The Debt Ceiling Debate: The Obama vs. Boehner speeches (Videos)

I just got through watching both Obama's and John Boehner's speeches. Again, I feel like vomiting over the whole foolish mess. With Obama's ridiculous lies about Social Security and Boehner's foolish entertainment of Democrat's disingenuous compromises, I am rapidly losing hope that America will dodge this bullet.

Of the two speeches, Obama's was clearly the worse. Obama's speech could have easily been spliced together from his past speeches over the last two years. It was the same old dog and pony show we have seen over and over again.

• Class warfare, complete with evil corporate jets - check.
• One sided shared sacrifice - check.
• Blame Bush - check.

and the list goes on and on.

No where in Obama's 15 minute speech did Obama offer a clear cut path plan of action. Instead, it was the usual dump it all in Congress' lap and then take to the podium to play the role of college professor. Of course in doing so, Obama made his usual massive contradictions. Like this gem:

[...]In the past, raising the debt ceiling was routine. Since the 1950s, Congress has always passed it, and every President has signed it. President Reagan did it 18 times. George W. Bush did it seven times. And we have to do it by next Tuesday, August 2nd, or else we won’t be able to pay all of our bills.

[...] But the new approach that Speaker Boehner unveiled today, which would temporarily extend the debt ceiling in exchange for spending cuts, would force us to once again face the threat of default just six months from now. In other words, it doesn’t solve the problem.

So, Reagan had to deal with 18 extensions of the debt ceiling over 8 year, which breaks down to less than 6 months intervals and the economy thrived under those conditions. However, a six month extension today would be catastrophe? This is why Obama is so disingenuous and phony.

Boehner is once again talking the talk but failing to walk the walk. Boehner would not be in the pressure cooker had he declared way back in November that the debt ceiling was not going to be raised. Had he taken that stance eight months ago, he would have had eight months to defuse all the liberal arguments, scare tactics and power plays. He would have been in the position of demanding Democrats start coming up with their cuts to go along with the Republican cuts. The markets would have known months ago that America was not raising its debt ceiling and that it was going to use the next eight months to seriously tackle the problem, rather than try to mash something together in less than a month.

The CBO's scoring of Boehner's plan clearly shows that Boehner is more concern about the political aspects of the debate than actually forcing real change. Pity for all of us.

Via: Memeorandum
Via: The Washington Post
Via: WhiteHouse.gov
Via: The Right Scoop
Via: Politico

The Debt Ceiling Debate - Liars and Losers on display

I have been watching the debt ceiling debate with absolute disgust. Seriously, I am on the verge of vomiting from the outright lies, distortions, political games and typical Washington foolishness. Never in my life have I witness such dysfunction!


First we have Obama who has now taken to flat out lying to the American people. Today on CBS News Obama was asked a straight forward question about whether or not Social Security checks would go out next month and here is what the Liar In Chief said:

CBS News: President Obama on Tuesday said he cannot guarantee that retirees will receive their Social Security checks August 3 if Democrats and Republicans in Washington do not reach an agreement on reducing the deficit in the coming weeks.

"I cannot guarantee that those checks go out on August 3rd if we haven't resolved this issue. Because there may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it," Mr. Obama said in an interview with CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley, according to excerpts released by CBS News.

This is a bold face lie, plain and simple. The Social Security Administration claims to have $2.5 trillion surplus. Monthly expenditures for Social Security is about $60 billion. How then on God's green Earth can Obama say with a straight face that he cannot guarantee seniors will receive their on August 3rd?

Obama should be shown the door immediately for lying to the American people like this and CBS News should have their licence revoked for not calling Obama out on such a lie. It is absolutely disgusting!

Aside from a lapdog media, Obama is comfortable lying to the public because he knows he is dealing with a bunch of loser Republicans. The Republican leadership is a bunch of losers because they immediately went down the road of agreeing to raise the debt ceiling from the get go.

Back in January when they took control of the House, Republicans were quick to agree with the left's lie that calamity would befall the world if the debt ceiling was not raise. Now we have Republican leadership willing to abdicate it constitutional authority of the purse strings to the president in order to avoid political heat.

Enter loser Mitch McConnell:

Desperate to get out of the political box they helped to create, Senate Republicans are actively pursuing a new plan under which the debt ceiling would grow in three increments over the remainder of this Congress unless lawmakers approve a veto-proof resolution of disapproval.

In effect lawmakers would be surrendering the very power of approval that the GOP has used to force the debt crisis now. But by taking the disapproval route, Republicans can shift the onus more onto the White House and Democrats since a two-thirds majority would be needed to stop any increase that President Barack Obama requests.

“It gives the president 100 percent of the responsibility for increasing the debt limit if he chooses not to have any spending reductions,” Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander, the Republican Conference chairman, told reporters Tuesday. [MORE]

Mitch McConnell must be the stupidest man on earth. If he thinks abdicating his constitutional responsibility to Obama will stop Obama. I have two words for McConnell ... "bully pulpit". Obama will, with the aid of a complicit media, use the bully pulpit to spin raising the debt ceiling endlessly by claiming all spending as much needed "investments" (e.g. we need to "invest" in high speed rail, we need to "invest" in new infrastructural, we need to "invest" in fill in the blank). The media will be all to happy to find statistics and economists who will back up the need for these "investments".

The reason why the debt ceiling debate has turned into a parade of liars and losers is because neither Republican nor Democrat has the guts to force Washington to live within its means. If Washington was forced to live "pay check to pay check" like so many Americans have to, it would quickly find that it would be forced to make real and drastic cuts to spending.
For the first time in history, Washington would have to do away with duplicate departments, failed programs, crazy projects, corporate welfare, subsides, non-essential military spending and of course congressional and executive perks. Furthermore, the American people would actually get to see exactly what the welfare state is costing them. Will Americans be willing to pay for lavish things like free presicription drugs for all seniors regardless of their income? Or will Americans be willing to give the children of illegal aliens a free college education instead or paying for infrastructure improvements? Faced with such stark choices, would Americans continue to be so passive about government spending?  I doubt it.

