Old & Busted:
‘I
rise today to talk about America’s debt problem.
The
fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of
leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own
bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from
foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. Over
the past 5 years, our federal debt has increased by $3.5 trillion to $8.6
trillion. That is ‘‘trillion’’ with a ‘‘T.’’ That is money that we have
borrowed from the Social Security trust fund, borrowed from China and Japan,
borrowed from American taxpayers. And over the next 5 years, between now and
2011, the President’s budget will increase the debt by almost another $3.5
trillion.
Numbers
that large are sometimes hard to understand. Some people may wonder why they
matter. Here is why: This year, the Federal Government will spend $220 billion
on interest. That is more money to pay interest on our national debt than we’ll
spend on Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. That is
more money to pay interest on our debt this year than we will spend on
education, homeland security, transportation, and veterans benefits combined.
It is more money in one year than we are likely to spend to rebuild the
devastated gulf coast in a way that honors the best of America.
And
the cost of our debt is one of the fastest growing expenses in the Federal
budget. This rising debt is a hidden domestic enemy, robbing our cities and
States of critical investments in infrastructure like bridges, ports, and
levees; robbing our families and our children of critical investments in
education and health care reform; robbing our seniors of the retirement and
health security they have counted on.
Every
dollar we pay in interest is a dollar that is not going to investment in
America’s priorities. Instead, interest payments are a significant tax on all
Americans—a debt tax that Washington doesn’t want to talk about. If Washington
were serious about honest tax relief in this country, we would see an effort to
reduce our national debt by returning to responsible fiscal policies.
…
Our debt also matters
internationally. My friend, the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee,
likes to remind us that it took 42 Presidents 224 years to run up only $1
trillion of foreign-held debt. This administration did more than that in just 5
years. Now, there is nothing wrong with borrowing from foreign countries. But
we must remember thatthe
more we depend on foreign nations to lend us money, the more our economic
security is tied to the whims of foreign leaders whose interests might not be
aligned with ours.
Increasing
America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means
that ‘the buck stops here.’’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad
choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a
debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.I
therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt limit.’
- Senator
Barack Obama, (D-IL), floor of the Senate, 16 March 2006
New Hotness:
‘Now,
this debt ceiling — I just want to remind people in case you haven’t been
keeping up — RAISING THE
DEBT CEILING, WHICH HAS BEEN DONE OVER A HUNDRED TIMES, DOES NOT INCREASE OUR
DEBT; it does not somehow promote profligacy. All it does is it
says you got to pay the bills that you’ve already racked up, Congress. It’s a
basic function of making sure that the full faith and credit of the United
States is preserved. It’s always a tough vote because THE AVERAGE PERSON THINKS RAISING THE
DEBT CEILING MUST MEAN THAT WE’RE RUNNING UP OUR DEBT, so
people don’t like to vote on it, and, typically, there’s SOME GAMESMANSHIP IN TERMS OF MAKING THE
PRESIDENT’S PARTY SHOULDER THE BURDEN of raising the — taking
the vote.’
-
President Obama, Remarks at the Business Roundtable, 09.18.13
Barack Obama and his
Democratic colleagues have long been massive hypocrites on the subject of debt
and the debt ceiling.
Obama’s decision not to raise the debt
ceiling wasn’t just a symbolic vote without a possible cost either. In their
attempt to ‘make a point’ about Bush’s spending and borrowing, which were too high
for me, but were Scrooge-like in comparison to President Obama’s sheer
gluttony, Democrats came just three votes shy from defeating the debt ceiling
increase sought by Bush. F*ck Full Faith & Credit and defaulting on our
country’s credit! ‘Politics, games, finding a way to raise the debt limit to
take some serious steps to get our fiscal house in order’ only became a
pressing matter later on, as we shall see.
Senator Obama wasn’t the only Democrat
that said, ‘Nyet, no more rubles for you!’ Oh, no, senior statesmen and women,
who are bemoaning the ‘irresponsible resistance’ to raising the debt ceiling
now, voted not to do so when, well, it was different, you see, because Bush.
Who else joined Obama and Reid in acting ‘irresponsibly’ and ‘jeopardising our Full Faith & Credit and defaulting upon our obligations?
‘If my Republican friends believe that increasing our
debt by almost $800 billion today and more than $3 trillion over the
last five years is the right thing to do, they should be upfront about
it. They should explain why they think more debt is good for the economy.
