Fr0m Huffingtonpost.com :
Geithner was responding to a letter Johnson sent President Barack Obama in May, signed by 22 other Senate Republicans, that argued the government would have enough revenue to continue functioning if the government hit the debt ceiling and suggested the White House should make contingency spending plans for that event.
Geithner said in his letter that many members of the GOP, including Speaker of the House John Boehner, acknowledge that raising the debt ceiling is the responsible thing to do, and he quoted Boehner saying, “I think raising the debt limit is the responsible thing to do for our country, the responsible thing for our economy … if we were to fail to increase the debt limit, we would send our economy into a tail spin.”
Geithner also noted that Senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), a favorite of the Tea Party, said in 2010: “You don’t have much choice if you charge something on your credit card. You have to pay for it, and that’s effectively what this debt limit is … we’ve already spent the money. The question is now, do we shut down the government or do we fund what we’ve already done?
Even conservative icon President Ronald Reagan spoke out against playing with the debt limit, according to Geithner. Reagan wrote in 1983: “This country now possesses the strongest credit in the world. The full consequences of a default — or even the serious prospect of default — by the United States are impossible and awesome to contemplate. Denigration of the full faith and credit of the United States would have substantial effects on the domestic financial markets and on the value of the dollar in exchange markets. The Nation can ill afford to allow such a result. The risks, the costs, the disruptions, and the incalculable damage lead me to but one conclusion: the Senate must pass this legislation before the Congress adjourns.”
Why is this a political issue? I don’t want to hear something stupid Obama supposedly said 5-6 years ago. It doesn’t really matter. In fact, it is irrelevant. Let’s put politics aside and do what needs to happen for the good of the country. The money has already been spent. If every American gave $5 bucks a month, think how we could reduce the debt. Why shouldn’t we pay for it? It is we who reaped the benefits.
The Repugs refuse to even consider raising taxes on the wealthiest 1% of Americans even if it means closing the deficit gap. They still want corporate welfare for oil companies and private jets. That’s outrageous. We need to control our national debt and protect our good credit. Obama was right to call out the Repugs yesterday. They need to grow up and start behaving themselves. This is a very serious issue and they need to stop playing games.
The GOP are playing chicken with this, in a goal to have Obama fail – but the real loser in this is me – the average American. Just political grand standing for the most part.
What irks me the most is that these same Congressmen who voted in the spending (BOTH SIDES OF THE ISLE voted in the spending) now complain, and act as if they had nothing to do with it. Just look at the wars (unfunded), Medicare Part D (unfunded), DoD, etc.
VA budget – more than doubled since 2003 – http://www.va.gov/budget/docs/summary/Fy2012_Fast_Facts_VAs_Budget_Highlights.pdf
Look at the trajectory of the defense spending (before Obama was in office) – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:InflationAdjustedDefenseSpending.PNG
We need to face reality here – our Congressmen need to share what they are smoking – maybe they already are – because, we do not hold them accountable, and we do not really look at their records to see that they all are the ones who have spent the money – not just Obama, Pelosi, and Reid.
Look at the political grand standing on the BBA (balanced budget amendment) – lip service, I say – we do not need another amendment, that only affects 100 Senators, 435 House Members and 1 President – we need them to be accountable – I as a person lives within my budget without an amendment. Do not look behind the curtain, otherwise you will find the person screaming the most to cut the spending, actually voted in the same spending they are now screaming about…..
Moon – how can you discount what Obama said 5 years ago, and not discount what Reagan said 20 years ago? Obama was correct 5 years ago, but it does take time to right the ship – unfortunately, we are not working as a team to right the ship.
I don’t think I discounted what he said. I don’t think he should have said not to vote for raising the debt ceiling. He is having to eat his words and they are never tasty when served up cold. We all have words that come back to bite us in the butt and I suppose he is no different.
The speech you refer to I agree with. I should have made myself clearer.
http://geekpolitics.com/obama-on-raising-the-debt-ceiling/
The Republican grandstanding won’t be so attractive to Harry and Harriet Homeowner once the interest rates on their credit cards and ARMs reset.
