Democrats Faking Debt Ceiling Crisis in Order to Continue Irresponsible Spending

Townhall.com ^ | July 14, 2011 | Rachel Alexander

[Kaslin]

President Obama and the Democrats are issuing dire warnings that the U.S. may default on its debts if the debt ceiling is not increased. This is a false threat. If the debt ceiling is not increased by August 2, it is highly unlikely that even one member of Congress would vote to stop paying on debt owed. They would not dare to be seen as voting to stiff other countries on money owed them by the U.S. Defaulting on our debt is a red herring argument Democrats are using to force people into thinking our only choices are raising the debt ceiling or raising taxes by closing tax loopholes. In actuality, once the debt ceiling is reached, it will come down to a choice of either raising taxes or finding areas to cut spending. Democrats don’t want to admit that cutting spending is a realistic choice. They are too dependent upon the votes of people who expect handouts.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, the architect of TARP, who helped get us into this financial mess by racking up our debt level with billion dollar bailouts, claims there will be “catastrophic damage across the U.S. economy and global economy” and a “double-dip recession” if the debt ceiling is not increased. But when the U.S. reached the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling on May 21, there was barely a ripple in the stock market. Instead of the sky falling, the market for U.S. debt barely budged, and Treasury bond rates stayed relatively the same. The U.S. has until August 2 when the money physically runs out to make a final decision. Why should one of the primary persons responsible for getting us into this financial crisis be trusted to recommend how to get out of it? If anything, Geithner should be permanently banned from any position in finance.

This manufactured debt ceiling crisis is nothing new. When a previous $4.9 trillion debt limit was reached in 1995, Congress refused to raise the debt ceiling and nothing happened. The sky did not fall and we did not default on our debt.

Obama himself voted against raising the debt ceiling in 2006. He explained his vote at the time, “The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. 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.”

Obama has failed to explain why 2011 is any different than 2006. If anything, it is even more irresponsible now to increase the debt ceiling since spending has dramatically increased. If the debt ceiling is increased, it will increase our debt to an unaffordable 100% of GDP within a decade. The debt is now over 14 trillion, a 70% increase since 2006. That is $45,300 each for every person in the U.S. Government has expanded by 36% since 2007, a reflection of Obama’s term in office. We are currently at the highest levels of deficit spending since World War II, and we are not even at war. The government is borrowing nearly 40 cents of every dollar that it spends.

There will need to be $1.5 trillion in cuts made in the 2011 budget in order to stay within the existing debt ceiling. The Democrats are claiming that seniors dependent upon Social Security and Medicare will be hurt by cuts. Obama has just threatened that Social Security checks may be withheld beginning August 3. In reality, making cuts to those entitlements does not require hurting those who really depend upon them. Cuts could be made that would only affect younger generations that have not planned to be reliant upon them in their later years. Our older generations currently receiving benefits, or who are about to start receiving them and have planned upon them being there, would still have those entitlements in their current form. The Democrats won’t tell you this, because it pulls the rug out from under their sky is falling argument.

Think tanks like the Heritage Foundation have proposed realistic ways to reduce the costs of Social Security, Medicare, healthcare, transportation, education, and many other areas in government.

Congress called Obama’s bluff this year when he called for a debt ceiling increase without any accompanying spending cuts. The House voted it down 319-97, and the Senate did not even bring it up for a vote.

So far, Republicans are mostly standing strong, refusing to accede to Democrat threats over the debt limit. Republican Senators are proposing a balanced budget constitutional amendment, which Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) says is a requirement before voting on raising the debt ceiling. Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) has introduced a constitutional amendment to limit the size of spending in relation to GDP. Unfortunately, Republicans have not always been this principled about the debt limit. Former president George W. Bush proposed increasing the debt ceiling in 2006 and most Republicans voted in favor of it.

There must be spending reductions and spending caps put into place to prevent this from happening again in the future. This predicament is not about running out of money, it is about runaway spending. More regulations and taxes will not resolve this. Taxes will only enable the runaway spending to continue. The Heritage Foundation now only ranks the U.S. ninth in the world for economic freedom, due to factors like high rates of government spending, regulations and taxes. Geithner has it backwards; it is raising the debt ceiling that will send the U.S. in the direction of economic collapse. There needs to be a change in societal attitudes regarding the responsibilities of government. Government cannot survive if we continue the bankrupting, wasteful and outdated programs that have been implemented over the years.

[Cheerio]

8am newscast states boy king has said he will not extend the Aug 2 deadline. This is just like TARP - it is SOP with this RAT gang.

I am going to post this link all day - it needs to be seen by everyone in America.

