Obama Was Against Increasing the Debt Ceiling Before He Was for It

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

Thoughts on the Debt Limit Debate
The origins of the Federal Government’s statutory Debt Limit can be traced back to 1917, when the country was borrowing money to finance the Great War. Congress has voted to increase the limit numerous times over the decades, including 10 times since 2001. The present Debt Limit is $14.3 Trillion, and total outstanding Debt subject to the limit currently stands at just under $14 trillion. Given that policymakers don’t have the will to cut spending immediately in order to keep the deb...

WH's Gibbs: Obama's vote against raising the debt ceiling was insincere
[White House Council of Economic Advisers chair] Goolsbee said a failure to raise the Debt ceiling would cause “a worse financial economic crisis than anything we saw in 2008…This is not a game. The Debt ceiling is not something to toy with.” Four year ago, however, then-Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., voted the exact way President Obama is now cautioning senators not to do. “The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's Debt Limit is a sign of leadership failure...

Hatch says it's up to Obama to pressure Senate Dems on debt limit
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) says if Democrats want to find agreement on raising the Debt ceiling, President Obama will have to pressure congressional leaders to make serious concessions on Spending Cuts.  Hatch said he expects the new Republican majority in the House to vote to slash spending considerably in the run up to the vote on raising the Debt ceiling, which will place the ball in the court of Senate Democrats.   "That means the White House will have to exert its influence over Senate D...

Obama: against raising the debt ceiling before he was for it
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 shifting the bur...

Media Give Obama a Pass on Debt Ceiling Hypocrisy
President Obama has taken an admirable stand for fiscal Austerity, and blasted attempts to yet again raise the Debt ceiling, which currently stands at $14.3 Trillion (with a T) - or roughly the GDP of the United States. Said the president: 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 coun...

Dick Morris Thinks Shutting Down the Government to Repeal Health Care Bill is a Great Idea
Dick Morris thinks that we should shut down the government if President Obama doesn't agree to defund the Health Care law. Even Bill O'Reilly is skeptical of his nonsense. I'd like to know how may Homeless people Dick Morris would like to take in after we have economic chaos if either the Congress or the president follow his suggestions here since he apparently has no concern whatsoever for what would happen if the government defaults on its Debt. Led by the advice of Newt Gingrich, the former H...

Can We Shut Down the Federal Government Even If We Raise the Debt Ceiling?
In a recent article on the upcoming 112th Congress, the Associated Press warned that gridlock between the Republican House and the Democratic Senate might result in a failure to act that “could threaten the nation’s economic health.” Are they kidding? What do they think has been going on for the past two years, when Democrats controlled both chambers and the White House, and put us further in Debt than the first 100 Congresses combined? Gridlock in Congress is the best pre...

Graham Explains What Happens If GOP Blocks Debt Ceiling Increase: Collapse and Calamity Throughout The World
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner announced today that the United States will hit its $14.3 Trillion Debt Limit on March 31 of this year. If Congress does not move to increase the National Debt ceiling by that time, “disastrous consequences” for the nation’s economy will result, according to a report from the Center for American Progress. Despite the real danger, many Republicans in Congress are trying to use the Debt ceiling as a political chip in order to impose draconian spe...

Geithner: Debt ceiling must be raised
Published: Jan. 6, 2011 at 5:32 PM U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner warned Republican legislators the cap on federal borrowing must be raised to avoid long-term economic disaster. UPI/Roger L. Wollenberg WASHINGTON, Jan. 6 (UPI) -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner warned Republican legislators the cap on federal borrowing must be raised to avoid long-term economic disaster. Geithner Thursday said in a letter to Congress a failure to raise the Debt ceiling, which could be hit by ...

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 to bor...

WH Hits Back At Liberal Critics of Bill Daley
It's not hard to understand why liberals are confused and angry over the choice of Bill Daley to be White House Chief of Staff. The President Obama they know and love spent the last two years bashing Wall Street executives, calling them "fat cats" and lecturing them for their "greedy" ways. Now, in a turn of events that has the Left Wing aghast, one of those fat cats will soon be setting policy at the White House. Daley, after all, spent 7 years at JP Morgan where he's believed to have earned a...

