GOP faces spending test as debt nears $14.3T ceiling

Glenn Beck to Michele Bachmann: Are you seriously voting against the debt ceiling?
He insists (as he’s done before) that he’s on the fence about whether they should vote no, but if even a guy who’s famous for apocalyptic Rhetoric is uncomfortable with the possibilities from this vote, it’s a cinch that the GOP will rustle up enough support to raise the ceiling. (No less than Paul Ryan admitted as much yesterday.) The suspense isn’t whether the votes are there; the suspense is whether The One will very foolishly try to capitalize on the GOP’...

Primary dealers raise Treasury yield forecasts: Reuters poll
By Chris Reese NEW YORK | Fri Jan 7, 2011 9:12pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Leading Economists have boosted their outlook for Interest Rates on benchmark Treasury Debt in tandem with rising expectations for growth in the world's largest economy, a Reuters poll found on Friday. The forecasts for stronger growth came despite a disappointing U.S. Payrolls report, which showed employers hired less workers than expected in December, although the Unemployment rate ticked lower. "Today's (payrolls) re...

Conservatives Admit Debt Ceiling Threat Is A Bluff
It's increasingly clear that Republican leaders are bluffing when they threaten to destroy the full faith and credit of the American government by allowing the Debt ceiling to be shattered unless draconian Budget cuts are made. And a clear bluff is a bad bluff. There is no need to concede to any of their demands to protect American credit and the Global Economy. Last year, the now-Speaker John Boehner said Republicans would have to deal with the Debt ceiling like "adults." And this week, the ...

Sarah Palin: Obama 'hell bent' on weakening America
While appearing as a guest on the Laura Ingraham radio program Friday, Sarah Palin openly said what many believe: President Obama is purposefully weaking the United States. “What I believe that Obama is doing right now — he is hell-bent on weakening America," she said. Palin explained by using then Senator Obama's own words in 2006.  While debating whether or not to raise the Debt ceiling, he said: The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s Debt Limit is a...

Palin: Obamas deliberately trying to weaken America by raising the debt ceiling
I can’t tell if she’s being serious or just making a rhetorical point to rub his face in his Senate vote against raising the ceiling back in 2006. Quoth The One at the time: 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

Palin: Debt ceiling a plot by Obama to weaken America
Confused, hateful, or both? Sarah Palin is charging that President Barack Obama is “hell-bent on weakening America” by pushing to raise the National Debt ceiling. “What I believe that Obama is doing right now — he is hell-bent on weakening America,” the possible 2012 Republican contender said Friday on “The Laura Ingraham Show.” She accused the president of “purposefully” trying to harm the country and acknowledged that her stinging comments...

GOP faces spending test as debt nears $14.3T ceiling
The Obama Administration on Thursday told Congress the government is about to hit the $14.3 Trillion Debt ceiling and will need authority to borrow more, kicking off the first major test of spending restraint and the strength of Republicans' new congressional power. Republicans said they won't agree to a higher Debt Limit unless Democrats agree to strict new spending controls. Democrats warned the GOP not "to play chicken" with The Economy and said hitting the limit could be worse than the finan...

Frolic Into Boehnerland
… The Democrats have plenty of creatures like Boehner. But in the new Speaker of the House, the Republicans own the perfect archetype — the quintessential example of the kind of glad-handing, double-talking, K Street toady who has dominated the politics of both parties for decades. In sports, we talk about athletes who are the “total package,” and that term comes close to describing Boehner’s talent for perpetuating our corrupt and Debt-addled status quo: He’s...

Sometimes it is good to say NO
"Faced with a deep reccession, some say the answer is to expand the role of government. that's the approach the Administration chose in Washington. It's the WRONG approach." Clearly Govnernor Scott was taking a shot at the President of the United States and the economic policies that he has followed. It was a tactic that Scott did a lot of on the Campaign Trail and the press along with his opponent Alex Sink always ridiculed him for it, despite the fact that the United States had a ste...

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski Says More Wireless Spectrum Is Major Goal
What is this? The new smart phones, tablets and connected TVs are going to need a lot more bandwidth than we've got, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski told a room packed with the people who are making all those new bandwidth-gobbling gadgets. Genachowski did an onstage interview with Consumer Electronics Association President Gary Shapiro at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. At the beginning of the talk, Shapiro asked anyone who had wireless connection struggles with their smart phones w...

Palin: Obama Hell Bent on Weakening America
On today’s Laura Ingraham Show, Governor Palin does not mince words about McCain, Obama, and makes an interesting comment about her travel plans for the upcoming year. Laura: “That’s your former Running Mate. That’s the guy who picked you on the ticket talking about comprehensive Immigration reform.” Palin: “I’m giving him [McCain] the benefit of the doubt that he’s got some ideas that ultimately will result in no Amnesty and securing our borders. ...

No Negotiations on the Debt Limit
Here’s Paul Ryan talking about the Debt ceiling: But House Budget Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan says that tactic isn’t viable. “Just refusing to vote for it, I don’t think that’s really a strategy,” he said, noting that a failure to raise the ceiling could result in the nation defaulting on its debts to investors. “Will the Debt ceiling be raised? Does it have to be raised? Yes,” he said at an event sponsored by economics21 and the Manhattan Institute ...

New Yorkers Murder 41% Of Their Unborn Babies
« Re: The Debt Ceiling ... to raise or not to raise? I hope the title is offensive, because that's exactly what aborting 41% of a city's unborn Children is ... and it should be disgustingly offensive to everyone's sense of Morality and values (at least those that have them at all) ... and speaks volumes about the importance they place on life ... especially the life of those without voices. As Thomas Peters points out in his must-read coverage of a Press Conference hosted by the Chairoscu...

