Geithner Pushes Congress to Raise 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...

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...

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...

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’...

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...

Number of the Week: Interest Payments on Federal Debt
Yahoo! Buzz 3.4%: The Congressional Budget Office’s estimate of interest payments on the U.S. federal Debt, as a share of annual economic output, in the year 2020. As the Obama Administration girds for a potential showdown in Congress over raising debt limits to accommodate the budget Deficit, it’s helpful to get a sense of just how much that debt is costing U.S. Taxpayers. It’s actually not that expensive at the moment, but it’s likely to get pretty painful over the next...

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...

Dems accuse GOP of breaking vows at 'dizzying' pace out of gate
Democrats are reveling this week as GOP leaders have walked back some of their top campaign promises just days after taking control of the lower chamber. Republicans stormed to power in November's Elections on vows of balanced Budgets, increased transparency, and reduced Deficit spending. Yet in the first days of the 112th Congress, GOP leaders have adopted rules allowing deficits to explode; dismissed Congress's nonpartisan budget score-keeper as irrelevant; slashed a spending-cut promise in ...

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 risky rush to cut Defense spending
Democrats and Republicans alike are shouting for the defense Budget to be reduced. Adm. Mike Mullen discuss proposed cuts to the defense Budget As we begin a new year, the United States is at a major crossroads in Foreign Policy. The end of 2010 saw North Korea’s assault on the disputed Yeonpyeong Island, the revelation that Pyongyang had developed a secret, highly sophisticated Uranium Enrichment plant with 2,000 Centrifuges, and, of course, the massive Wikileaks dump that jeopardized dip...

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...

GOP House cut spending by $540 billion, taxes by $770 billion
The Congressional Budget Office was forced to admit that it deliberately misled the public on repealing ObamaCare. The agency, run by Democrat Douglas Elmendorf — a proponent of universal health coverage, contended that the Republican plan to Repeal Obamacare would add $230 billion to the Deficit. That’s nonsense. Eliminating a Federal Program does not increase spending. No logical person would buy that. Which is why Liberal Bloggers went ape over this deception. The American Spect...

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...

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 ...

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...

This MSNBC Segment Is The Dumbest Thing You Will Ever See About The Debt Ceiling
Email Sent! You have successfully emailed the post. Sorry, we couldn't think of a more polite way to put this... this MSNBC segment (via FireDogLake) is just about the dumbest thing we could imagine seeing on the Debt ceiling. In an attempt to clarify and simplify what this is is all about, reporter Richard Lui dresses up as "spending" and stands under a ceiling, which he compares to a Credit Card borrower's credit limit, which the US is about to butt up against. First of all, the Debt ceiling ...

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...

ObamaCares Reality Deficit
ObamaCare’s Reality DeficitSaturday, January 8th, 2011 Lots of good quotes in this Wall Street Journal Review & Outlook column, although none better than this sub-headline some pithy editor slapped in: If you believe that a new entitlement saves money, you’ll believe anything. Like Dilbert’s pointy-haired boss once said, “When we saw you would willingly spend your entire days in cubicles smaller than a Prison cell, we realized anything was possible.” I’...

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...

Another Day Older And Deeper In Debt
(Alternate title: The Ceiling! The Ceiling! The Ceiling's On Fire!) OK, let's talk red ink. The US government is rapidly approaching its Debt ceiling of 14.3 Trillion dollars (let's write that out -- $14,300,000,000,000.00), with estimates we'll hit it around March or April. The Republicans are talking about saying "no mas" and cutting enough to keep it from getting there. The Democrats are running around, screaming about apocalypse and defaults and shutdowns should we not raise it to allow Was...

Should the GOP play chicken game with the debt ceiling? Yes
When control of Congress is split between the two parties, it is much easier to produce gridlock than advancing Legislation. Campaign promises can often dissipate amidst the inability to muster enough support to push important legislation through. That is certainly the case now with a Republican House and a Democratic Senate - not to mention an electorally shaken President Obama. Republicans, however, have a unique opportunity to follow through on their campaign promise of reduction in gove...

A Peculiar Path to Deficit Reduction
Chris Van Hollen, the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee (and, alas, my congressman) has been getting before every camera he can find over the past few days to insist that ObamaCare is a Deficit reduction plan and so repealing it would increase the deficit, and that this is what the Congressional Budget Office says too. Several folks around here, and many elsewhere of course, have noted that the CBO was forced to accept some very implausible assumptions in making its calculations&mda...;

Marcus: Underwhelmed by Speaker Boehner
Nancy Pelosi spoke of combating Climate Change, ensuring college affordability, expanding access to Health Care, ending the war in Iraq. Newt Gingrich envisioned a Balanced Budget amendment, welfare reform, Tax Cuts, Deregulation, term limits. John Boehner promised... well, not very much. The 112th Congress, he said, will not "kick the can" or "fall short." It will be "the people's House," a place where "we can disagree without being disagreeable to each oth...

Republican Sellout Watch
Grousing about the GOP’s timidity in the battle against Big Government will probably become an ongoing theme over the next few months. Two items don’t bode well for fiscal discipline. First, it appears that Republicans didn’t really mean it when they promised to cut $100 billion of so-called Discretionary Spending as part of their pledge. According to the New York Times, As they prepare to take power on Wednesday, Republican leaders are scaling back that number by as ...

Yeah, I already know the answer: "When the Jets beat the Colts tonight"
When the hell are the Democrats going to start hammering in "Deficit-Exploding Tax Cuts" or "Budget-Busting Tax Cuts" the way the Republicans are hammering "Job-Killing Health Care Bill" (and everything else, despite the fact that however meager it is, and however low-paid, there is actually some job growth going on in the Private Sector, which is more than could be said about the Bush Administration, which left us this mess)? U.S. House Republicans, who swept into power promising to rein in the...