Debt Ceiling Could Be Hit This Month

[JGrubbs]

The government should hit the national debt's $7.4 trillion ceiling this month, and the Bush administration told Congress again Monday it should raise the limit. That would be a politically sticky move just weeks from the Nov. 2 elections.

Treasury Department spokesman Rob Nichols said the government is on track to reach the limit in early October. He could not provide a more specific date but said the forecast is made "on a day-to-day basis," and Congress would be notified.

The government can juggle accounts to stay under the limit through mid-November to avoid default, as it has in the past. But the Bush administration is urging Congress, which expects to adjourn Friday, to go ahead and raise the ceiling.

"We've been calling on Congress to act now for months, and we think it's important that they do so," Nichols said.

The government's debt was $7.364 trillion as of Friday, $18.3 billion from the ceiling. Congress last boosted the limit in May 2003.

SOURCE

 

[bb_baptist]

Average annual real increases in domestic discretionary spending

Fiscal years Increase
Lyndon Johnson 1965-69 4.3%
Richard Nixon 1970-75 6.8%
Gerald Ford 1976-77 8.0%
Jimmy Carter 1978-81 2.0%
Ronald Reagan 1982-89 -1.3%
George H.W. Bush 1990-93 4.0%
Bill Clinton 1994-2001 2.5%
George W. Bush 2002-04 8.2%

Source: Club for Growth, based on U.S. Budget, Historical Tables, 2004

http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110004579

 

[The Galatian]

Hmmm... about 3.0 for Democrats, and about 4.9 for republicans.

So Bush isn't alone in his big spending habits.

 

[Pennsylvania Jim]

Bush has learned from the Democrats, and improved on their technique: you can buy a lot more votes by handing out money than you lose by running up massive debts.

 

[The Galatian]

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship." - Alexander Tyler

Those who vote for Kerry will find things only slightly better under his administration.

And those who refuse to vote their principles, because "Peroutka can't win?"

"..it does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds.." - Samuel Adams

 

[JGrubbs]

Bush administration uses pension money to avoid debt ceiling

WASHINGTON, Oct 14 (AFP) - US President George W. Bush's administration said Thursday it will temporarily stop paying into a federal retirement fund to avoid hitting a 7.38-trillion-dollar debt ceiling.

US Treasury Secretary John Snow said he would suspend payments immediately to the federal employees' Government Securities Investment Fund (G-Fund) in order to keep the government running.

Source: Agence France Presse

 

[Pennsylvania Jim]

He's gutting every possible source of cash and debt. I hope he loses on November, or we will b e bankrupt.

 

[The Galatian]

The scary thing is, he either doesn't understand what he's doing, or he just doesn't care.

 

[Pennsylvania Jim]

Nah, can't be. He says he's a Christian, he has to be a good man.

 

[JGrubbs]

U.S. Hits Debt Limit After Senators Put Off Raising Ceiling

The federal government reached its $7.4 trillion debt ceiling yesterday, forcing Treasury Secretary John W. Snow to delay contributing to one of the federal employees' pension systems to avoid running out of cash and possibly defaulting on government debt.

The situation will probably be temporary, as it has in the past. Congressional leaders said that when they return for a lame-duck session after the election, they will raise the debt ceiling to allow the government to borrow the money it needs to pay its bills. At that point, any overdue contributions to the pension fund would be paid, with interest.

Source: Washington Post

 

[KenH]

It's a real shame that the politicians are allowed to continue to send these United States down the path to fiscal bankruptcy.

Proverbs 22:7 (ESV)
The rich rules over the poor,
and the borrower is the slave of the lender.

 

[Gup20]

I saw on Fox News they had the most recent Nobel Prize winning economist on, and they asked him about Bush and Kerry's economic plans. That man said that He liked Bush's plan, but that the tax cuts should have been larger (something Bush actually asked for and didn't get).

He reminded viewers of Regan tax cuts where dramatic cuts were made. He noted that this was a tremendous boost to our economy. He also noted that even though they took far less money from each person, the government still took in about the same ammount in tax revenue. Why? Because there was a lot more spending, which lead to a lot more jobs, which lead to a wider tax base. The economy grew as a result.

He also contrasted that with Clinton's tax increases in the 90's and showed how that lead to a depressed economy.

 

[KenH]

The 1990's under Bill Clinton certainly did not have a depressed economy.

 

[Daisy]

Originally posted by Gup20:
He reminded viewers of Regan tax cuts where dramatic cuts were made. He noted that this was a tremendous boost to our economy. He also noted that even though they took far less money from each person, the government still took in about the same ammount in tax revenue. Why? Because there was a lot more spending, which lead to a lot more jobs, which lead to a wider tax base. The economy grew as a result.