How can the Republican majority in this
Congress explain to their constituents that trillions of dollars in new
debt is good for our economy? How can they explain that they think it’s
fair to force our children, our grandchildren, our great grandchildren
to finance this debt through higher taxes. That’s what it will have to
be. Why is it right to increase our nation’s dependence on foreign
creditors?
They should explain this. Maybe they can convince the public they’re right. I doubt it. Because most Americans know that increasing debt is the last thing we should be doing. After all, I repeat, the Baby Boomers are about to retire. Under
the circumstances, any credible economist would tell you we should be
reducing debt, not increasing it. Democrats won’t be making argument to
supper this legalization, which will weaken our country. Weaken our
county.’
- Senator Harry Reid, 2006
Who else joined Obama and Reid in acting ‘irresponsibly’ and ‘jeopardising our Full Faith & Credit and defaulting upon our obligations?
Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI)
Senator Max Baucus (D-MT)
Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN)
Senator Joseph R Biden (D-DE)
Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)
Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA)
Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV)
Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
Senator Tom Carper (D-DE)
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY)
Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND)
Senator Mark Dayton (D-MN)
Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT)
Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL)
Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI)
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA)
Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI)
Senator Jim Jeffords (I-VT)
Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD)
Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA)
Senator John Kerry (D-MA)
Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI)
Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Senator Pat Leahy (D-VT)
Senator Carl Levin (D-MI)
Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT)
Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ)
Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD)
Senator Patty Murray (D-WA)
Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL)
Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE)
Senator Mark Pryor (D-AR)
Senator Jack Reed (D-RI)
Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV)
Senator Ken Salazar (D-CO)
Senator Paul Sarbanes (D-MD)
Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)
Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR)
'The
responsibility of Congress to pay the bills of the United States, bills
that Congress has incurred, is not a subject of negotiation.'
- White
House spokesman Jay Carney, 09.25.11
'The president's not going to accept that proposition. He's just not. We
will not negotiate over Congress' responsibility to pay the bills that
Congress racked up.'
- White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, 25 September 2013
'Our very strong view is that the debt limit should be passed as a clean,
standalone bill.'
-Treasury Secretary Jack Lew in an interview with Bloomberg TV's 'Political Capital With Al Hunt.'
'This is not a deadbeat
nation. We don't run out on our tab...even
the threat of not raising the debt ceiling the height of
irresponsibility. All it says is, you
gotta pay for what Congress already said we're spending money on, if you don't do it, we could have another financial
crisis.
I will not negotiate on anything when it comes to the full faith and credit of the United States of America. I demand a clean CR and a debt vote.
Congress needs to pay out bills on time. Congress needs to pass a budget
on time. Congress needs to put an end to governing from crisis to
crisis. Our focus as a country should be on creating new jobs and
growing our economy and helping young people learn, and restoring
security for hard-working middle-class families.'
- President Barack Obama, 26 September 2013
I remember when then-Senator Barack Obama
said this as he was campaigning for President…
‘The problem is, is that the way Bush has
done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of
China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5
trillion for the first 42 presidents – #43 added $4 trillion by his lonesome,
so that we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay
back — $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That’s irresponsible. It’s
unpatriotic.’
–
Senator Barack Obama, Fargo, North Dakota, 3 July 2008
In 2011, President Obama’s Press
Secretary, Robert Gibbs, said:
‘It is important for Congress not to play
politics, not to play games, to find a way to raise that debt limit, understand
that we are going to have to take some serious steps to get our fiscal house in
order.’
Well, to all of the above, I say this:
‘The problem is that the way Obama has
done it in the last 1,702 days is to take out a credit card from the Bank of
China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from
$10,628,881,485,510.23 from the first 43 presidents to $16,738,444,833,206.
No. 44 has added $6,111,567,784,293 by
his lonesome. So we now have over $16,738,444,833,206 of debt that we are going
to have to pay back. $53,995.17 for every man, woman, and child.
If President Obama called President
George W Bush irresponsible and unpatriotic for presiding over a
$4,901,104,747,205.59 increase in the national debt over 8 years, then what
does he think we should call him for spending $6,111,567,784,293 in 1,711 days?
Irresponsible and unpatriotic’ sound too
mild in comparison; perhaps, ‘treasonous’ might be a more apt description of Mr
Obama’s spending.’
- Sophie/ResistWeMuch, 26 September 2012
Screw them. Screw them all.
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