This month is the 10th anniversary of the first of the Bush tax cuts. President Bush took office in 2001 about one-third of the way through the fiscal year 2001 budget cycle put in place in the last year of the Clinton administration. That was the last fiscal year that ended with a surplus. The Bush administration projection was that even with the proposed tax cuts the country would have a $5.5T surplus over the next decade. With a national debt of $5.7T at the time, the Bush projected surplus would have zeroed out the national debt in 2011. Instead, as noted before, we’ve had a decade of deficits. The tax cuts added $3T to the deficit. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan added another $4T. The national debt was $5.7T when Bush took office and $10.6T when he left. It has increased to $14.3T under Obama. While it is impossible to predict what would have happened to the economy but for the $7T hole blown into it by the Bush tax cuts and his unfunded wars, history shows that the policies in place in the decade before he took office guided economic growth and surpluses and the policies in place the decade since he took office have guided us to decline and deficits.
I love how its the war (not WARS, you should know better) that is blamed. Not the Prescription drug plan, etc. Also, are you attributing the budget for the 2009 fiscal year to Bush? It was never submitted to him. Pelosi waited until Obama took office to officially submit it. Eight years and he added 5 trillion. Two years to add 4 trillion. It seems that the debt train is accelerating. Am I happy that Bush added 5 trillion. No. And I complained about it then. How about we just return to the 2008 budget. THAT seemed to cover all of our spending.
Also, the deficit was growing smaller under Bush’s last years. Then it tripled in the first year under Obama.
Also TAX CUTS do not cost money. It is not the government’s money. Spending costs money. Now…did they spend money that they did not have? Yes. “While it is impossible to predict what would have happened to the economy but for the $7T hole blown into it by the Bush tax cuts” it is possible to predict the lack of economic expansion if the tax cuts had NOT been enacted. Today’s economy is moribund because business has no clue to the effects of Obama’s tax increases and regulations will affect them. Remember, Obama is increasing taxes to pay for Obamacare.
Ben Stein is now saying taxes on the wealthy MUST go up. Ben Stein has always been trotted out by Fox News as one of their own.
cargo – the Rx drug plan is Medicare Part D – unfunded, as mentioned above.
Yes, two wars.
The day Obama took office, the Deficit stood at 10.6 Trillion dollars – you cannot possibly believe that going back to 2008 levels will solve the issue.
You cannot blame Obama for all the spending – sure the deficit tripled – when you have the economy that we had after Bush left office, Gov’t spending increases – without any involvement of anyone – revenue goes down, service costs such an unemployment and medicare goes up – more deficit spending – (they are called automatic stabilizers) – and the deficit would have grown no matter who was in office.
How come I pay more, percentage wise, of my tax dollars than a really high income person does?
The reality is that people do not pay the marginal tax rate as advertised, but we all talk about the marginal rate as if that is what a high income person really pays.
And, I might be paying less percentage wise than a few other folks!
Why is it only now that cost basis is going to be reported 1099-B? answer – because that is a large area of tax avoidance.
I am going to take a moderate position here and defend both Bush and Obama. Both did what they thought they needed to do in the face of extreme situations. Bush responded to 9/11. There was no blue print. And yes, 2 wars. Rightly or wrongly, 2 different wars with 2 different objectives. Bush left office with right after the worst economic crash since the Great Depression. He did what he had to do with TARP.
Obama inherited the Crash 2008 woes. He kicked in to gear, doing what he thought he had to do to keep the country out of tail spin.
Were there missteps taken? Certainly. Where is the blue print? There isn’t one. That’s the reason we want the best thinkers of our times to be in leadership positions in government, not some pencil pushers. (read that as no cheap labor)
I am still trying to figure out how going from $10T to $14T is tripling the debt.
So Cargo, put that pointing finger back in your pocket. The first part of this new millenium/century has been fraught with challenges both economically and globally. We had the worst attack on American soil and a crash similar to 1929. It probably would have been as bad or worse except the govt. had safeguards in place. Unlike nearly 80 years before, measures were taken to stop the free fall. No one wanted that. Not reasonable, thinking people.
Cargo, you aren’t aware of the horrible expenses older people paid for life saving medicines? I had a real eye opener when my mother was alive and temporarily had to pay out of pocket. The monthly cost was more than her social security check.
Fortunately she had insurance out the ying yang. Private insurance. She also had other resources than social security. (oh dear God, she got a VRS check which you probably also want to take away.) She got reimbursed but I saw that first bill. Lots of other people were on more costly medicine than my mother was.
What George Bush championed was a real life saver for senior citizens. Were there cheaper ways to do it? I am sure there were. Write your congressman with your ideas. That is a place to start saving money. Its easy to be cavalier about what others have to go through. I used to have a lot less compassionate before I saw the impact of what drug costs were really doing to older people and what a little bit of money some people really have to live on.
