House moves to raise U.S. debt ceiling ($9,000,000,000,000)

Washington Times ^ | May 10, 2005

[RWR8189]

Washington, DC, May. 3 (UPI) -- The U.S. House has sent legislation to the Senate that would raise the federal debt limit to nearly $9 trillion, a $781 billion increase.

The House agreed to the increase under an automatically executing provision in the 2005 budget resolution approved by the House and Senate late last week.

The House officially sent the Senate a separate piece of debt-relief legislation increasing the limit as mandated by the self-executing provision in the budget resolution.

Gaining approval of the separate bill through the gambit avoided the need for a politically costly debate on the House floor over increasing the debt ceiling again and highlighting the inter-party split on the issue.

Fiscal conservatives within the GOP have been clamoring for greater fiscal discipline on budget matters considering the massive federal deficits, estimated to reach another record in dollar terms this year, for the second consecutive year.

[traviskicks]

That is an excellent piece. I used it in this, which you might find interesting:
http://www.neoperspectives.com/foundingoftheunitedstates.htm

On the Founding of the United States and the Constitutionality of Charity.

[Pelham]

"A million here, a million there, and pretty soon you're talking real money."

[cdawg20]

And the current deficit includes a $150 billion dollar surplus from social security or else the deficit would be near 600 billion. And for those who dont believe SS poses a problem, once it starts going into the hole, it wont be long before we are 500 billion a year in the red, and add that on to our budget deficit every single year.

[inquest]

I guess it makes sense that this would be about the time of the year that it would be going down, since revenues would be coming in from tax time.

[inquest]

It went out the door with Newt.

Actually the painful truth is that it went out the door with Clinton. Having him in the White House kept the Republicans conservative.

Newt, on the other hand, is the genius who recently said, "Hillary has become one of the very few people who know what to do about health care."

[Iscool]

You just hit on the irony of the situation. Hillary is already running as a "budget balancer" with surpluses galore and they actually can make the case while we plunge the nation deeper and deeper, go figure.

I've said it before, I'll say it again...The fix is in...The plan is for the Dems to take over...Just as it was when George's dad gave it up...

Nafta couldn't have passed without a Dem president supporting it...Something's in the works...Maybe a desertion of Israel...Who knows???

[Hank Rearden]

Well, can't deny that the impending massive loss of the republicans in 06 is well deserved.

Yep, they're going to get their asses kicked in '06 and '08 - deservedly so. I won't support their crap when it comes from the 'Rats, so why would I even think of supporting RepublicRat versions?

Looks like a lot more pain will be necessary to wake productive people the hell up.

[Hank Rearden]

So, the big question on my mind is, *we're* the ones who put these guys in power, *we're* the ones who were out campaiging and writing letters and blogging and pulling the weight in these last elections, *we're* in unanimous consensus that the government needs to reign in spending... and yet, we're being completely ignored?

Speak for yourself - I got their number and figured out their scam in 1991.

Getting others to listen has gotten easier since BigSpendin' Bush jumped on our wallets.

[Chewbacca]

Hyperinflation here we come!!!!!

Gold to the moon!!! Yeah baby!

[P.O.E.]

[radicalliberty]

We are months away from a complete finacial and market melt down I think. I'm very afraid.

[Spiff]

The same thing i did in 2002 rip up your republican membership card and join the libertarians and vote straight libertarian ticket every election cycle.The the way to get the goverment under control is for everyone to stop holding thier nose and voting for the lesser of two evils especially now that the lesser of two evils is exactly as evil as the dems now.

So, how's that working out for you. Have you elected anyone to Congress yet? I didn't think so.

[dread78645]

CUT SPENDING, you drunken sailors!!

On behalf of my fellow drunken sailors, I must object.
We spend our own money. Not yours!

