On January 20, 2009 - the day Mr. Obama took office - the national debt was $10.63 trillion, according to the Treasury Department. As of January 31st 2012, it was $15.36 trillion. That means the debt has increased approximately $4.73 trillion on Obama's watch. So far.
A week ago today, the debt ceiling was raised to $16.4 trillion -- pretty much under the radar, as Republicans are busy obsessing over who will be their nominee in the fall. House Republicans passed a “resolution of disapproval” to stop the increase, but in the words of the New York Times, "the Senate refused ... to take up that measure."
You may remember, the 2009 "stimulus" law set the debt limit at $12.1 trillion.
And, though you may not remember, back in 2006 then-Senator Barack Obama made a Great Speech on the floor of the Senate, urging Congress not to allow an increase in the debt limit - from $8.6 to $9 trillion:
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.
Over the past 5 years, our federal debt has increased by $3.5 trillion to $8.6 trillion. That is “trillion” with a “T.” That is money that we have borrowed from the Social Security trust fund, borrowed from China and Japan, borrowed from American taxpayers.And over the next 5 years, between now and 2011, the President’s budget will increase the debt by almost another $3.5 trillion.
Numbers that large are sometimes hard to understand. Some people may wonder why they matter. Here is why: This year, the Federal Government will spend $220 billion on interest. That is more money to pay interest on our national debt than we’ll spend on Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. That is more money to pay interest on our debt this year than we will spend on education, homeland security, transportation, and veterans benefits combined. It is more money in one year than we are likely to spend to rebuild the devastated gulf coast in a way that honors the best of America.
And the cost of our debt is one of the fastest growing expenses in the Federal budget. This rising debt is a hidden domestic enemy, robbing our cities and States of critical investments in infrastructure like bridges, ports, and levees; robbing our families and our children of critical investments in education and health care reform; robbing our seniors of the retirement and health security they have counted on....
One more flashback before we return to the present. This was on the campaign trail in Fargo North Dakota, 2008:
Make that two more flashbacks:
In an address to Congress in February 2009, a week after signing the economic stimulus law, Mr. Obama said he would “cut the deficit in half by the end of my first term in office.”
Okay, so he's a hypocrite, a liar and a compulsive big-spender of other people's money. But we knew that. What we didn't know is how hard the U.S. Treasury Department is trying ... to get Obama "past the election" without raising the debt ceiling again.
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--A senior Treasury Department official said Wednesday she expects the federal debt ceiling won't have to be raised again ahead of November's presidential election.
"Our expectation is that we will get close to the end of the year with the current room under the debt ceiling," Assistant Secretary for Financial Markets Mary Miller told reporters. "We do know that should we fall short we can still use extraordinary measures...to get past the election."
Posted by: Joe | Thursday, 02 February 2012 at 10:54 AM
Posted by: Mary | Thursday, 02 February 2012 at 04:42 PM