Good News: U.S. National Debt Just Ticked Over $14 Trillion For First Time

Republicans Vow To Cut Spending
(NewsCore) - As a new and politically divided Congress prepares to convene Wednesday, the newly muscular Republicans and the White House seem to be on a collision course over whether to raise the federal Debt ceiling. Some Republican lawmakers have vowed not to vote to raise the Debt Limit unless there is a plan in place for dealing with long-term obligations, including Social Security, and for returning to 2008 spending levels. But the White House says that refusing to raise the limit would hav...

Early fireworks in the new Congress, Part Three
Posted by Paul at 8:09 PM A reader who has first-hand experience from the 1990s playing "chicken" with Debt ceiling votes tells me that "there's no useful political leverage" to be gained from the exercise. He compares threats to withhold raising the Debt ceiling with threats to nuke the old Soviet Union - "superficially powerful, but actually too dreadful to seriously consider." This was my initial thought, and it was probably a good one, whatever Lindsey Graham says on Meet the Press. That sa...

As National Debt Obama Ran Up Tops $14 TRILLION (with a T), Obamas Architect of Economic Disaster Whines About Debt Limit
Well, look, it pains me that we would even be talking about this. This is not a game. You know, the Debt ceiling is not something to toy with. If we hit the Debt ceiling, that’s essentially defaulting on our obligations, which is totally unprecedented in American history. The impact on The Economy would be catastrophic. That would be a worse financial economic crisis than anything we saw in 2008. No doubt defaulting on U.S. obligations would be bad, but Goolsbee’s missing the point. ...

Examiner Editorial: Using the debt ceiling for a powerful message
Fred Watkins, ABC This Week/AP Austan Goolsbee, Obama's chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, expounds in horror that not raising the National Debt ceiling yet again would be"insanity." Congress and presidents from both major parties have been overspending for so many years that congressional votes to raise the National Debt ceiling long ago became perfunctory. But conventional thinking is no longer appropriate, and not only because Americans cannot afford a $13.9 Trillion na...

John Boehner's House Party -- and the Limits of a Speaker's Power
It is the rarest event in modern American Democracy -- the peaceful transfer of power from one party to another in the House of Representatives. When Republican John Boehner claims the gavel from Democrat Nancy Pelosi at noon Wednesday to become the 61st speaker of the House, it will mark only the Third Party shift since 1955 in the congressional body supposedly most responsive to the voters. Everything else in the capital changes (control of the Senate has ping-ponged eight times since 1955, co...

US risks default as it is quickly approaching its debt ceiling with over $14 Trillion in external debt
Debt in the US is as high as it has ever been. It is now over $14 TT. It is even above the numbers that are presented below on CBS. Via CBS: The latest posting today of the National Debt shows it has topped $14 Trillion for the first time. The U.S. Treasury website today reported that as of last Friday, the last day of 2010, the National Debt stood at $14,025,215,218,708.52. It took just 7 months for the National Debt to increase from $13 Trillion on June 1, 2010 to $14 Trillion on Dec. 31. It ...

Tea party hopes to put spine in GOP lawmakers
WASHINGTON — The Grassroots Tea Party movement is eager to pressure lawmakers in the new 112th Congress to adopt its conservative views, but the Democratic-controlled Senate is poised to stop them. The Tea Party movement animated November's Elections and helped give Republicans their biggest majority in the House of Representatives since the first Truman administration in the late 1940s. About 50 Republicans were elected to the House with the backing of Tea Party groups. Still, they ...

HA! Weaker Pelosis parting shot Deficit reduction has been a high priority
HA! Weaker Pelosi’s parting shot - “Deficit reduction has been a high priority” Nancy Pelosi proves that Botox rots the brain. Pelosi also proves that Liberalism/progressivism is a Mental Disorder. San Fran Nan had her final Press Conference as House Speaker today. And according to Fox Nation, Pelosi had the audacity to say: “Deficit reduction has been a high priority for us. It is our mantra, pay-as-you-go.” WHAT THE F? Lets examine the FACTS. Democrats took over C...

