Presidential Hypocracy and the Debt Ceiling

UPDATE - BREAKING:   click link: President Releases Gun Control Measures Via Executive Order
"Increasing America's debt weakens us domestically and internationally. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America's debt limit."
-- Then-Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., in a March 16, 2006 floor speech explaining his decision to oppose a request to increase the federal debt limit, then set at $8.2 trillion.

President Obama

What a difference being president makes. When Mr. Obama made that statement in 2006, George W. Bush was president. So you have Obama the Democrat opposing Bush the Republican. Did he mean what he said back then? Obviously not. Today, as president, Mr. Obama not only wants the debt ceiling raised, he wants Congress to give up its constitutional mandate to control spending and borrowing and give the president full authority to raise the limit. So much for checks and balances.

Flashback to September, 2012. The president and Congress were in a logjam over the debt limit. Congress ultimately sent the president a bill authorizing an additional $500 billion and change to run the country until March of this year. The impending fight over this issue is going to get nasty. This president, by way of being re-elected, feels he has the mandate to do what he wants. The Republican led House feels it also has a mandate since it was re-elected to control spending and cut costs.

Chris Stirewalt , in his POWER PLAY column for Fox News, recently said about the vote last September to keep the ball rolling, 'The members who voted “aye” on the “continuing resolution” did so knowing that the outlays would outrun the current debt limit. As the world’s largest debtor, the federal government has to borrow something beyond a quarter of everything it spends.
Now, though, the government has actually exhausted its borrowing power and, without a hike in the credit limit, would have to slash spending dramatically – all the way back to 2008 levels.
While 2008 levels don’t sound too bad at first blush, the cost of those “mandatory” programs and the cost of servicing the debt already accrued has increased dramatically in the past four years.
In rough terms, the government spends about $250 billion a month. Of that, $36 billion is to pay off the existing $16.4 trillion in debt – about $8.3 billion a month more than in 2008.
By deciding to spend without budgeting, Democrats have left themselves wide open to the current showdown.' Read the entire article by: Chris Stirewalt

Speaker John Boehner

House Speaker John Boehner has vowed there will be no ceiling raised without dollar-for-dollar spending cuts. President Obama, despite his promise during the fiscal cliff debacle last December, now says he's not negotiating. This is a political mistake that will come back to haunt him. It's the president's job to find common ground on these issues. Presidents Reagan, Bush 41, Bush 43, and Clinton all reached across the aisle to reach satisfactory agreements on numerous issues, including spending and spending cuts. President Obama has failed in this endeavor primarily because he has no intention of dealing with the Republicans.

 While a majority of Americans agreed with Obama's call to increase taxes on the wealthy, they also said spending cuts must be a part of the equation.  (Note to those Americans: The president has no intention of cutting spending.)

So, despite the president, who will  blame the House Republicans if a debt limit is not reached, it's the Democrats and their spendthrift ways without a budget that has put the country in an economic bind.

Columnist Albert Mohler opines at Townhall.com , 'Congress approved the spending, as did the President. The spending, which necessitated the borrowing, was approved by the very people who will not debate whether to pay the bills they themselves created.' Read the entire article by: Albert Mohler.


By the way, President Obama isn't the only democrat who in 2006 blasted the republicans for wanting to raise the debt ceiling. Senate Majority leader Harry Reid fell in line with the future president on the issue.

Senator Reid now not only agrees with the president that the debt ceiling should be raised, he is encouraging Mr. Obama to bypass Congress altogether and raise the ceiling through executive order. Mr. Reid and his Democrat controlled Senate has failed/refused to pass a budget in nearly four years. This is a Constitutional requirement by law.

Chris Stirewalt is digital politics editor for Fox News, and his POWER PLAY column appears Monday-Friday on FoxNews.com. Catch Chris Live online daily at 11:30amET at www.live.foxnews.com.

Albert Mohler  is a columnist at Townhall.com and can be reached at Email Albert Mohler

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