Thoughts on the Debt Limit Debate

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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’...

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 ...

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...

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...

A Big Score for Small Business
Gene Sperling, who the president picked to head his National Economic Council, was the architect behind the Small Business Lending Fund, the administration’s initiative to provide community banks with cheap capital in order to increase lending to small businesses. The president’s host, Thompson Creek Window Co., is a poster child for the Obama Administration’s efforts to help small businesses through Tax Breaks. It used a tax incentive for hiring unemployed workers to expand its workforc

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...

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...

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...

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 ...

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...

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 ...

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...

The Debt Limit: History and Recent Increases
Bruce Bartlett sends this along . . . > CRS Debt Limit: History and Recent Increases ...

Pro-Migrant Priorities for 2011: The Struggle Continues
Another year has passed and guess what? People still hate migrants. People have hated migrants for millenia, and they probably will hate migrants for millenia more (if society lasts that long). It's cynical to write that out, but at the same time, when I feel the weight of the world on my shoulders, it helps to ease my anxiety when I meditate on this. To understand that the struggle will always go on forces you to hold fast to the things that matter, today, and to keep yourself healthy for the ...

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...

Palin: Obama 'hell bent' on weakening America
Sarah Palin is charging that President Barack Obama is “hell-bent on weakening America” by pushing to raise the National Debt ceiling. Continue Reading Text Size - + reset Politico 44 “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 tha...

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...

What B-52 Ben Really Said
2010-12-01 130,712,000 When he took the gavel to be Chairman of the Federal Reserve, there was 135 million employed Americans out of a population of 297 million Americans. The latest data available as of Dec 1st 2010, was 130 million Americans employed out of a population of 311 million. There are 4.6 million fewer employed Americans since Ben started. So today we have 14 million more people looking for 4.6 million fewer jobs. That’s not good. In fact, it should be his number o...

2010 Census Says California State Budget is $254 Billion, Not $90 Billion
Californians have not been told the truth about how much the State Government is spending.  A blockbuster bit of information has been buried in a new U.S. Census report and has not been covered by the Mainstream Media.   This  raises questions about the integrity of  California’s legislature,  former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, indeed about ANYONE who has been involved with the stewardship of public funds and the California state Budget.  Who is ...

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...