“Mr. President, I rise today to talk about America’s debt problem.
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. Every dollar we pay in interest is a dollar that is not going to investment in America’s priorities. Instead, interest payments are a significant tax on all Americans — a debt tax that Washington doesn’t want to talk about. If Washington were serious about honest tax relief in this country, we would see an effort to reduce our national debt by returning to responsible fiscal policies.
But we are not doing that. Despite repeated efforts by Senators Conrad and Feingold, the Senate continues to reject a return to the commonsense Pay-go rules that used to apply. Previously, Pay-go rules applied both to increases in mandatory spending and to tax cuts. The Senate had to abide by the commonsense budgeting principle of balancing expenses and revenues. Unfortunately, the principle was abandoned, and now the demands of budget discipline apply only to spending. As a result, tax breaks have not been paid for by reductions in Federal spending, and thus the only way to pay for them has been to increase our deficit to historically high levels and borrow more and more money. Now we have to pay for those tax breaks plus the cost of borrowing for them. Instead of reducing the deficit, as some people claimed, the fiscal policies of this administration and its allies in Congress will add more than $600 million in debt for each of the next 5 years. That is why I will once again cosponsor the Pay-go amendment and continue to hope that my colleagues will return to a smart rule that has worked in the past and can work again.
Our debt also matters internationally. My friend, the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, likes to remind us that it took 42 Presidents 224 years to run up only $1 trillion of foreign-held debt. This administration did more than that in just 5 years. Now, there is nothing wrong with borrowing from foreign countries. But we must remember that the more we depend on foreign nations to lend us money, the more our economic security is tied to the whims of foreign leaders whose interests might not be aligned with ours.
Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that “the buck stops here.” Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.
I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt limit.”
Senator Barack Hussein Obama – March 16, 2006 – Senate floor
His speech reads like one of my articles. What a forthright and upstanding politician. He was only wrong on one minor point. He was outraged that the national debt would be $12.1 trillion in 2011 under the reckless spending of Bush.
The actual national debt in 2011 was $14.8 under Obama’s prudent stewardship.
“The stupidity of the average man will permit the oligarch, whether economic or political, to hide his real purposes from the scrutiny of his fellows and to withdraw his activities from effective control. Since it is impossible to count on enough moral goodwill among those who possess irresponsible power to sacrifice it for the good of the whole, it must be destroyed by coercive methods.”
Reinhold Niebuhr
Admin – damn, you are such a quibbler. You make a mountain our of a paltry 2.7 trillion molehill. That is pocket change for the Obamster. Cut the guy some slack – it is really hard to make ends meet in this economy.
The numbers are mind-numbing. And no one in charge gives a shit. What I am seeing in Europe would curl your toes. Fucking Russians and ragheads own Europe, and the rest are Free Shit Army drones.
It is gonna be uglier than Admin after a hard night in Wildwood.
Llpoh post some pics if you can
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Lee Bellinger discusses the shutdown:
GOVERNMENT SHUTS DOWN YOUR RIGHTS
Federal agencies are using this shutdown as their latest excuse to bully taxpayers into submission, and with it the Republicans’ will to stand up to pro-Obamacare forces.
Privately owned and operated businesses on federal lands are being forced by armed federal agents to shut their doors. In state after state, restaurants and inns that receive no federal funding are being closed under the threat of force simply because of their location. Every one of these businesses was allowed to stay open during previous government shutdowns.
The government shutdown reveals ham-fisted partisan politics at its ugliest. The escapades of the Obama administration during the “shutdown” have turned a serious discussion into a farce.
It would be laughable if it weren’t our rights that are under attack.
If you haven’t been following the story, Republicans in the House crafted a spending bill that doesn’t fund ObamaCare — because it’s become very apparent that Obama’s promises of deficit reduction under Obamacare was a pack of lies. The bill funds everything else and would allow government to operate as usual. Democrats in the Senate threw the bill out, taking an all-or-nothing stance on government spending.
