Raising The Debt Ceiling Would Require Serious Spending Cuts

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...

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...

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’...

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 ...

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...

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 ...

A MajorityIf You Can Keep It
Get alerts when there is a new article that might interest you. The 112th House of Representatives, which convened for the first time last week, is in many respects a historic one. The Republican majority of 242 representatives is larger than any the party enjoyed from 1994 to 2006. Of course, the Republican Revolution of 1994 broke 40 years of Democratic control of the House, but even the GOP’s brief majority of 1952-54, built on Dwight Eisenhower’s coattails, reached just 221 seats...

Frolic Into Boehnerland
… The Democrats have plenty of creatures like Boehner. But in the new Speaker of the House, the Republicans own the perfect archetype — the quintessential example of the kind of glad-handing, double-talking, K Street toady who has dominated the politics of both parties for decades. In sports, we talk about athletes who are the “total package,” and that term comes close to describing Boehner’s talent for perpetuating our corrupt and Debt-addled status quo: He’s...

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...

Republicans push repeal of health-care law, reject new CBO estimates on deficit impact
New Speaker of the House John A. Boehner and other Republican lawmakers pressed ahead with plans Thursday to Repeal last year's landmark health-care Legislation, rejecting a new Congressional Budget Office estimate that doing so would increase the federal Deficit and brushing off Democratic complaints that Republicans are already breaking their promises. This Story After wrangling, Constitution is read on House floor, minus passages on Slavery The Constitution Notable passages of Constitution...

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...

Democrats mount health plan defense
The Obama Administration has launched an all-out defense of its Health Care law just days before the US House is slated to vote on Repeal, with US Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius visiting Boston yesterday, one of many dispatched across the country to highlight benefits of the overhaul. “People keep calling this political theater,’’ Sebelius said, alluding to the repeal vote, “but unfortunately the theater has huge consequences for the American pu...

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...

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...

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 ...

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...

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...

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...

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 ...

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...

Sarah Palin: Obama 'hell bent' on weakening America
While appearing as a guest on the Laura Ingraham radio program Friday, Sarah Palin openly said what many believe: President Obama is purposefully weaking the United States. “What I believe that Obama is doing right now — he is hell-bent on weakening America," she said. Palin explained by using then Senator Obama's own words in 2006.  While debating whether or not to raise the Debt ceiling, he said: The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s Debt Limit is a...

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...

Boehner Doubles Down On Promise To Cut $100 Billion, Threatening Fragile Job Market
Boehner Doubles Down On Promise To Cut $100 Billion, Threatening Fragile Job Market In their pre-election “Pledge to America,” House Republicans promised to cut $100 billion from non-defense Discretionary Spending, but since then, the GOP has been backpedaling away from that number, which it now calls “hypothetical.” House Republicans like Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) made a concerted effort this week to move the goa...

We Continue to Suffer Fools Gladly
Cut Spending - "The centerpiece of the "Pledge to America" unveiled by House Republicans in September was a promise to cut $100 billion out of non-defense Discretionary Spending during their first year in power: a pledge repeated by Speaker Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Budget Chairman Paul Ryan. Promise broken." What they said is that since the Democratic Congress could not even live up to its sworn duty to produce a budget; and instead have funded government unde...

The Fix: Democrats' defection from Pelosi is historic
How divided are Democrats' right now? With 19 Democrats withholding support from Nancy Pelosi for House Speaker on Wednesday, it represented the largest defection from a party's speaker nominee in nearly a century. The resistance in the Democratic Party to back now-former Speaker Pelosi (D-Calif.) in the ceremonial first vote of the 112th Congress registered higher than at any point since 1913, according to data from the Congressional Research Service. That year, which happens to be the las...