Debt Ceiling Vote?

Will they develop a workable budget compromise in time? They normally do raise the debt limit, but it looks like the Republicans are quite insistent about not raising taxes, and Obama yesterday launched a class warfare attack on corporate jet and oil company tax breaks so it looks like he is playing hardball too.

Funny how Obama forgot to mention that he wants to repeal the tax breaks he likes, for example, green energy.

Personally I think it will go down to the wire because politicians like the national attention, but it will be raised with a combination of small tax increases and equally small budget cuts. There will be no progress on entitlements because neither party wants to take the blame for cutting medical or senior benefits.

Worried about our ballooning nation debt? Here's a quick and easy way to cut spending by $4 trillion: Build a time machine and go back and stop President Bush from starting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

(from Fark.com)

But if the Feds built a time machine, it would cost 10 trillion.

And your Congressional & Senate Democrats signed onto the spending. Bush wasn't a dictator.

Okay, so does everyone understand what the debt ceiling really is?
back "in the day", Congress used to have to approve every single item for payment one at a time, it got to be too much to run every little thing by them each time; so in 1939, they started aggregating the debts to be approved by a cap, or debt ceiling - that's why we have this "ceremonial" vote. The spending was already approved IN THE PAST by CONGRESS. This ceiling is just saying we now have exceeded what the debt ceiling has been approved at and we need to raise it so that we can PAY OUR DEBTS. If people want to get pissed off about the debt ceiling, then they need to go after their own congressmen/women for spending that money IN THE PAST.

This debt ceiling vote is all for show - for the camera. No one is going to let the US Gov't default on it's bills.

Then the real focus needs to be on SPENDING and REVENUE. The wars are meaningless now.

you want to really get mad?

Among The Costs Of War: Billions A Year In A.C.?

http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2011/06/25/ac.jpg?t=1309037126&s=2
Air conditioners keep tents cool on a U.S. military base in Iraq. The tents have been treated with polyurethane foam to increase energy efficiency.

The amount the U.S. military spends annually on air conditioning in Iraq and Afghanistan: $20.2 billion, according to a former Pentagon official.

That's more than NASA's budget. It's more than BP has paid so far for damage from the Gulf oil spill. It's what the G-8 has pledged to help foster new democracies in Egypt and Tunisia.

"When you consider the cost to deliver the fuel to some of the most isolated places in the world — escorting, command and control, medevac support — when you throw all that infrastructure in, we're talking over $20 billion," Steven Anderson tells weekends on All Things Considered guest host Rachel Martin. He's a retired brigadier general who served as chief logistician for Gen. David Petraeus in Iraq. He's now in the private sector, selling technologies branded as energy-efficient to the Defense Department.

Now it's important to note that wrapped up in Anderson's $20 billion figure are all kind of other expenditures – for instance, the cost of building and maintaining roads in Afghanistan, securing those roads, managing the security operations for those roads. That all costs a lot of money and is part of the overall war effort in Afghanistan.

The Pentagon rejects Anderson's estimate. Still his claims raise questions about how much the US footprint in Afghanistan really costs – especially something like air conditioning.

read more... http://www.npr.org/2011/06/25/137414737 ... nditioning

The Republicans give up leverage every day they let this go on. Wall Street will not allow their minions on the hill default. Arms will be twisted and the Democrats will gain ground. The Republicans would do well to agree to modest tax increases and cuts in subsidies now. They will appear more reasonable to the moderates and still achieve spending cuts.

President Obama should just switch parties and become a Republican. Then the House would vote for raising the debt limit. After all, during the Bush presidency, they voted seven times to raise the debt ceiling.

Congress has always placed restrictions on federal debt. The form of debt restrictions, structured as amendments to the Second Liberty Bond Act of 1917, evolved into a general debt limit in 1939. Congress has voted to raise the debt limit 10 times since 2001, as federal debt has nearly reached the debt limit several times due to persistent deficits and additions to federal trust funds. Congress raised the limit in June 2002, and by December 2002 the U.S. Treasury asked Congress for another increase, which passed in May 2003. In June 2004, the U.S. Treasury asked for another debt limit increase. After Congress recessed in mid-October 2004 without acting, the Treasury Secretary told Congress he could keep debt below its limit only through mid-November. A debt limit increase was enacted on November 19, 2004. In 2005, reconciliation instructions in the FY2006 budget resolution (H.Con.Res. 95) included a debt limit increase. The U.S. Treasury warned Congress that it would exhaust options to avoid default by mid-March 2006. Congress passed an increase that the President signed on March 20. The House indirectly approved legislation (H.J.Res. 43) to raise the debt limit by $850 billion to $9,815 billion. The Senate approved the resolution on September 27, 2007, and the President signed it two days later.

to read more. . . www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL31967.pdf

The Pentagon rejects Anderson's estimate. Still his claims raise questions about how much the US footprint in Afghanistan really costs – especially something like air conditioning.

First of all, the number's made up. 20 Billion was used with no substantiation. Second of all, I don't begrudge air conditioning for our troops, if they were actually getting it. For the most part, they aren't. Those troops need to come home as well as the myriad of troops we have on bases all over the world playing the world's police force. Maybe then we wouldn't have to borrow more money...

Kate wrote: President Obama should just switch parties and become a Republican. Then the House would vote for raising the debt limit. After all, during the Bush presidency, they voted seven times to raise the debt ceiling.

When Barack Obama was a Senator from Illinois, he voted against increasing the debt ceiling.

So only when he controls the checkbook, does he support an increase in the debt load?

He needs more money to fund Michelle's vacations with the daughters to South Africa or pay his green fees.

Or to help publish his new book "Golfing my way out of Recession."