Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Dems to lift debt ceiling by $1.8 trillion, fear 2010 backlash
Politico ^ | 12/09/09 | David Rogers

Posted on 12/10/2009 10:49:19 AM PST by Reaganesque

In a bold but risky year-end strategy, Democrats are preparing to raise the federal debt ceiling by as much as $1.8 trillion before New Year’s rather than have to face the issue again prior to the 2010 elections.

“We’ve incurred this debt. We have to pay our bills,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told POLITICO Wednesday. And the Maryland Democrat confirmed that the anticipated increase could be as high as $1.8 trillion — nearly twice what had been assumed in last spring’s budget resolution for the 2010 fiscal year.

The leadership is betting that it’s better for the party to take its lumps now rather than risk further votes over the coming year. But the enormity of the number could create its own dynamic, much as another debt ceiling fight in 1985 gave rise to the Gramm-Rudman deficit reduction act mandating across-the-board spending cuts nearly 25 years ago.

Already in the Senate, there is growing pressure in both parties for the creation of a novel bipartisan task force empowered to force expedited votes in the next Congress on deficit reduction steps now shunned by lawmakers.

As introduced Wednesday, the legislation sets no specific targets for deficit reduction, but its 18-member task force — 16 of whom would come from Congress — is promised immense leverage to force change if they can first come together behind a plan.

“This is a defining moment,” said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), one of the lead sponsors, and New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg, the panel’s ranking Republican, is already maneuvering to try to add the legislation as an amendment to any bill tapped to carry the debt increase.

As explained by Hoyer and other Democrats, that will almost certainly be a pending $636.4 billion Pentagon appropriations bill that includes $128.3 in contingency funds for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The House leadership has held back the bill for weeks, saving it for this moment, but now appropriations clerks have been instructed to have a final package ready to go by Monday.

Leadership staff stressed that nothing was yet final in what has become a year-end negotiation between top Democrats in the House and Senate. But the Senate appears to have been the first to put the $1.8 trillion number on the table. And Hoyer’s comments are the clearest yet on the scale of the increase and the expectation that it will be part of a larger year-end legislative train pulled along by the must-pass military bill.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey, who is pursuing job-related measures he would also like to add, insisted that the debt issue is a “leadership call” alone. But the Wisconsin Democrat showed no sign of opposition to the strategy outlined by Hoyer.

“It is December. We don’t really have a choice,” Obey told POLITICO. “The bill’s already been run up; the credit card has already been used. When you get the bill in the mail you need to pay it.”

Though Treasury can buy itself time by moving assets around, it is already coming close to the current debt ceiling of $12.1 trillion. Last spring, the Democratic-backed budget proposed to raise this to about $13 trillion, but given the current pace of borrowing, no one now expects that will be sufficient to get through 2010. In fact, fiscal year 2009 ended Sept. 30 with a $1.4 trillion deficit, which demanded higher-than-expected Treasury borrowing. Most of that was due to the downturn in the economy and spending commitments in place before Barack Obama took office. And as much as Republicans point to the president’s economic recovery bill last February as the culprit, only a small share of that $787 billion package was spent by Sept. 30.

The picture in 2010 is different. The administration is predicting the stimulus will hit its stride with much more spending. And there will be a steady escalation of outlays driven by back-to-back increases in 2009 and 2010 appropriations for domestic agencies.

The White House has vowed to be more deficit conscious in its forthcoming 2011 budget due out in February. But the House could vote as early as Thursday on a $446.8 billion year-end package covering more than a dozen Cabinet departments and agencies and representing a healthy 9 percent to 10 percent increase over current spending for the same accounts.

For example, transportation and housing resources would grow by 12 percent, including $2.5 billion for high-speed-rail investments on top of the $8 billion already added by the White House to the giant stimulus bill in February. A $163.5 budget for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education would add an additional $8.6 billion to annual spending, and Veterans Health Administration spending would grow to $45.1 billion, a $4.1 billion increase.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 111th; ceiling; debt; duplicate; economy; lift; trillion
Spend trillions. Then, when you run out of money, lift the spending limit so you spend even more and mortgage our future for political gain. Oh, the Dems have quite a bit to be afraid of next year. That's for sure.
1 posted on 12/10/2009 10:49:21 AM PST by Reaganesque
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Reaganesque

Bankruptcy of the USA is the plan.

The strength of the US dollar has been the source of the USA’s strength.


2 posted on 12/10/2009 10:54:28 AM PST by Tarpon ( ...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Reaganesque

Bush’s fault


3 posted on 12/10/2009 10:55:04 AM PST by Revelation 911 (How many 100's of 1000's of our servicemen died so we would never bow to a king?" -freeper pnh102)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Reaganesque

The Dem lemmings are marching in lockstep, following The Pied Piper (Obama) off the cliff. I’ve never seen anything like it. The KNOW they’re committing political suicide but they can’t seem to figure out a way to extricate themselves from the forthcoming disaster (for them) that will occur next November.


4 posted on 12/10/2009 10:59:57 AM PST by Signalman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Reaganesque
We poor solons can't raise our debt limits and borrow more. But Congress can just simply pass the added costs on to us.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find only things evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelogus

5 posted on 12/10/2009 11:00:57 AM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Reaganesque

If there is justice in the world then thousands of our leaders and their servants will be run out of town, in the most old fashioned way possible. Tar, feathers and a Chinese made bycycle.


6 posted on 12/10/2009 11:05:15 AM PST by Hans
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Reaganesque

This money is a necessary investment. It will go to create millions of new, permanent, high paying green jobs. And the spending will reverse the recession!

That’s what the guy with the SEIU t-shirt and the tire iron told me today.


7 posted on 12/10/2009 11:15:46 AM PST by dashing doofus (Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Reaganesque

They are raising the debt limit by piggy backing it on a Defense spending bill. They know the Repubs won’t let our troops down and will vote for the defense spending. It’s a total scam! We have no voice and have no power to stop these constitutional destroyers!

I’VE HAD ENOUGH!


8 posted on 12/10/2009 11:55:39 AM PST by Circle_Hook (Rage against the Machine!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Reaganesque

They are raising the debt limit by piggy backing it on a Defense spending bill. They know the Repubs won’t let our troops down and will vote for the defense spending. It’s a total scam! We have no voice and have no power to stop these constitutional destroyers!

I’VE HAD ENOUGH!


9 posted on 12/10/2009 11:55:45 AM PST by Circle_Hook (Rage against the Machine!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Reaganesque
“We’ve incurred this debt. We have to pay our bills,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told POLITICO Wednesday.

It is not just the incongruity, that we need to raise the debt to pay our debt, but, the dishonesty of not saying that they want to print the money they need.

10 posted on 12/10/2009 12:50:31 PM PST by depressed in 06 (Tea parties today, Lexington tomorrow.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: All

bttt


11 posted on 12/10/2009 3:10:11 PM PST by janetjanet998
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson