Republicans acknowledge debt limit should rise

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...

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...

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 ...

Bob Gates' fuzzy math on defense budgets
Defense Secretary Bob Gates is among the most savvy officials in a long time when it comes to navigating the Budget debates between Congress, the White House, and the Pentagon. But as the Pentagon's fiscal crisis reaches critical mass, Gates' Budget gymnastics are pleasing neither the right nor the left. Gates held a Press Conference on Thursday to announce a new set of measures that he said would save $100 billion in "efficiencies," and reduce defense spending by another $78 billio...

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 ...

Gates' Defense Budget Shell-Game (Again)
By Steve Hynd Bob Gates' Speech yesterday has slipped entirely under Memeorandum's increasingly right-wing gossip laden radar, it seems. You'd think the Republicans would be up in arms about cancelled programs. Amid growing calls for Government Spending cuts, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates unveiled Thursday a proposed five-year Budget plan that would cut tens of thousands of Troops from The Army and Marine Corps, eliminate two key weapons systems, and raise the cost of health in...

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,...

Baucus warns GOP against 'playing chicken' on debt limit
Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) is warning Republicans against "playing chicken" on increasing the statutory Debt Limit. The Finance Committee Chairman agreed with recent GOP calls to reduce the Deficit, but said such efforts should be done in a "serious, Bipartisan Fashion" that "doesn't risk the full faith and credit of our economy and our country in the process," according to a statement released by his office. "Rather than waiting until the last minute, we need to work together with our colleagu...

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...

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...

'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] ...

State Assembly Republicans push for committee to reduce spending
CARSON CITY -- Eight Republican Assembly members and 28 of leaders of conservative and Republican organizations were rebuffed by Democrats on Friday when they called for creation of a joint legislative Committee on Reduction of Nonessential Government Expenditures. Conservatives and Republicans asked Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford and Assembly Speaker-elect John Oceguera, both D-Las Vegas, to create the expenditure reduction committee, which they said would operate like a congressional c...

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 ...

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 ...

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...

New DNC Video Hits House Republicans Over Spending Pledge
Have Republicans already broken their election-season pledge to cut $100 billion in spending from the federal Budget? Democrats say yes, and they're hammering that message home in a new web video making the Internet rounds Friday. The ad, produced by the Democratic National Committee, is pretty straightforward. With no narration or commentary, it simply strings together clips from Cable News shows in which Republicans defend charges they won't be able to keep the Spending Cut promise made in th...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Bills would defund public broadcasting
Source: UPI WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., introduced Legislation that would end funding for Public Radio, saying it was a luxury the Federal Government can't afford. Lamborn said Federal Funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was "unnecessary," noting funding rose 26 percent during the past decade to $430 million per year, The Hill reported Friday. He introduced two bills that would defund the CPB Thursday -- just as he did last year. "While I like much of ...

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...

Government Spending Per Minute: $6.85 Million
House Republicans on Thursday trimmed about $35 million from the House's operating Budget, a move that Speaker John Boehner hailed as "a strong signal" of the new Congress' "commitment to making the tough choices necessary to end Washington's job-killing spending binge." But while $35 million is a lot of money to the Average American, it's worth thinking about just how "strong" a signal the House really sent. Consider: According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the government's pr...

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...