Since the shutdown began, the Obama administration has directed offices within the executive branch to make the shutdown as painful as possible for the average citizen.
Absolutely Outrageous…
In just a week, the stories of absurd government power abuses have piled up faster than the garbage in New York after a snowstorm.
Even places that use no government funding and no government services have been effectively shut down. Mount Vernon, the famous home of George Washington, is privately owned. The Park Service couldn’t close it, so they barricaded its parking lot, making it difficult for visitors to gain access.
In one of the most egregious displays of force, Lake Mead homeowners were given 24 hours to vacate their residences. They own their homes, but the land is leased. They don’t actively use any federal services living there, but the government forced them out of their homes anyway.
Some agencies have actually created new websites to tell visitors they don’t have enough money to maintain their old websites.
And of course, you’ve heard that park rangers have been posted at the World War II memorial to physically block elderly veterans who served this country with honor from entering.
Military chaplains have been threatened with arrest if they hold services during the shutdown… even if they do it on a voluntary basis.
In the latest bit of ridiculousness, park service employees were ordered to shut down scenic overlooks. If you want to pull off the highway and view a slice of America’s beauty, don’t plan on it if that slice happens to be part of the National Park system. Even the overlooks are being barricaded.
The justification is that the Park Service doesn’t have the money to send people to pick up any trash that someone may leave behind. Clearly they have the money to send people out to set up barricades.
The reason behind all of this was stated clearly by a member of the Park Service. “It’s a cheap way to deal with the situation … We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It’s disgusting.”
Time to JUST SAY NO to the Control Freaks and Mega-Spenders
This entire episode is proof positive that federal overlords are hellbent on controlling every aspect of our personal lives. Mr. Obama can blame the budget crisis on partisan bickering all he wants, but he and he alone is responsible for the draconian measures federal agencies are taking against taxpayers. He and his armies of angry dependents want taxpayers to come to heel. The lifestyle that they have become accustomed to must be paid for with your grocery money in the form of higher taxes. Ruining vacations and travel plans of taxpayers is just one small slice of their “bully the public” strategy. Mr. Obama hopes that when the dust settles everyone will blame his political opponents, especially the Tea Party Republicans.
For members of the House of Representatives, it’s their job to determine what to fund and what not to fund. The Constitution says so — all spending bills originate in the House. They’ve determined that Obamacare needs plenty more work before it receives funding. They’ve attempted to pass appropriation bills to open up the Park Service, veterans memorials, and to fund services in Washington D.C. Democrats have shot down every effort at compromise so far.
Don’t pay attention to the inter-party squabbling. This is about Big Government vs the People.
And Big Government is showing some serious contempt for both the Constitution and the American people. Don’t stand for it.
Yours in Freedom,
Lee Bellinger, Publisher
Independent Living
http://www.independentlivingnews.com/
We talk about how the interest is consuming so much of our budget. With rates so low, we become even more concerned when interest rates will rise.
And, yet, we have not addressed our loan principal. Rolling over principal is like have an interest only loan – for perpetuity. Rolling over principal for so many years is a blatant indication of our inability to pay our debts, and should be a direct reflection of the lack of faith and confidence in the U.S. dollar.
It has been so long since we repaid any loan principal, we have seemed to forget of its very existence.
Don Levit
People have to stop living in denial, open their eyes to what is going down in front of them, and resist the intimidation. It is time to stop being cowards. Our substance does not come from the government. It comes from God. Government has to be put in its place. The government agents participating in the abuse have to be confronted and put down. They are servants of the people; not agents of the master.
An RT news report about the the truckers in DC today:
“A rogue does not laugh in the same way that an honest man does; a hypocrite does not shed the tears of a man of good faith. All falsehood is a mask; and however well made the mask may be, with a little attention we may always succeed in distinguishing it from the true face.”
Alexandre Dumas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-M7oXWTPf0#t=48