Ferraro and Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON | Wed Jan 5, 2011 12:45pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans scaled back plans for deep cuts in Government Spending as they took power in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, diluting a key promise that helped them to victory in November's election. A senior Republican also signaled the party could work with the administration of President Barack Obama, a Democrat, to avert a Debt crisis in the coming months. "Our spending has caught up...

RYAN: WILL RAISE DEBT CEILING IN RETURN FOR SPENDING CUTS
NYTIMES: The incoming Budget chief in the House of Representatives on Wednesday said he will demand spending concessions from the Obama Administration in exchange for any increase in the national Debt ceiling. Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, who is about to take over the House Budget Committee as its new Republican chairman, also said in television interviews that the Republicans' $100 billion target for Spending Cuts this year has been "compromised" by federal spending already under w...

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....

Republicans take over House, dilute cuts
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans scaled back plans for deep cuts in Government Spending as they took power in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, diluting a key promise that helped them to victory in November's election. A senior Republican also signaled the party could work with the administration of President Barack Obama, a Democrat, to avert a Debt crisis in the coming months. "Our spending has caught up with us, and our Debt will soon eclipse the size of our entire economy. Hard wo...

Why Do So Many Conservatives Like Mitch Daniels?
Mitch Daniels presents something of an enigma for Conservatives. One more than one occasion, Mr. Daniels, Indiana’s Republican Governor and a potential 2012 Presidential Candidate, has rejected conservative orthodoxy. As governor, he has raised Indiana’s Sales Tax. He has mentioned the possibility that the Federal Government may need to adopt a national sales tax to close the Deficit. He has even suggested that Republicans have too paid much attention to Social Issues. Why, then, are so man...

Did Eric Cantor's Criticism of ObamaCare's Budgeting Cross a New Line for the GOP?
Is Eric Cantor, the GOP’s new House Majority Leader, accusing the Congressional Budget Office of bad faith for its Health Care scores? A report in The New York Times suggests that Cantor is pioneering a new and especially harsh criticism of the congressional scorekeeper. According to the piece, Cantor “crossed beyond the Republicans’ longstanding criticism of the Health Care law in his indictment of the Congressional Budget Office” when he “accused the nonpartisan Congressiona

European Bond Spreads Leak Wider Following Portuguese Bill Auction
: The German Federal Government topped up its 2.50%-coupon, January 2021 Bund by E3.916 billion at a minimum price of 96.79 the Bundesbank announced Wednesday. The average yield on the top-up of the 10-year Bund was 2.87%, up from 2.59% at the bond's initial auction November 24. The weighted average price came to 96.81, and the government accepted 100% of bids at the minimum price. There were a total of E6.290 billion in bids for today's sale, resulting in a bid/cover ratio (excluding Bundesbank...

Tea Party Activists Take Hard Line On GOP Agenda
Republicans preparing to take control of the U.S. House when the 112th Congress convenes Wednesday have been scrambling in recent days to salute the Tea Party Activists who helped drive Democrats from power last November. They've ordered a reading of the Constitution on opening day and required that all new Legislation cite a constitutional provision permitting the proposed action. They've pledged to cut 2.6 percent of the House operations Budget and teed up a largely symbolic vote on repealing ...

File under 'can't win'
By Ezra Klein WashPost During the Bush Administration, Democrats made a Big Deal of the Republicans' tendency to pass big initiatives without paying for them. The Tax Cuts, for instance, went right onto the Deficit. So too did the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit. The Democrats promised that they'd be more responsible. They'd pay for their big projects. When health-care reform came around, they made good. They cut $500 billion from Medicare, handing Conservatives a potent attack line. They i...

Boehner: The Peoples House
Republican John Boehner (pronounced bay-nor) will take the House gavel from Democrat Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday in Washington, D.C. - becoming the 61st Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. Ironically, it was Boehner who handed the gavel to Pelosi four years (and four Trillion dollars in Deficit spending) ago. So … how much more Deficit spending will Boehner’s party add to the pile? You know … beyond the fiscal excesses that future generations of Taxpayers have bee...

Repealing health-care reform would cost hundreds of billions of dollars -- and Eric Cantor knows it
Source: Washington Post House Republicans are in a pickle: One of their new rules says that new Legislation must be paid for. But the health-care bill reduces the federal Deficit by more than $100 billion over the next 10 years. Luckily, they've figured out an answer to their problem: They've decided to simply exempt the Repeal bill from the rules. That means they're beginning the 112th Congress by lifting their own rules in order to take a vote that will increase the deficit. Change we can beli...

"Republican Coronation Day"
"There's a lot we don't know about this guy," said G. Terry Madonna, director of the Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa. "The voters don't have a clear sense about who he is. It was more of a reaction about her ." And he told Andrea that he's offended the US government would want to raise the Debt ceiling.Can you image a thing like that? And to him all we needed was a little fiscal restraint and the USofA would be in fine shape economically. ...

Eliminating Government Waste in 2011
Government spending out of control for years was a big part of the rise of the Tea Party onto the National,State and Local scene of Politics. This article has never been more timely or crucial than now in January 2011 our State of Georgia is suffering huge Budget Deficits. Where can we cut waste out of the state budget?   "The Budget is bad, bad, bad, but I believe we're getting better," Collins said at the breakfast meeting. "Georgia has to have a Balanced Budget ... and economic time...

Lawrence G. McDonald: What You Should Know About the New Congress
Later today, all of the members of the House and a third of the Senate will be sworn in and the new reality in Washington will officially set in. The initiatives that will roll out of each body in the coming days and weeks will be a radical departure from the Democratic dominance of the past years. However, we expect that the most serious proposals will also be strikingly different from the long list of priorities that existed for both parties during the last two shifts in power. In addition t...

Vieira to Paul Ryan: It Feels Like the GOP is Out For 'Revenge'
NBC's Meredith Vieira wasted no time in jumping down Paul Ryan's throat, on Wednesday's Today show, as she said it appeared the Republican Party did not care as much about creating jobs, since they seemed to be more focused on repealing ObamaCare, which the Today co-anchor characterized as "an act of revenge." For his part the Wisconsin Republican Congressman responded that repealing Obamacare law had everything to do with creating jobs since, as he educated Vieira, "T...

Hoyer Blames Reagan and Bushes for Deficits, Says Policies Did Nothing to Grow Economy
Tuesday, January 04, 2011 By Dan Joseph FILE: House Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer of Md., Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2010. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) (CNSNews.com) - In his last day as House Majority Leader, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) put much of the blame for America’s growing Debt on past Republican administrations, including former President Ronald Reagan. “Ronald Reagan came in and adopted an economic program that created $1.4 Trillion in Deficits over the next eight years,” Hoyer said in a C