[mississippi red-neck]

If a person was given 1 trillion dollars to spend 2500 years ago when Christ walked the earth he could have spent 1 million dollars a day seven days a week and he would still have approximately sixteen years at spending a million dollars a day left before he run out of money.

Multiply by nine and you get insane.

[staytrue]

And the war is off budget as well.

FYI, off budget items are not included in the annual deficit numbers which is about 200 billion. They are included in the National Debt number of 9 trillion. Further of the the 9 trillion, about 4 trillion is money the govt. "owes itself" via the social security and other "trust" funds.

[freepatriot32]

So how is voting straight republican working out for you? cut the size of government yet ?held the rate of growth ?pass fewer laws ? got more freedoms now then you did under Clinton? got less bureaucracy then under Clinton ?Less national debt?fewer people working for the government ?fewer people enslaved to the government ?yeah I didnt think so. but keep on mindlessly voting for them once they know there are no consequences to ignoring the base an d everyone will bend over and take it time and time again im sure they will change their ways and go back to their principles thats brilliant thinking there guy i am going nominate you for the Albert Einstein award for pure political genius

[BlackbirdSST]

Too big for a tagline, but bears repeating over and over!

So how is voting straight republican working out for you? cut the size of government yet ?held the rate of growth ?pass fewer laws ? got more freedoms now then you did under Clinton? got less bureaucracy then under Clinton ?Less national debt?fewer people working for the government ?fewer people enslaved to the government ?yeah I didnt think so. but keep on mindlessly voting for them once they know there are no consequences to ignoring the base an d everyone will bend over and take it time and time again im sure they will change their ways and go back to their principles thats brilliant thinking there guy i am going nominate you for the Albert Einstein award for pure political genius

Blackbird

[inquest]

Definitely true. Voting off the map they've provided for us is the only way the country's going to be turned around. It's the only way the Demopubs are going to sit up and take notice.

[Spiff]

So how is voting straight republican working out for you? cut the size of government yet ?held the rate of growth ?pass fewer laws ? got more freedoms now then you did under Clinton? got less bureaucracy then under Clinton ?Less national debt?fewer people working for the government ?fewer people enslaved to the government ?yeah I didnt think so. but keep on mindlessly voting for them once they know there are no consequences to ignoring the base an d everyone will bend over and take it time and time again im sure they will change their ways and go back to their principles thats brilliant thinking there guy i am going nominate you for the Albert Einstein award for pure political genius

There are far more fiscally conservative Republicans in Congress than there are fiscally conservative Libertarians. I never said that there were zero elected Republicans who are voting the right way. However, there are zero elected Libertarians there.

The big L party is a mess. All I had to do was watch one of their conventions on CSpan and I was turned off forever. Plus, it is a difficult task to find a big L who is pro-life.

The idea is to keep up the pressure from the grassroots in the Republican Party. We're electing more and more conservative Precinct Committeemen. In turn, they're electing more and more conservative party officers. This results in electing more conservative representatives locally, at a state level, and sometimes to Congress. It also helps us send conservative national committeemen to the Republican convention to ensure that the platform stays conservative and hopefully to have some effect on how conservative the national officers are.

This is not going to happen overnight, but it is happening. Its happened enough in Arizona that we've got a powerful conservative Republican bloc in the Legislature. We went from a terrible liberal budget last year that was basically designed by our leftist Governor to a mostly conservative Republican budget that was far more responsible. Last year, the Democrats and the RINOs teamed up get their budget passed. We sent some of those Dems and RINOs home and replaced them with more conservative representatives. The result is now obvious. And we did it without a single Libertarian being elected to the Legislature.

I too almost tore up my GOP card and switched parties. I thought long and hard about it. I decided no to because I saw the Libertarians were spinning their wheels while, within the Republican Party, we were seeing at least some progress in some places. Warts and all, the Republican Party is still the best vehicle for promoting conservative values.

[MEGoody]

Huh, they move the debt ceiling upward when a report was just released that the deficit is dropping?

Weird.