Dems, GOP jockey over debt ceiling

Raise the debt ceiling but with conditions
The National Debt is the amount of money that the United States owes. It is exactly like our own household Debts, reflecting the amount of money coming in versus the amount of money going out including paying off debts previously incurred (like car loans and/or Credit Card charges, etc.) It also includes interest on those debts and, oh, those interest charges! The nation has always been in debt except for a brief stint under President Andrew Jackson who made it his mission to eliminate the natio...

Why debt limit must be raised
Excerpts from a Jan. 6 letter from U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geitner to Congressional Majority Leader Harry Reid on the Debt Limit. Never in our history has Congress failed to increase the Debt limit when necessary. Failure would precipitate a default by the United States. Default would impose a significant, long-lasting tax on all Americans and all U.S. businesses and could lead to the loss of millions of jobs. Even a very short-term or limited default would have catastrophic economic con...

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...

Ryan: Debt Ceiling Will be Raised
MSNBC.com reports: Even as it exposes fault lines in the new Republican Caucus, a looming clash over the Federal Government’s borrowing power could serve as a major bargaining chip for Republicans hoping to force President Barack Obama to green light major Spending Cuts. Some conservative Republicans have urged their GOP colleagues to resist raising the ceiling — which currently clocks in at $14.3 Trillion — under any circumstances. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota is collectin...

Primary dealers raise Treasury yield forecasts: Reuters poll
By Chris Reese NEW YORK | Fri Jan 7, 2011 9:12pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Leading Economists have boosted their outlook for Interest Rates on benchmark Treasury Debt in tandem with rising expectations for growth in the world's largest economy, a Reuters poll found on Friday. The forecasts for stronger growth came despite a disappointing U.S. Payrolls report, which showed employers hired less workers than expected in December, although the Unemployment rate ticked lower. "Today's (payrolls) re...

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...

Glenn Beck to Michele Bachmann: Are you seriously voting against the debt ceiling?
He insists (as he’s done before) that he’s on the fence about whether they should vote no, but if even a guy who’s famous for apocalyptic Rhetoric is uncomfortable with the possibilities from this vote, it’s a cinch that the GOP will rustle up enough support to raise the ceiling. (No less than Paul Ryan admitted as much yesterday.) The suspense isn’t whether the votes are there; the suspense is whether The One will very foolishly try to capitalize on the GOP’...

GOP presses on with repeal of health-care law in House
WASHINGTON — House Republicans voted Friday to begin repealing President Obama's health-care law in an effort to follow-through on a key campaign promise to conservative voters who propelled them to office. The two-paragraph Repeal bill is scheduled for a vote Wednesday. Polls show voters have mixed views of the health-care law. The House voted 236-181 to advance the debate, even as a report this week by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office showed that repealing the bill would add...

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,...

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...

A debt ceiling freeze is sheer idiocy
By law, a statutory limit restricts the total amount of Debt the Federal Government can accumulate. This limit can only be increased by Congress. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner noted in a letter to Congress yesterday that this “debt ceiling” will be reached as early as March 31, 2011. Many “Tea Party” Candidates campaigned on the promise to vote against any increases to the Debt ceiling. Following through on this pledge would be unbelievably reckless and could potentially cra

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...

Palin: Debt ceiling a plot by Obama to weaken America
Confused, hateful, or both? Sarah Palin is charging that President Barack Obama is “hell-bent on weakening America” by pushing to raise the National Debt ceiling. “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 that her stinging comments...

John Boehner shows at the start that he is no Gingrich
When Newt Gingrich took the gavel as House Speaker 16 years ago, he promised to transform America. On his first day Wednesday, new House Speaker John Boehner promised the Democratic minority more opportunities to amend Legislation. This Story The Take: The Take: John Boehner shows at the start that he is no Gingrich After wrangling, Constitution is read on House floor, minus passages on Slavery Shouts about Obama interrupt Constitution reading Special Report: The first days of the 112th Congr...

Debt Be Not Proud
Jan 17, 2011, Vol. 16, No. 17 • By YUVAL LEVIN AND WILLIAM KRISTOL Get alerts when there is a new article that might interest you. As the 112th Congress begins its work this month, it must take up some unavoidable unfinished business left behind by its predecessor. In their frantic, sloppy struggle to advance big-ticket items on the liberal agenda, the Democratic leaders of the 111th Congress not only failed to produce a Budget for the current Fiscal Year, they also failed to address the fa...

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 ...

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 ...

Palin: Obamas deliberately trying to weaken America by raising the debt ceiling
I can’t tell if she’s being serious or just making a rhetorical point to rub his face in his Senate vote against raising the ceiling back in 2006. Quoth The One at the time: 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

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...

'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] ...

Obama names Gene Sperling to top economic post
WASHINGTON (AP) — His presidency tied to the fate of The Economy, Barack Obama is revamping his Economic Policy team and signaling cooperation to ascendant Republicans and the business community at a pivotal moment in the nation's recovery and Washington politics. The president is surrounding himself with Veterans of the Clinton Administration. Chief of Staff William Daley, economic overseer Gene Sperling and recently confirmed Budget director Jacob Lew form an inner circle with a history...

Tax Reform Calls Multiply
Bloomberg's Ryan Donmoyer and Rich Miller report this morning that no decisions have been made yet whether President Obama will back Tax Reform. They report Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner will meet January 14th with corporate CFOs to continue the discussion. Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) told reporters, "The country is ripe for Tax Reform...our tax system is broken and needs to be fixed." He said it would be one of his first priorities. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConne...

GOP Leadership Cannot Even Do Their Own Gimmicks Properly
Republicans in Congress seem to have a genius for screwing up their own gimmicks. Two House Republicans have cast votes as members of the 112th Congress, but were not sworn in on Wednesday, a violation of the Constitution on the same day that the GOP had the document read from the podium.The Republicans, Incumbent Pete Sessions of Texas and freshman Mike Fitzpatrick, missed the swearing in because they were at a Fundraiser in the Capitol Visitors Center. The pair watched the swearing-in on tele...

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,...

Will Obama Cave On Extending The Debt Ceiling?
Sit back and let Wall Street Lobbyists do battle with the Tea Party nutjobs they elected to Congress. Let Pimco explain to them what will happen to their bondholdings. And, Goldman Sachs can explain what it would do to the Stock Markets. Let the hedgies inform them about who buttered their bread. …No negotiations. No discussions. No deals. No way. No how. If President Obama were to show strength during these negotiations then it would set up an interesting battle between the lunatic Tea Pa...