This should tell you where Democrat priorities lie. Harry Reid surely consulted with Obama on this, regardless of Team Obama saying they’re open to a short term debt extension
(The Hill) Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is moving legislation to push the debt limit until Dec. 31, 2014, well beyond next year’s midterm election.
Senate aides estimate the bill would increase federal borrowing authority by about $1.1 trillion.
The administration estimates the nation will hit the upper bounds of its $16.7 trillion debt ceiling on Oct. 17, although in recent days experts have said that deadline may be flexible.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) blasted Reid’s proposal for not including any spending reform.
“What he proposes is to raise the debt limit by $1 trillion, but not do anything about the debt,†McConnell said. “Not a single reform to get spending under control. We’ve got a debt close to $17 trillion.
We’ve seen the debt explode by over $6 trillion under the stewardship of Mr. Obama. Obama once said, during the Neverending Campaign period before he was elected in 2008, that adding $4 trillion in debt was “unpatriotic” and “irresponsible”. The debt went up $4.899 trillion during Bush’s 8 years, not something to be proud of. With Reid’s proposal, Obama would be adding well over $7 trillion. It stood at $10.626 trillion. It’s almost $17 trillion today.
And, yet, Reid also offered zero reforms, and surely no cuts. As Mark Steyn says, we’re the brokeyest broke nation in history.
Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.
Conservatives are ignorant on many, many issues, but never so much as on economics. It’s unclear if conservative elites are actually ignorant or are misleading their minions intentionally to stay in power and serve their true constituency, the rich.
We generate deficits when we spend more than we take in. The yearly deficits (or surpluses) add up to the national debt. What does the US spend its tax monies on? Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Military and interest on the debt. We are a low tax nation (although our states and local communities take their piece) compared to most advanced countries.
When times are good (low unemployment, ample revenue collections, higher interest rates) we should pay down our debt (as we did in the 90s). When times are bad (unemployment, reduced revenue, low interest rates) we should borrow money to employ our citizens, stimulate the economy and fix our infrastructure.
Our government spending is not out of line with our GDP and with the needs of the people. Since the 1980s we have cut taxes to the point where we cannot support the services we desire.
You are one blithering idiot. We spend more than we take in. That creates debt. By spending more, we add more to our national debt which stands now at $17 trillion dollars and growing.
You want to keep spending money even when our economy is in the tank, keep printing money which devalues the dollar, while at the same time burning our food for fuel which drives up the cost of food, and our utilities are going up thanks to EPA, add to that the cost, nay FINE, for not having bought insurance when people should be allowed to make that decision on their own…
When you have a president and an administration hell bent on destroying an economy, there is no way for it to turn around to recoup the loss of that $1Trillion welfare job spending, or that $1Trillon TARP bailout, or the hundreds of billions being sent to other nations.
And you still did not explain what it was that repubs were hiding from the people. Esp since it is Obama in charge, and Socialists in the Senate, and Socialists who have controlled the purse strings since 2007.
It is interesting to note that at the Federal level, Jeffery forgot that we spend on the Department of Justice, the EPA, the Department of Energy, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Education, etc.
But Jeffery makes the claim that we need to increase taxes to get the things we desire. Nice try, but that is not the way this government is set up. The government exists to protect the rights of the people. So even if the people wanted to have the government provide pencils for everyone, there is no Constitutional basis from the government to provide it.
Finally, while Jeffery talks about conservatives not understanding economics, it is clear that the depth of his understanding of economics is “tax more, spend more and stuff that I want is free because I don’t have to pay for it.”