Another Doozy From Pelosi: Deficit Reduction Was Our Top Priority!
Nancy Pelosi lies with such ease. She said that the Democrats would have rammed through ObamaCare even if every American just loved their Health Insurance plans. She also said this: “Deficit reduction has been a high priority for us. It is our mantra, pay-as-you-go.” Now for the punchline: She said that with a straight face! Seriously, here’s a chart showing the National Debt during Nancy Pelosi’s tenure as Speaker of the House. That’s some record. When someone l...

Glenn Beck: Raising the debt ceiling is the beginning of the end for Republicans
A surreal clip, not because they don’t understand the consequences of failing to raise the ceiling but because they do — and Napolitano, at least, seems prepared to accept them. From the myopic standpoint of what’s more likely to bring about the end of the GOP, I’m guessing that an economic collapse triggered by a Republican-driven federal default is slightly more likely to cause trouble for Conservatives than voting to raise the ceiling in return for, say, a balanced-b...

Pelosi bows out with a fib: 'Deficit reduction' was 'high priority' (Video)
Nancy Pelosi claimed, "The initiatives we took were positives for the American People, " as she took her final bow in a last Press Conference, as Speaker of the House, adding that "Deficit reduction has been a high priority for us." However, Pelosi's body language during delivery and the numbers give a lie to her statement. First the body language . The video is available on the sidebar to watch as Nancy Pelosi vehemently shakes her head, "No", while boasting that "The initiatives we took were p...

Nasty Fight Over Debt Ceiling Brewing
Lawmakers and prognosticators are bracing for some of the biggest fights on Capitol Hill to revolve around the National Debt, which the Federal Government recently announced reached $14 Trillion and climbing as of yesterday.  There is a growing amount of concern from both Democrats and Republicans who fear debates over the Budget could be pushed to the brink, with an initial brawl over the official Debt ceiling limit which stands at $14.3 trillion. Republicans, with a new majority in the Ho...

Sen. DeMint: "There's More Bipartisanship Than We Need In The Senate"
After setting a new Filibuster record in the last Congress, leading Senate Republicans are now resisting efforts to reform the Senate rules. In an interview on Sean Hannity's radio show today, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-OK) explained that partisan obstructionism isn't really a problem. "You don't get $14 Trillion in Debt when there's gridlock," he said. "I mean, there's more Bipartisanship than we need in the Senate." HANNITY: What do you make of the Democrats, current Democrats, who voted against chang...

How Would Rand Paul Pay For His "Spend What You Have" Plan?
You might think that federal spending is a huge, delicate, and massively complicated project that demands carefully considered cuts to specific items, rather than haphazard hatchet-swings from congressional appropriators. Senator-elect Rand Paul (R-KY) would like you to know you're wrong; it's actually so simple that we can balance the Budget in just a few months, and never have to raise the Debt Limit. On Fox News yesterday with Andrew Napolitano, Paul said, "What about, we don't raise the Debt...

Speaker Pelosis Parting Shot: Deficit Reduction Has Been High Priority For Us
Fox Nation: When the Pelosi Democrats took control of Congress on January 4, 2007, the National Debt stood at $8,670,596,242,973.04. The last day of the 111th Congress and Pelosi's Speakership on December 22, 2010 the National Debt was $13,858,529,371,601.09 - a roughly $5.2 Trillion increase in just four years. Furthermore, the year over year federal Deficit has roughly quadrupled during Pelosi's four years as speaker, from $342 billion in Fiscal Year 2007 to an estimated $1.6 Trillion at the e...

Nancy Pelosi on Obamacare repeal: repeal would do very serious violence to the national debt
Pehaps Pelosi hasn't read the lasts CBO report. It now estimates, without Accounting gimmicks, ObamaCare will add to the National Debt....

