Baucus warns GOP against 'playing chicken' on debt limit

No Negotiations on the Debt Limit
Here’s Paul Ryan talking about the Debt ceiling: But House Budget Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan says that tactic isn’t viable. “Just refusing to vote for it, I don’t think that’s really a strategy,” he said, noting that a failure to raise the ceiling could result in the nation defaulting on its debts to investors. “Will the Debt ceiling be raised? Does it have to be raised? Yes,” he said at an event sponsored by economics21 and the Manhattan Institute ...

Card: GOP must not block debt limit
You know how John Boehner and some hosts on Fox are trying to convince people that Republicans are serious about blocking an increase in the Debt Limit unless President Obama agrees to the GOP plan to immediately slash Federal spending? Well, as former Bush Chief of Staff Andy Card explained to Fox viewers earlier today, Conservatives shouldn't bet on winning this hostage crisis. Boehner and the GOP aren't going to follow through on their threat because the stakes are too high -- blocking the d...

Debt limit already a hot-button issue for GOP
In power scarcely a day, House Republicans bluntly told the White House on Thursday its request to raise the nation’s $14.3 Trillion Debt Limit will require federal Spending Cuts to win their approval, laying down an early marker in a new era of divided government. Speaker John Boehner made the challenge as the new GOP majority voted to cut funding for House members’ own offices and committee operations by $35 million. Rank and File Republicans described that vote as a mere down paym...

'It can't happen'
'IT CAN'T HAPPEN'.... A friend of mine following the Debt-ceiling vote emailed today to note that plenty of notable media Conservatives have warned their Republican allies: don't screw around on this. Charles Krauthammer said on Fox News this week, "The Republicans have to be careful here. In the end the Debt Limit will be raised. You can't not pass it. It is catastrophic. It means American debt is in question. It can't happen." Dana Perino told Sean Hannity a day later, "If [Sen. Jim DeMint] ...

Secretary Geithner warns of consequences of not raising the debt limit
Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner wrote a letter to Congress Thursday warning of the consequences if the House and Senate do not vote to raise the Debt Limit, which will be reached sometime between March and May. He said Congress will have to act before the end of the First Quarter. The consequences of not raising the Debt limit would be severe, Geithner wrote: The Treasury would be forced to default on legal obligations of the United States, causing catastrophic damage to The Economy, pote...

GOP faces spending test as debt nears $14.3T ceiling
The Obama Administration on Thursday told Congress the government is about to hit the $14.3 Trillion Debt ceiling and will need authority to borrow more, kicking off the first major test of spending restraint and the strength of Republicans' new congressional power. Republicans said they won't agree to a higher Debt Limit unless Democrats agree to strict new spending controls. Democrats warned the GOP not "to play chicken" with The Economy and said hitting the limit could be worse than the finan...

Geithner Urges Congress to Raise Debt Limit
(WASHINGTON) — Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner warned congressional leaders Thursday that the government could reach its borrowing limit by spring and failure to raise it could affect millions of American jobs. The government will reach the limit between March 31 and May 16, Geithner said in a letter to congressional leaders. Not increasing the $14.3 Trillion Debt Limit could lead to Job Losses, he said. Inaction could drive up Interest Rates and make it more costly for U.S. companies...

Republicans acknowledge debt limit should rise
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans acknowledged on Thursday they will have to sign off on more Deficit spending to avoid a Debt default that would roil Financial Markets and bring the government to a grinding halt. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner pressed lawmakers to raise the nation's $14.3 Trillion Debt Limit to allow the United States to borrow more and avert a crisis in the coming months. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, a Republican, said he recognized the need to allow the go...

4 Ways to Think About the Debt Ceiling Frenzy
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's letter to Congress on the Debt ceiling warns that if Washington doesn't raise the government's borrowing limit, The Economy will face catastrophe. To which, you might respond: What's a Debt ceiling? What kind of catastrophe? And what outcome should I root for? Let's break this debate down into four questions. 1. What's the Debt ceiling? When Congress passes a law that increases the Deficit, we borrow money to pay the difference. But for reasons that defy sanity,...

Geithner Pushes Congress to Raise Debt Ceiling
Reuters reports: Republicans acknowledged on Thursday they will have to sign off on more Deficit spending to avoid a Debt default that would roil Financial Markets and bring the government to a grinding halt. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner pressed lawmakers to raise the nation’s $14.3 Trillion Debt Limit to allow the United States to borrow more and avert a crisis in the coming months. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, a Republican, said he recognized the need to allow the ...

Conservatives Admit Debt Ceiling Threat Is A Bluff
It's increasingly clear that Republican leaders are bluffing when they threaten to destroy the full faith and credit of the American government by allowing the Debt ceiling to be shattered unless draconian Budget cuts are made. And a clear bluff is a bad bluff. There is no need to concede to any of their demands to protect American credit and the Global Economy. Last year, the now-Speaker John Boehner said Republicans would have to deal with the Debt ceiling like "adults." And this week, the ...

The Debt Limit Fight: Republicans Blink
You knew President Obama would cave on the Bush Tax Cuts when he first started saying that a deal was going to be made. In a brinkmanship fight, the most important weapon is the willingness to allow failure, or at least credibly threaten to do so. So these comments from Paul Ryan on raising the Debt ceiling are a red -- or rather, white -- flag: Some conservative Republicans have urged their GOP colleagues to resist raising the ceiling -- which currently clocks in at $14.3 Trillion -- under any...

