"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not." ~~Thomas Jefferson

"Who will protect us from those who protect us?"

Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. ~ Thomas Jefferson

"None are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free." ~~Goethe

22 February 2014

Is there a debt ceiling...?

By How Much Did Congress Increase the Debt Ceiling? Hint: It’s a Trick Question


Just a few weeks before President Obama releases his budget proposal to boost deficit spending for the remainder of his term, Congress voted to “raise the nation’s borrowing limit through March 2015.” But there’s one big question: By how much did Congress raise the debt limit, exactly?
As Heritage’s Romina Boccia explains on One America News Network’s Daily Ledger, Congress didn’t exactly raise the debt limit. Instead, Congress voted to “suspend” the debt limit for more than an entire year. This is an important distinction, because it means that there is no current limit on how much the United States Treasury may borrow.
Rather than put a ceiling on the national debt, Congress decided to waive the limit until next March, at which point the debt limit is automatically raised by the amount borrowed over the course of the year. Essentially, it gives the Treasury Department a blank check to borrow as much as is needed to finance all government spending authorized in law, regardless of incoming revenues.
Moreover, a clean increase or suspension ignores the debt limit’s purpose in the first place. Hitting the debt limit presents a focused opportunity for lawmakers to confront the rising debt and enact reforms to limit spending growth. As Boccia explains:
The debt limit is supposed to act as a fiscal check on spending and borrowing, and it is supposed to [protect] younger generations and future generations from excessive spending today…. [The nation should] have a limit in place that encourages fiscal restraint, and when you reach that limit, Congress should make spending cuts to put the budget on the path to balance.
But what did Congress do? Shirk that job until at least next year.
Even more troubling, the suspension of the debt limit is another abdication of Congress’s constitutional power to control borrowing, which it has now delegated to the executive branch. As Boccia further explains:
The debt limit was the last remaining tool with which Congress exercised its constitutional power to control borrowing. By suspending it, they’ve given up that power as well, concentrating all borrowing decisions in the Treasury in the executive [branch], which is President Obama’s Treasury.
Congress recklessly increased spending by $45 billon just this January with the massive omnibus bill. And President Obama is pushing an expansionary federal agenda that would increase deficit spending during his remaining term in office. Meanwhile, the President is also dropping any semblance of dealing with the key drivers of spending and debt during his term in office.
Taxpayers should be extra vigilant this year so President Obama’s year of inaction on fixing the debt does not end up becoming a “year of action” on higher spending that ends up exacerbating an already dire budget situation.

Link to original article here.

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2 comments:

Grog said...

I had to consider my reply for this one.

As stated in the article, the congress critters gave up their financial responsibility by doing this.

Tar and Feathers is a good picture, but I don't think it will ever happen.

Blue, do you ever read Zero Hedge? here's a story to ponder:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-02-20/pig-python-about-be-expelled-walk-thru-chinas-hard-landing-and-coming-global-hard-re

Blue said...

I was trying to compose my response after reading the article and while reading the comments when I came across this from hobopants...



hobopants


"The foundation of all mental illness is the avoidance of legitimate suffering." The majority of people just have their head in the sand and don't want to acknowledge that their way of life is slowly falling apart around them. It's becoming harder to look away everyday. This is panic and desperation we're seeing, not confidence.

We give the people up top too much credit I think, The short term thinking and back stabbing going on could never lend itself to any "Grand" plan. These people are parasites, and parasites don't create or build anything... they die with their host.This isn't 1984, this is decay, the fall of Rome.

One Blessing of the QE "program" has been time, a pretty fair gift to those who see the writing on the wall. Learn to garden, hunt and defend yourself and your own. Plan and prepare, watch and wait. We'll all regret being "right" soon enough.

His response is similar to what I was thinking, though more complex.

My thoughts? When it finally falls apart, 90% of the world's population is going to get hungry fast. They will need someone to blame. I wouldn't want to be one of the 10% whose greed caused the collapse (and who will still have food and material "things"), nor would I want to be in any way associated with the government that kept the fantasy going long after responsible adults should have stepped in and fixed it...

Yes, I realize it is more complex than that, but that won't matter. It is already over. We will experience the collapse in our lifetimes.

It's what happens between now and then that scares me. Government functionaries and those with money trying to buy their salvation, trying to save their worthless asses...

It ain't gonna be pretty.