Political Quote of the Day
Name that speaker: 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. … Increasing America’s Debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here. Instead, Washington...

DeMint: We Have to Draw the Line, Fight Increase in Debt Ceiling
Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S.C.) emphasized today that Republicans need to fight any attempt to increase the Debt ceiling, saying that Republicans are being “blackmailed” by the Democrats’ threat of a government shutdown. “We have to stop this [increasing the Debt Limit], and so I think this is a time where we insist on the Balanced Budget amendment. We should not be frightened by the fact that oh, we’re going to shut the government down,” DeMint said in an intervie...

Nancy Pelosi exits lying
Outgoing Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (let's just pause to savor that "outgoing" qualoifier) exits with an immense lie: At her final Press Conference as House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said, "Deficit reduction has been a high priority for us. It is our mantra, pay-as-you-go." The numbers tell a different story. When the Pelosi Democrats took control of Congress on January 4, 2007, the National Debt stood at $8,670,596,242,973.04. The last day of the 111th Congre...

Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together for the comedy stylings of Shecky Green and Nancy Pelosi!
She just flew in from San Francisco* and, boy, are her arms tired! Coming from the most radical and fiscally destructive House Speaker in American history -- who added $5 Trillion in new Deficits in just four short years -- this is comedy gold. At her final Press Conference as House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said, "Deficit reduction has been a high priority for us. It is our mantra, pay-as-you-go." ...When the Pelosi Democrats took control of Congress on January 4, 2007, the National Debt s...

President Obama Signs Landmark Legislation Laying the Foundation for a National Alzheimer Strategy
WASHINGTON, Jan. 4, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As the leading care, research and advocacy organization for Alzheimer's Disease, the Alzheimer's Association® applauds President Obama for signing the National Alzheimer's Project Act(NAPA) into law. NAPA creates for the first time a coordinated national strategy to confront one of America's most feared and costly diseases, a disease that will only plague more Baby Boomers as they age. Given the scale of the Alzheimer epidemic and the grow...

Whose Line Is It?
, give yourself a golfclap. And if you are scratching your head furiously at the seemingly unbelievable hypocrisy after how just four years later, the president's own economic advisor Austin Goolsbee said that a refusal by the Senate to increase the government’s Debt ceiling would be “catastrophic” and a sign of "insanity" don't worry, you are not alone. In fact, very few people can believe the self-professed "insanity" of the very people who four years ago were all about prude...

Obama signs bill to improve nation's food safety
WASHINGTON -- Foreshadowing the coming power struggles between the White House and a more Republican Congress, President Barack Obama on Tuesday signed a $1.4 billion overhaul of the nation's Food Safety system as some lawmakers complained that it's too expensive and threatened its funding. The first major overhaul of the Food Safety system since the 1930s, the law emphasizes prevention to help stop deadly outbreaks of foodborne illness before they occur, instead of reacting after consumers bec...

Obama foes face debt balancing act (AFP)
WASHINGTON (AFP) – One of US President Barack Obama's top Republican critics sidestepped questions Tuesday about whether his party would endorse raising the US Debt ceiling to avoid a potential financial crisis. "We are going to look to that issue when it arises to see what kind of legislative vehicles are available for us in dealing with that question," incoming House Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor told reporters. Asked for his personal views on whether Congress sh...

Early Morning Swim: Republicans Playing Chicken with Debt Ceiling, Reports Chris Hayes on MSNBC
Batshit. Tea Party champion Sen. Jim DeMint says he’s ready for a “showdown” with President Obama over raising the government Debt ceiling. DeMint’s threat is setting up a high-stakes game of chicken on Capitol Hill with Republicans demanding stark Spending Cuts before they consider raising the Debt Limit and Democrats warning that a failure to do so would trash the country’s Credit Rating and risk a government shutdown. “This needs to be a big showdown,R...