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...

John Boehner Releases Statement On Debt Ceiling
G.I. Wood Shop Inc. Mrs. Peel Oh…My Valve! V The K’s Caption This! An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later. “I’ve been notified that the Obama Administration intends to formally request an increase in 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.  While America canno...

Dems, GOP jockey over debt ceiling
House Republicans might want to duck: They’re about to run smack into the Debt ceiling. A spending-obsessed new Republican majority received a dire warning from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who sent Congress a letter Thursday outlining the doomsday scenario that would ensue if lawmakers fail to raise the Debt Limit and the nation defaults on its credit obligations. Continue Reading Text Size - + reset Politico 44 The early missive from Geithner sets the stage for what could be...

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 ...

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......

Raising The Debt Ceiling Would Require Serious Spending Cuts
Republicans lost the trust of the American People during the last decade because they were fiscally irresponsible when they controlled all three branches of the Federal Government. Such recklessness helped allow Democrats to take over Congress in 2006 and the Presidency in 2008. While they were in power, Democrats showed even less restraint, spending Taxpayer money as if they were on Steroids and bringing the country close to hitting the Debt ceiling. During the Midterm Elections, Americans thr...

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...

Michele Bachmann: Debt charts show 'future under' President Obama grim
"We cannot afford a Second Term for Barack Obama," armed with enough charts to make  her Ross Perot protege showing what would happen if the Debt scenario set by President Obama continues. By Bachmann's account, charts included, America's future looks grim if the level of Debt accumulation doesn't cease. Bachmann gave Greta Van Susteren's questions about whether she would run for president in 2012 short shrift, shrugging them off with a quick retort that it would be boring to spend the next...

Sink or Swim: Jobs #s Key For Obama
The uptick was accompanied by a significant drop in the nation’s Unemployment Rate, which slid from 9.8 percent to 9.4 percent. “Today’s jobs numbers are proof that our work to bring The Economy back from the brink is beginning to pay off,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in a statement. “The Unemployment rate fell by nearly half a percent, more than 100,000 people have gone back to work and we added double the number of Manufacturing jobs expected. ...

Paul Abrams: On the Debt Ceiling, Silence is Golden: Let Wall Street Battle the Tea Party.
When asked about the Debt ceiling, the President and the Treasury should simply state that the United States of America will pay its debts, now and in the future. Always. Period. When asked again, repeat the above. And, the Senate should pass a typical Debt ceiling increase quickly and send it to the House. Remember all that certainty stuff that business craves to create jobs that was a reason to extend the Bush Tax Cuts for the wealthy? Then, sit back and let Wall Street Lobbyists do battle w...

Michele Bachman and Anthony Weiner Square off on the GOP Agenda, Debt Ceiling
Bachmann: "Barack Obama accumulated 4 times the Debt of George Bush, so I think we need to put to bed that false canard that somehow Barack Obama was digging out under George Bush. Barack Obama created a Tsunami of Debt and that's why a few short weeks ago the American People repealed Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House and 2 years from now we will Repeal Barack Obama as President of the United States From Fox News Hannity ...

The Unending 2012 Invisible Primary
It's been called "the invisible primary" -- the period in every Presidential Election cycle where Candidates raise money, put together staffs, and develop strategies for victory long before the first public rallies are held in Iowa and New Hampshire. But this year it has been more invisible than other recent Elections. While Candidates have already announced their intentions to run for Senate and gubernatorial races, potential presidential contenders are still biding their time. Even Pres. Obam...

Final Tab for Pelosis Speakership: $5.34 Trillion in New Debt- or $3.66 Billion Per Day
(CNSNews.com) - In the 1,461 days that Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) served as speaker of the House, the National Debt increased by a total of $5.343 Trillion ($5,343,452,800,321.37) or $3.66 billion per day ($3.657,394,113.84), according to official Debt numbers published by the U.S. Treasury. Pelosi was the 52nd speaker of the House. During her tenure, she amassed more Debt than the first 49 speakers combined. The total National Debt did not climb above $5.343 Trillion (the amount amasse...