Print 
PDFIt’s that time of year again… Time to raise America’s debt ceiling.
Now that Washington has passed trillions of dollars of new spending bills, it’s time to decide whether to pay for those items.
To figure out which side of this debate you should be on, ask yourself: Who exactly runs Washington these days?
A Barack Obama-controlled White House and a Harry Reid-controlled Senate tip the scales in favor of the Democrats.
So, if you are a Republican, you should definitely be against increasing the debt ceiling.
To help simplify this, just remember: If you are a Republican, the only time that you are “for” raising the debt ceiling is when a Republican majority is running Washington.
To put it another way, when Democrats are running Washington, debt ceiling increases are bad. And when Republicans are running Washington, debt ceiling increases are good.
For example: From 2000-2006, when Republicans were running the White House, the Senate, and the House… This would have been a perfect time for Republicans to be “for” increasing the debt ceiling.
And during this time period, the Republicans raised the debt ceiling no less than four times.
In June 2002, Republicans raised the debt ceiling to $6.4 trillion… (great!)
In May 2003, Republicans raised the debt ceiling to $7.384 trillion… (excellent!)
In November 2004, Republicans raised the debt ceiling to $8.184 trillion… (wonderful!)
In March 2006, Republicans raised the debt ceiling to $8.965 trillion… (fantastic!)
In fact, here’s a video showing a slew of Republicans talking about the importance of raising the debt ceiling…
Of course, it should come as no surprise that while the Republicans were busy shoving the debt ceiling ever higher, many Democrats were voting against those “evil” debt ceiling increases.
Here’s a brief video showing both then-Senator Barack Obama and Senator Harry Reid voting against the Republican-led debt ceiling increase in March 2006.
Sadly, the Democratic calls for “fiscal responsibilty” were completely ignored by the spendthrift Republicans.
Later, in September 2007, the debt ceiling was raised to $9.815 trillion… (this one was good!)
Then in July 2008, the debt ceiling increased to $10.615 trillion… (excellent!)
Finally, in October 2008, President Bush Jr. signed off on another debt ceiling increase, this time raising it to $11.315 trillion. (we loved this one!)
These were great times for Democrats to be against debt ceiling increases and for Republicans to be for them.
But things suddenly changed for Republicans in 2009. With Bush Jr. gone and a Democratically-controlled White House, Senate, and House, it was definitely time for a shift in the Republican attitude toward the debt ceiling.
In February 2009, just one month after he was sworn into office, President Obama signed off on an increase in the debt ceiling of $12.104 trillion… (terrible!)
Later that same year, in December, the Obama and Co. approved an increase in the debt ceiling up to $12.394 trillion… (financial insanity!)
Then, in February 2010, Mr. Obama and the Congress approved a hike in the debt ceiling up to $14.294 trillion… (completely unacceptable!)
And now, in our post-fiscal cliff era, Washington and their lapdog media are rushing headlong into our next fiscal crisis. Namely, will Washington choose to raise the debt ceiling again to prevent financial calamity?
It’s a real nail biter, this one is…
Remember, Democrats currently control Washington.
Republicans, you know what to do.
Jerry Robinson
@ftmdaily
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
There is, laughably, a video of Senator Obama railing against raising the debt limit as well. This all ties in very nicely with the false left-right paradigm.
Yeah, I am sure one exists. However, I did not find one in my initial search. If you have a link, send it over and I’ll post it. Thanks!
There is a restaurant, on one side of the restaurant are Republican waiters, and on the other are the Democratic waiters. All of the waiters get their customer’s food from the same Wall Street kitchen.
Yes Tim. But the Republican waiters are nicer. =)
I wish you had added the obvious conclusion to your remarks. The debt ceiling is the enabler of the national debt and the surreptitious mechanism used to fund special interest and tax avoidance. If you factor out the revenues and outlays of the entitlement programs, only 42% of government spending is actually funded.
Good point Solon…
The unstated conclusion to this is that the democrats that were so against raising the debt ceiling under Bush are the same calling it “irresponsible” and “deadbeat” not to raise it now.
Obviously, republicans disagree with democrat pork and democrats disagree with republican pork, but either party, once in power, wants more power in the form of more money to buy supporters.
If you are sick of the lack of representation of common sense in Washington, then I would do as I’ve already begun doing, and move money/savings into precious metals or possibly other commodities, as well as stock up food provisions for yourself and your family.
We live in a world economy where much of our goods are imported and our oil is put on the world market before we purchase it. Our current QE is flooding 85 billion a month into the economy until unemployment drops to 6.5%, with half of that printed money being newly printed and used to buy treasury bonds. So, we print money to trade to the gov for an IOU that is not turned in, and the gov spends that money immediately. The other half of the 85 billion a month is trading short term treasuries for long term, essentially admitting that current IOUs will not be turned in. If this goes on for a full year, then we will have printed over half a trillion dollars in a year to be spent immediately on operating expenses, buying votes, and paying interest on previous debt to foreign countries. At the same time, over 1 Trillion in long term IOUs will be generated by our government to the FED for printed money and short term IOUs combined. Remember, the short term IOUs are being traded for long term, basically admitting that the gov will not repay them any time soon.
Now, how long will it take for foreign countries to lose respect for our money and demand more of it in exchange for goods/services/native currency, like they would lose respect for the money of a banana republic? Remember when China dumped US bonds, the IOUs, enough to make Japan the number one foreign holder of US debt? The loss of respect of the dollar has already begun because when we want to spend more money, we just print more of it, and previous number one borrower, China, is surely wise to the fact that we are paying interest with printed money while asking to borrow more, but they put up with this because much of the money ends up spent on Chinese goods, flowing back to China. So we borrow money just to give it back again and still owe the money and print more to pay the interest.
The druggee that borrows money from peter to pay paul for money borrowed for drugs doesn’t come to a good end.