Unfortunately, Bush's recovery has been largely jobless. This third quarter saw far fewer created than had been projected, something like 96,000 vs 148,000 (if memory serves).

 

[The Galatian]

Bush will be the first president since Hoover to lose more jobs than gained.

 

[JGrubbs]

White House: Debt Ceiling Must Be Raised

The Bush administration announced Wednesday [November 3rd] that it will run out of maneuvering room to manage the government's massive borrowing needs in two weeks, putting more pressure on Congress to raise the debt ceiling when it convenes for a special post-election session.

<snip>

The government hit the current debt ceiling of $7.384 trillion on Oct. 14, forcing Treasury to begin a series of bookkeeping maneuvers to keep financing the government's normal operations without breaching the debt ceiling. But Treasury Secretary John Snow has warned that those special measures would last only until mid-November.

<snip>

Republicans have proposed that the debt ceiling be raised by $690 billion to $8.074 trillion, an amount that would get the government through next September, when the 2005 budget year ends.

Source: The Associated Press

 

[JGrubbs]

We are in an era of government by credit card. The debt ceiling remained stable from 1997 to June 2002, when it was raised from $5.7 trillion to around $6.1 trillion; about a year later it was raised to $7.34 trillion. With the new target of $8.1 trillion, we will have seen a debt ceiling increase of about $2.5 trillion in barely two years. Every year we spend hundreds of billions of hard-earned tax dollars on the interest - the interest alone - on this debt.

This year's increase on the debt equals nearly the entire federal budget as recently as 1982.

And there's no relief in sight. The Congressional Budget Office estimated this week that current policy will produce $2.3 trillion more in deficit spending over the next decade. And that number doesn't include the cost of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It's a good thing the conservatives are in charge of our spending and fiscal policies in Washington.

 

[Daisy]

Originally posted by Gup20:
I saw on Fox News they had the most recent Nobel Prize winning economist on, and they asked him about Bush and Kerry's economic plans. That man said that He liked Bush's plan, but that the tax cuts should have been larger (something Bush actually asked for and didn't get).

Well TEN Nobel Prize winning economists endorsed Kerry's plan, for all the good it did. Seriously, here's the link

10 Nobel economists endorse Kerry
Experts criticize Bush's 'reckless and extreme course'
Reuters
Updated: 11:03 a.m. ET Aug. 25, 2004
PHILADELPHIA - John Kerry won the endorsement of 10 Nobel Prize-winning economists Wednesday as he attacked President Bush for policies that he said have led to the creation of only low-paying jobs.

The Democratic presidential nominee released a letter from the economists saying the Bush administration had “embarked on a reckless and extreme course that endangers the long-term economic health of our nation.”

They cited “poorly designed” tax cuts that instead of creating jobs have turned budget surpluses into enormous budget deficits, a “fiscal irresponsibility threatens the long-term economic security and prosperity of our nation.”

The endorsement, in the form of an open letter American voters, was signed by George Akerlof and Daniel McFadden of the University of California at Berkeley, Kenneth Arrow and William Sharpe of Stanford University, Daniel Kahneman of Princeton University, Lawrence Klein of the University of Pennsylvania, Douglass North of Washington University, Paul Samuelson and Robert Solow of MIT and Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia University.

Now, what was the name of the lone economist who endorsed Bush's plan?

 

[JGrubbs]

Senate OKs $800B Debt Limit Hike

A divided Senate approved an $800 billion increase in the federal debt limit Wednesday, a major boost in borrowing that Sen. John Kerry and other Democrats blamed on the fiscal policies of President Bush.

The mostly party line, 52-44 vote was expected to be followed by House passage Thursday. Enactment would raise the government's borrowing limit to $8.18 trillion - $2.23 trillion higher than when Bush became president in 2001, and more than eight times the debt President Reagan faced when he took office in 1981.

Souce: Associated Press

That means the government's borrowing limit is now $8,180,000,000,000.00. The interest expense on the National Debt is the third largest expense in the federal budget. Only Defense and income redistribution are higher. Just for the month of October the federal government has spent $13,735,391,456.62 of the taxpayers money just on the interest for the National Debt.

In FY03 the U. S. Government spent $318 Billion of your money on interest payments to the holders of the National Debt. In FY04 the amount was $322 Billion. Compare that to NASA at $15 Billion, Education at $61 Billion, and Department of Transportation at $56 Billion.

Source: National Debt Awareness Campaign

 

[Pennsylvania Jim]

Interesting. The Republicans voted to add almost a TRILLION dollars of government debt, and the Democrats opposed it.

I guess the Republicans are now truly the big-spending liberals in Washington.