Official Treasury Reports: Coffers Full Enough to Cover Entitlement Programs, Veterans, Federal Salaries, Interest—Without Borrowing a Dime

[Vaduz]

Must be noted

This manufactured debt ceiling crisis is nothing new. When a previous $4.9 trillion debt limit was reached in 1995, Congress refused to raise the debt ceiling and nothing happened. The sky did not fall and we did not default on our debt.

Void democrat fear card

[CrazyJoeDivola]

Just one disagreement, we are at war - last I checked.

[Hoodat]

It’s blackmail that they are using. The Obama Adminstration is essentially threatening to cause a default if they don’t get their way, even though plenty of money will be there to retire maturing T-bills. It is what I call ‘High Treason’.

[sickoflibs]

RE :”President Obama and the Democrats are issuing dire warnings that the U.S. may default on its debts if the debt ceiling is not increased. This is a false threat. If the debt ceiling is not increased by August 2, it is highly unlikely that even one member of Congress would vote to stop paying on debt owed. They would not dare to be seen as voting to stiff other countries on money owed them by the U.S. Defaulting on our debt is a red herring argument Democrats are using to force people into thinking our only choices are raising the debt ceiling or raising taxes by closing tax loopholes. In actuality, once the debt ceiling is reached, it will come down to a choice of either raising taxes or finding areas to cut spending. Democrats don’t want to admit that cutting spending is a realistic choice. They are too dependent upon the votes of people who expect handouts. “

Eventually the debt ceiling will be raised or there will be a political earthquake similar to Greece in response. (Congressional Republicans McConnel/Boehner have already admitted this publicly so it is not a secret.) House Republicans couldn't come up with $100B in cuts themselves, so eliminating a ~ $1.5 T of spending in one shot would cause one hell of political earthquake. The only question is what changes to spending or taxes will be included in the bill if any, that and who voters will blame if the checks are held back. Congressional Republicans have already put their surrender plan on the table, but don't have the votes for it probably.

House Republicans have yet to pass their own debt extension bill with cuts to throw out to Obama and dare him to veto it. It is likely that between those that will vote against an extension and those that will vote against budget cuts, Boehner cant get a bill like that passed through the house now.

In fact I heard the “freedom of light-bulb act” bill failed in a house vote yesterday.

[PMAS]

*

[Starboard]

This predicament is not about running out of money, it is about runaway spending.

The ground truth.

[Carry_Okie]

The Slave Party uses government spending as a slush fund to finance their campaigns. There is no way they will EVER reduce spending willingly, unless it is for programs that benefit Republican donors.

[Lucky9teen]

Considering EVERYTHING this administration does is a crisis, and of course, they never let one go to waste.....and considering how the MSM ALWAYS over hypes and is so biased when reporting the news....this quote comes to mind:

“Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see.” Benjamin Franklin

[loveliberty2]

Thanks for posting.

We must not let our "rulers" complete their "transformative" intentions by ongoing manufactured "crises," each one ceding more power to the central government.

Instead, American citizens must recognize that, for "the People," the question is between freedom and slavery to government.

"It is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties. We hold this prudent jealousy to be the first duty of citizens and one of the noblest characteristics of the late Revolution. The freemen of America did not wait till usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise and entangled the wuestion in precedents. They saw all the consequences in the principle [usurpation of power], and they avoided the consequences by denying the principle. We revere this lesson too much . . . to forget it." - James Madison

". . . we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. - Thomas Jefferson

". . . nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people. When the people give way, their deceivers, betrayers, and destroyers presss upon them so fast, that there is no resisting afterwards. The nature of the encroachment upon the American constitution is such, as to grow every day more and more encroaching. Like a cancer, it eats faster and faster every hour. The reveue creates pensioners, and the pensioners urge for more revenue. The people grow less steady spirited, and virtuous, the seekers more numerous and more corrupt, and every day increases the circles of their dependents and expectants, until virtue, integrity, public spirit, simplicity, and frugality, become the objects of ridicule and scorn, and vanity, luxury, foppery, selfishness, meanness, and downright venality swallow up the whole society." - John Adams

[ducdriver]

It has been my belief from the beginning of B. Hussein’s term that he was intentionally spending us into just such a “crisis”. In other words, run up the debt to astronomical levels, then come whining to us that he needs more taxes to pay it off.

[Nat Turner]

Just one disagreement, we are at war - last I checked.

Nope, no declaration...no war...only "kinetic military action" LOL!!!!

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks sickoflibs. BTW, and not for the first (or the last) time, the incandescent light bulb ban will only be significant for anal masturbators. Zerocare, Death Panels, Obama’s gutting of Medicare, Zero’s threat to Social Security pensioners, the ridiculous Obama deficits, the Obama Recession — those are real issues.