From the Washington Post:
Who raised the debt ceiling?
Since 1980, the debt ceiling has been raised 39 times. It was raised 17 times under Ronald Reagan, four times under Bill Clinton and seven times under George W. Bush. Congress is currently in a contentious debate with the White House on whether to raise the ceiling by the Aug. 2 deadline, which would make the fourth raise under Obama.
Its just time for everyone to pull their fingers back in from that point. Clinton gets the atta boy award. Republicans need to man up and take their fair share of the blame for debt and move on.
Reminder: We are still paying for World War II.
After WWII, the debt was a greater percent of GDP. We have had 2 wars and a Great Recession.
We need to raise the debt ceiling without histrionics, blame gaming or politics. Just do it. This is no time to play Russian roulette with our economy.
when my paycheck starts coming in red or blue I’ll think party has something to do with it. Until then………..
Doesn’t it already? Mine is purple.
Where is Paul Ryan???
My paycheck is the color of ice.
All the blame rhetoric is obviously not true. EVeryone needs to just fix it. Get those cuts in there, get the debt ceiling raised and make adjustments to the rich…not to kill them but so they can’t weasel out of as much as they do.
There are ways to trim from medicare also without nailing the people who are currently on it.
I would definitely get rid of allowing those who have very low contributions or no contributions to take half of their spouse’s SS. I don’t have a problem once the spouse is dead but while he or she is alive and kicking, I sure have a problem with it.
Medicare could also do some volume buying. Drugs, medical supplies, hover scooters, all of those things could be seriously discounted with high volume buying, sort of like on a GSA schedule.
Foreign aid, anyone?
Trim it back alot…re foreign aid. I understand the need for some of it…goes back to trying to out-buy the Soviets. But we need to hold back a little…or a lot.
Just looked it up. While the US foreign aid in raw dollars is the highest of all countries, as a percentage of GNP it is way, way down – something like 0.2%. Don’t know whether our military foreign aid is included in this.
At any rate, the US is not as generous as a lot of other countries.
Wow, that’s a statement to challenge!
World Top Ten Foreign Aid Donor Countries
Country In Billion Dollars
United States 12.9
Japan 9.2
Germany 5.4
France 5.2
United Kingdom 4.8
Netherlands 3.4
Italy 2.3
Canada 2.0
Sweden 1.8
Norway 1.8
According to he Congressional Research Service, the following fifteen countries are the top recipients of U.S. Foreign Aid for fiscal year 2004, the most recent year of data available.
1) Iraq – $18.44 billion
2) Israel – $2.62 billion
3) Egypt – $1.87 billion
4) Afghanistan – $1.77 billion
5) Colombia – $570 million
6) Jordan – $560 million
7) Pakistan – $390 million
8) Liberia – $210 million
9) Peru – $170 million
10) Ethiopia – $160 million
11) Bolivia – $150 million
12) Turkey – $150 million
13) Uganda – $140 million
14) Sudan – $140 million
15) Indonesia – $130 million
Nobody gave a damn when George Bush raised the debt ceiling seven times in his eight year as President, so you have to wonder why such a routine action is suddenly a big deal.
@Juturna
Why does Israel need our foreign aid? Israel is a modern, devloped country.
They should just get rid of the debt ceiling altogether. It’s a joke, and probably not even Constitutional.
@Cato, then what would they have to hold as ransome?
I am suffering from sold stock separation loss. I just sold my slw. Cry!!! I dont trust the markets and I can’t ride a stock up to $40 a share but so many times. I figure I can buy it back if I miss it too badly, after Aug. 2 settles down.
You made out like a bandit on that SLW if I recall your entry price correctly. Well done, nobody ever went bust taking profits. Go buy yourself something nice, you can get back on the ride at 34.5 if you still like it.
@Cato, some of it around $20 a share. I will have to pay taxes at a higher rate on some of it but I think when I sold I took a 75% profit.
I didn’t have all that much but every little bit helps. I am just going to sit on the cash until our illustrious leaders made some decisons. I expect the markets will be as skittish as a new born colt until the debt ceiling is resolved.
Carefully LISTENING to one of the talking head shows this week I one person distinguish between who what did what when and the issue of the country’s ABILITY to increase jobs. Seems that regardless of which color is in office and in congress the ability to increase jobs is slowing down. Now there’s an issue.
When will people just stopping trying to “out Rush” Rush or “out Jon” Jon and just listen and think. Arrgghhh wasting my time.