Palin: Obama 'hell bent' on weakening America
Sarah Palin is charging that President Barack Obama is “hell-bent on weakening America” by pushing to raise the National Debt ceiling. Continue Reading Text Size - + reset Politico 44 “What I believe that Obama is doing right now — he is hell-bent on weakening America,” the possible 2012 Republican contender said Friday on “The Laura Ingraham Show.” She accused the president of “purposefully” trying to harm the country and acknowledged tha...

Lindsey Graham: Failure To Raise Debt Ceiling Would Cause 'Collapse and Calamity Throughout The World'
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) set himself apart from a number of his Republican colleagues Thursday by taking a stand in favor of raising the Federal Government's Debt ceiling and acknowledging the possible consequences of not doing so. "Let me tell you what's involved if we don't lift the Debt ceiling: financial collapse and calamity throughout the world. That's not lost upon me," Graham said on CNN, according to ThinkProgress. The South Carolina Republican made similar comments Sunday on NBC...

Familiar Game Being Played with Debt Ceiling
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has asked Congress to raise the Debt-ceiling, currently set at $14.4 Trillion.  It’s not an unusual request.  Congress has voted to raise the debt ceiling 10 times in the past 10 years, and about 70 times in the last 50, making the “debt ceiling” more of a “debt elevator.”  But this year could be different.  Several Republican members of Congress, many of whom were backed by anti-spending Tea Party groups,...

Senior Republicans Weigh In On Debt Ceiling Vote
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner today urged Congress to vote to raise the $14.3 Trillion Debt ceiling by March 31, and Obama Administration officials want a vote with no strings attached. Republicans, however, say they’ll only vote for the increase in exchange for a major reduction in spending. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.): “I view it as an opportunity — an opportunity for both sides to come together and say to the American People, ‘We understand tha...

Debt Ceiling
Debt Ceiling Friday, 01/7/2011 - 12:07 pm by Bryce Covert | Post a Comment What is the debt ceiling? The debt ceiling is the maximum amount of debt that the government is legally allowed to take on. Whereas Congress used to approve each federal debt issuance separately, in 1917 it passed the Second Liberty Bond Act, which limited the amount of debt the Treasury can issue but also provided it with more leeway. The Treasury was granted the authority to issue enough debt to fund government oper...

House GOP Challenges Obama on Debt Limit
In power scarcely a day, House Republicans bluntly told the White House on Thursday its request to raise the nation's $14.3 Trillion Debt Limit will require federal Spending Cuts to win their approval, laying down an early marker in a new era of divide......

A compromise on the debt ceiling and another promised-but-meaningless health care vote.
Don't-Tread-on-Meter: Jan. 7, 2011: 14 They wanted an "ObamaCare" Repeal vote, and they'll get an ObamaCare Repeal vote. On Friday, Republicans got the votes to start debating the Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act, for a vote next Wednesday. "They threw out a whole bunch of members of Congress in constitutional Fashion and replaced them with people who took the oath and the pledge to come here to Repeal 'Obamacare,' " explained Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa. "It's pretty simple." Republic...

Re: The Debt Ceiling ... to raise or not to raise?
Over at Contentions ... Peter Wehner addresses Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's letter to Congress yesterday, and makes an 'adult' argument for the GOP to agree to an increase in the Debt ceiling as a way to win concessions on spending ... saying that the argument for limiting the size of the federal government and reducing spending is extremely strong - but refusing to raise the Debt ceiling, however, isn't the way or the place to do it. While my gut tells me Wehner's right, in my heart of...

What a debt default would mean
The letter Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner sent to Congress on the Debt ceiling is worth reading in full, as it does a nice job describing a danger that I'm not sure most people fully appreciate. My sense is that the mental model most people have of defaulting on the Debt ceiling looks something like shutting down the government. But that's not it at all. It's more like shutting down The Economy. Think back to the Financial Crisis. The underlying cause was that various financial entities stopped...

The implicit lie that the GOP will endlessly repeat
By cutting its own Budget by 5 percent, Speaker John Boehner said Thursday that “the House has sent a strong signal of its commitment to making the tough choices necessary to end Washington’s job-killing spending binge .” In comments today on raising the Debt Limit, Boehner called for action to “cut spending and end the job-killing spending binge in Washington.” In announcing the tax-cut agreement last month with President Obama, Boehner said that “if we actually wa...

Paul Ryan: Debt limit must be raised
John Boehner, yesterday, on the Debt Limit: The American People will not stand for such an increase unless it is accompanied by meaningful action by the President and Congress to cut spending and end the job-killing spending binge in Washington. Then came Paul Ryan, the top GOPer on the House Budget Committee: "Just refusing to vote for it, I don't think that's really a strategy," he said, noting that a failure to raise the ceiling could result in the nation defaulting on its Debts to investor...

CBO: Health repeal would deepen deficit
Source: Washington Post Rescinding the federal law to overhaul the health-care system, the first objective of House Republicans who ascended to power this week, would ratchet up the federal Deficit by about $230 billion over the next decade and leave 32 million more Americans Uninsured, according to congressional Budget analysts. The rough estimate by the Congressional Budget Office also predicts that most Americans would pay more for private Health Insurance if the law were repealed. The 10-pa...

Tea party groups warn GOP
With the GOP now taking control of the House, but showing signs that they may be backing down from promises made on the Campaign Trail, Tea Party groups are warning Republicans that they are watching them: As Republicans celebrated their new power in Washington yesterday, two prominent Tea Party Activists walked the halls of Capitol Hill carrying a message: we’re keeping an eye on you. Although many freshman lawmakers ran on a Tea Party platform — and enjoyed Tea Party support — Je...