Paul Ryan: GOP Needs to Show a Difference Between Debt Ruin or Exceptionalism (Video)
Dang, he’s good! Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) told Paul Gigot at The National Press Club this week that Republicans must offer the country a clear choice by 2012 between Obama’s “Debt ruin” or “American Exceptionalism.” From the video: Rep. Paul Ryan in an interview with Paul Gigot at the National Press Club that Republicans must find a way to set before the nation by 2012 the stark choice between the path we are on - “Debt Ruin” - and the be...

Consumer borrowing increased for second straight month in November
Consumers increased their borrowing in November behind a jump in Student Loans, while Credit Card Debt continued to shrink.  Overall, consumer borrowing rose $1.3 billion or by 0.7 percent, to $2.4 Trillion, following a revised increase of $7 billion in October, up 3.5 percent and well above the initial 1.7 percent estimated increase, the Federal Reserve said Friday.  As borrowing rose for the second straight month following 20 months of declines, consumers also continued to pay off their de...

You Are It, Meredith
The interview became even more outrageous as the NBC co-host peppered Congresswoman Bachmann with questions about the Debt ceiling. Conservatives have long complained that the liberal media likes to play games with truth, when reporting news about conservatives and their policies. On January 6th on NBC’s “Today Show,” those games were never more obvious than in the person of that deceptively sweet and innocent Meredith Vieira. The “Today Show” co-host introduced her guest, ...

Greenspan Warns of Risks from US Debt
(Wall Street Journal) - Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Friday that the US could face a bond-market crisis if politicians don't act soon to start cutting the nation's Debt. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Greenspan said that eventually Congress would pass a Budget that includes many proposals by a White House debt-reduction panel. "I think that the type of Budget agreement that was put together by Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles is the type of Budget that will b...

A compromise on the debt ceiling and another promised-but-meaningless health care vote.
Don't-Tread-on-Meter: Jan. 7, 2011: 14 They wanted an "ObamaCare" Repeal vote, and they'll get an ObamaCare Repeal vote. On Friday, Republicans got the votes to start debating the Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act, for a vote next Wednesday. "They threw out a whole bunch of members of Congress in constitutional Fashion and replaced them with people who took the oath and the pledge to come here to Repeal 'Obamacare,' " explained Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa. "It's pretty simple." Republic...

Another Day Older And Deeper In Debt
(Alternate title: The Ceiling! The Ceiling! The Ceiling's On Fire!) OK, let's talk red ink. The US government is rapidly approaching its Debt ceiling of 14.3 Trillion dollars (let's write that out -- $14,300,000,000,000.00), with estimates we'll hit it around March or April. The Republicans are talking about saying "no mas" and cutting enough to keep it from getting there. The Democrats are running around, screaming about apocalypse and defaults and shutdowns should we not raise it to allow Was...

Tea party groups warn GOP
With the GOP now taking control of the House, but showing signs that they may be backing down from promises made on the Campaign Trail, Tea Party groups are warning Republicans that they are watching them: As Republicans celebrated their new power in Washington yesterday, two prominent Tea Party Activists walked the halls of Capitol Hill carrying a message: we’re keeping an eye on you. Although many freshman lawmakers ran on a Tea Party platform — and enjoyed Tea Party support — Je...

Palin: Obama 'hell bent' on weakening America
Sarah Palin is charging that President Barack Obama is “hell-bent on weakening America” by pushing to raise the National Debt ceiling. Continue Reading Text Size - + reset Politico 44 “What I believe that Obama is doing right now — he is hell-bent on weakening America,” the possible 2012 Republican contender said Friday on “The Laura Ingraham Show.” She accused the president of “purposefully” trying to harm the country and acknowledged tha...

4 Ways to Think About the Debt Ceiling Frenzy
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's letter to Congress on the Debt ceiling warns that if Washington doesn't raise the government's borrowing limit, The Economy will face catastrophe. To which, you might respond: What's a Debt ceiling? What kind of catastrophe? And what outcome should I root for? Let's break this debate down into four questions. 1. What's the Debt ceiling? When Congress passes a law that increases the Deficit, we borrow money to pay the difference. But for reasons that defy sanity,...

MSNBC Flunks Remedial Math on Debt Ceiling
Earth to MSNBC executives: your anchor, your reporter, and your editors do not know what they’re talking about. They just badly misinformed your viewers. The “Debt ceiling” is a limit on debt, not spending. The “ceiling” is an artificial limit set by Congress; it can be raised, even repealed, with zero harm to the Republic. There is no intrinsic reason why the US cannot raise its level of debt above current levels. There are, however, many reasons why it should rai...

Debt Ceiling
Debt Ceiling Friday, 01/7/2011 - 12:07 pm by Bryce Covert | Post a Comment What is the debt ceiling? The debt ceiling is the maximum amount of debt that the government is legally allowed to take on. Whereas Congress used to approve each federal debt issuance separately, in 1917 it passed the Second Liberty Bond Act, which limited the amount of debt the Treasury can issue but also provided it with more leeway. The Treasury was granted the authority to issue enough debt to fund government oper...

Geithner Pushes Congress to Raise Debt Ceiling
Reuters reports: Republicans acknowledged on Thursday they will have to sign off on more Deficit spending to avoid a Debt default that would roil Financial Markets and bring the government to a grinding halt. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner pressed lawmakers to raise the nation’s $14.3 Trillion Debt Limit to allow the United States to borrow more and avert a crisis in the coming months. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, a Republican, said he recognized the need to allow the ...