What I would not give to have one adult step into this fray and inject much needed commonsense into the debate.  Perhaps, Sarah Palin might come to the rescue with a scathing Facebook post.

Via: Memeorandum

Via: CBS News

Via: SSA.gov

Via: Politico

CBS News Poll: Most Americans oppose raising the debt ceiling

CBS News: Despite Obama administration warnings that failing to do so would devastate the economy, a clear majority of Americans say they oppose raising the debt limit, a new CBS News/New York Times poll shows.

Just 27 percent of Americans support raising the debt limit, while 63 percent oppose raising it.

Eighty-three percent of Republicans oppose raising the limit, along with 64 percent of independents and 48 percent of Democrats. Support for raising the debt limit is just 36 percent among Democrats, and only 14 percent among Republicans.

Seven in ten who oppose raising the debt limit stand by that position even if it means that interest rates will go up. [MORE]

If you think those numbers are pretty astounding, consider that Ed Morrissey at Hot Air finds that the polling data has been weighted towards the Democrat's favor!

With numbers like this, I cannot for the life of me understand why Republicans were so damn quick to capitulate on raising the debt limit. I have always contended that on November 4, 2010 John Boehner should have stated in no uncertain terms that Republicans would not vote to raise the debt limit and that Democrats should immediately get to work on finding programs to cut.

Instead, Boehner allowed Democrats to create a story of doom and gloom if the debt limit was not raised. From the looks of this poll, it seems like only the GOP leadership was scared by the Democrats' story.

Not raising the debt limit doesn't mean we automatically default on our obligations. America takes in $7 billion a day in revenue and can pay its debts with that. Politicians and unwilling to do this because it would mean that they would have to confront their bad spending habits now rather than later. This is because we would be forced to live within our means, prioritize our spending and make real cuts immediately. The ugly truth is that there simply isn't enough testicular fortitude in Washington today to undertake such adult action.

For some additional reading, check out Senator Pat Toomey's Op Ed at Real Clear Politics.  Toomey points out that should the US default on its debts, the blame must be laid at the feet of Turbo Tax Cheat Timmy Geithner.

Via: Memeorandum
Via: CBS News
Via: Hot Air

Via: Real Clear Politics

Marco Rubio: Why I won't raise the debt limit

Marco Rubio has an Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal tomorrow where he details his reasoning for why he will vote against raising the debt ceiling.

Wall Street Journal: I will vote to defeat an increase in the debt limit unless it is the last one we ever authorize and is accompanied by a plan for fundamental tax reform, an overhaul of our regulatory structure, a cut to discretionary spending, a balanced-budget amendment, and reforms to save Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.[...]

Some say we will go into default if we don't increase the debt limit. But if we simply raise it once again, without a real plan to bring spending under control and get our economy growing, America faces the very real danger of a catastrophic economic crisis.

I know that by writing this, I am inviting political attack. When I proposed reforms to Social Security during my campaign, my opponent spent millions on attack ads designed to frighten seniors. But demagoguery is the last refuge of the spineless politician willing to do anything to win the next election.
Whether they admit it or not, everyone in Washington knows how to solve these problems. What is missing is the political will to do it. I ran for the U.S. Senate because I want my children to inherit what I inherited: the greatest nation in human history. It's not too late. The 21st century can also be the American Century. Our people are ready. Now it's time for their leaders to join them. [MORE]

The arguments Rubio makes in his Op-Ed are the kinds of things the Republican leadership should have been saying loudly on November 4, 2010. Democrats have taken the lead in messaging with claiming that failure to raise the debt ceiling will lead to economic Armageddon.

Republicans were handed a mandate back in November, there is little reason to be coy about using it. Republicans should have set a firm goal of something like $500 billion in cuts for the 2012 budget then come up with only $250 billion worth of cut and then demand the Democrats come up with the rest. This would have been a far better strategy than letting Democrats sit back and demand Republicans detail where all the cuts are coming from.

Via: Memeorandum
Via: The Wall Street Journal

Poll: Voters oppose raising the debt ceiling

The Hill: Only 27 percent of likely voters favor raising the nation’s $14.3 trillion debt ceiling, while 62 percent oppose it, according to an exclusive poll for The Hill.

The poll found solid opposition from Republicans and also from independent voters, who are critical to President Obama’s re-election in 2012.

Only 27 percent of likely voters favor raising the nation’s $14.3 trillion debt ceiling, while 62 percent oppose it, according to an exclusive poll for The Hill.

The poll found solid opposition from Republicans and also from independent voters, who are critical to President Obama’s re-election in 2012.[MORE]

I think Republicans made a huge mistake by immediately announcing they would raise the debt ceiling if Obama and the Democrats signed on to budget cuts.  It was completely unnecessary to compromise so early.  I think it would have been smarter if Republicans had announced back in November that the ceiling would not be raised. They could have then put the pressure on Democrats to start looking for budget cuts.  This would have taken away the Democrat's ability to play the "quick, do something" game and would have proven to voters they were serious about cutting debt.  It also would have prevented Obama from coming up with his WTF investment strategy.

As things stand now, Democrats are pretty much controlling the language on the debt ceiling and pushing the idea that the only option is to raise it.  Time is running out to come up with a plan to make sizable cuts, so once again it looks like the ceiling will be raised.

Via: Memeorandum

Via: The Hill