I am not questioning the validity of the two wars on this thread – what I am questioning is the stupidity of entering a war without funding it – essentially going to war on the assumption that the money will be borrowed, and the interest paid by future generations. Never in history has a country gone to war, and cut revenues at the same time, until we did just that.
I agree with Pat on the uncinate wars.
Moon – To be clear, the major Bush tax cuts were signed into law in June 2001 some 3 months before 9/11. The Heritage Foundation did a report in April 2001 advocating for the cuts saying they’d eliminate the national debt entirely by 2011, which by my watch is right now. And now the right argues we need more of that. They were wrong then and they’re wrong now.
Oops. It was supposed to be “unfunded wars.”
It looks like Heritage Foundation was a bit off.
Here’s that Heritage report: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2001/04/the-economic-impact-of-president-bushs-tax-relief-plan
If one stops deficit spending and sets up the government to actually pay down debt, then the debt disappears.
And if it’s useful to look at past statements of Republicans, why can’t we use Obama’s words?
Furthermore, I’ve never said anything about wanting to get rid of pensions. Why did you say this? “oh dear God, she got a VRS check which you probably also want to take away.” I’m not cavalier. My mother was on life saving drugs for years. But, what I objected to was the formation of yet another government program that we could not afford. Bush ran as a conservative, but he used government as a driving force. Why not use incentives to get private enterprise to provide cheaper drugs? Of course, that would a) take power from politicians, b) need creative thinking c) give power to private enterprise.
I just point out that such pensions, if improperly handled, are expensive and that’s why state governments are forcing state workers into different plans, etc.
Now, lets talk about unfunded……if funding is so important….why hasn’t Congress cut spending to EXISTING FUNDING LEVELS? You cannot spend your way out of debt. The crash we’ve had has be worsened by the Obama plans. Such policies drag out the recession, as was demonstrated under FDR. That’s why WWII was the reason we came out of it, years AFTER other countries.
Here ya go. Graphic representation of the spending differences:
http://blog.heritage.org/2009/03/24/bush-deficit-vs-obama-deficit-in-pictures/
and a followup: http://blog.heritage.org/2010/02/05/past-deficits-vs-obamas-deficits-in-pictures/
I always see here that just because X did it, we should allow Y to do it also. So why are you harping on Bush’s spending? Spending that was applauded by the left, and in some cases, was the idea of the left? Congress writes the bills. THEY should put in the funding for each mandate, or not present the bill. Also, if a bill does not have funding it should be vetoed.
Of course, you can’t buy votes that way.
I’m sorry, the above “I always see here that just because X did it, we should allow Y to do it also.” should read “why should we allow”
Cargo I have no idea why you keep getting stuck in moderation. I think it is a cookie thing and perhaps you have your security set to reject our cookies.
(either that or the John Birch society has infiltrated your computer and thinks we are pinko commies.)
Can you go in and set us as a trusted site? That might help.
“If every American gave $5 bucks a month, think how we could reduce the debt.” – if every American gave $5 a month the government would figure out how to spend that $5 a month before it ever makes a dent into the debt.
“I don’t want to hear something stupid Obama supposedly said 5-6 years ago. It doesn’t really matter. In fact, it is irrelevant.”
First of all – Obama didn’t “supposedly” say it. He said it, period. Second – how is Obama’s statements on this subject “irrelevant”, he is the President, should we not look to his past comment ON THE SAME EXACT SUBJECT? Are they “irrelevant” because he said it when Bush was in power?
Me thinks this is a perfect example of IAOKIYAD or better yet, IAOKIYO (It’s a-okay if your Obama), take your pick. Bush tries to raise the debt ceiling…. Obama says no way, it just shows a lack of leadership and puts us more in debt to foreign countries.
Obama tries to raise the debt ceiling and it’s Chicken Little Obama style… and that’s all I have to say about that.
“Reagan proved deficits do not matter” – Dick Cheney.
When you have high level executives with attitudes like that, it is no wonder why we are where we are.
@Moon-howler
I’m not in moderation. Previously, I would only have to type in my name and email once. Now, its whenever I comment.
My comments, if I keep the links down, go right through. It might be my computer not remembering for the site…..don’t know. Its been acting up and my browser keeps crashing.
@Pat.Herve
I agree. I did not agree with Cheney then, either.
However, there is manageable debt and unmanageable debt. We have reached the latter.
Don’t working-class people make and service private jets?
Oh, well, screw them.