Choose your own adventure to avoid the US debt ceiling

[SlyPokerDog]

 

[DaLincolnJones]

Hmm interesting how the GOP gets the blame here as well

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

Hmm interesting how the GOP gets the blame here as well

Well, come on, it's all Bush's fault.

 

[Denny Crane]

Republican should be running ads like crazy. Obama in his own words, "we need a balanced approach of spending cuts and tax hikes." Well, Mr. President, you got your tax hikes, where are the spending cuts? How about you lead your party to do its job and pass a budget for the first time in 4 years?

 

[maxiep]

I love how the spending cuts may "potentially" lead to a recession. If the Federal Government comes up with a plan to reduce our spending without hiking taxes further, then all that money held by corporations will be unleashed on the economy and it will take off like a rocket.

There's nothing wrong with a government shutdown.

 

[MARIS61]

[video=youtube;JjpNqfKUtfw]

 

[Denny Crane]

I love how the spending cuts may "potentially" lead to a recession. If the Federal Government comes up with a plan to reduce our spending without hiking taxes further, then all that money held by corporations will be unleashed on the economy and it will take off like a rocket.

There's nothing wrong with a government shutdown.

There are no actual cuts, even when they claim there are. The cuts Obama claims are like you not going out to dinner 2 years from now so that money you might have spent is a spending cut.

 

[Denny Crane]

I'm quoting from the article here:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/01/14/debt-deficit-obama-congress/1830363/

Well, things did start to go south under Bush. But look at that graph more closely. In 2003, when we invaded Iraq (one of those "two wars on the credit card" that Obama likes to blame for the debt), and when we passed the Bush tax cuts (the other thing Obama likes to blame for the debt) revenue actually started to climb. The revenue and spending lines start to converge, and, as they head up to 2006 it actually looks as if the two might cross, with revenue outpacing spending.

Even the New York Times noticed, spotting unexpected increases in revenue in 2005, and in 2006 noting that a "surprising" increase in tax revenues was closing the budget gap. The heady possibility of surpluses was in the air. But -- look at the graph again -- everything changes in 2007.

What happened in 2007? The financial crisis hadn't struck yet. But we did elect a new Democratic Congress, with Democrats controlling both houses for the first time in over a decade. The trend immediately reversed, and became much worse with President Obama's election in 2008 and inauguration in 2009. (In fact, despite talk of "wars on the credit card," we could save a lot of money by cutting defense spending back to where it was in 2007.)

So does that mean that the ballooning debt is all Obama's fault? No. Most of those spending bills got Republican votes, too. But it does mean that, as Politico notes, Obama now owns the 60% increase in the debt that has occurred on his watch, and can no longer credibly blame Bush (under whom plenty of Democrats voted for spending bills).

Economist Herbert Stein observed that something that can't go on forever, won't. The United States can't go on forever increasing its debt by 60% every four years. Therefore, it won't. The only question is how things will stop -- smoothly or catastrophically.

As we head into the next debt-ceiling debate, it's worth considering these words from a patriotic senator concerned with America's future:

"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. … 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 and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America's debt limit."

The senator? Sen. Barack Obama, in 2006.

I wish that guy was President now.