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The Debt Ceiling Deal From HellAugust 3, 2011 Is the debt ceiling deal supposed to be some sort of a cruel joke? Is this what the American people have been waiting months and months for? The "debt ceiling deal from hell" is a complete and total fraud. Barack Obama will not need to worry about the debt ceiling again until after the 2012 election, and no "real" spending cuts will happen until after the 2012 election. The way the political game in Washington D.C. is played today, if you don't get something right now, you probably will never end up...

Monday, August 1, 2011 Everything Is OK Now Date: August 1, 2011 To: The Hubbard City Cafe From: Mitch McConnell and John Boehner (Your leaders in Washington) 1. We made an agreement with Obama, Biden, Reid, and Pelosi and avoided financial catastrophe by raising the debt ceiling beyond the 2012 Election. Don't worry. Everything is OK now. 2. OK, we agreed to gut the military with large spending cuts in the first phase of the agreement and with even larger cuts with the triggers in the second phase, but don't worry. We never follow through on our promises to cut...

The popular narrative about this summer’s struggle to raise the federal government’s debt ceiling centers on the word “default.” If the debt ceiling isn’t raised, we are told, the U.S. government will be forced to default on many of its financial obligations, reducing Uncle Sam’s creditworthiness and decreasing our government’s ability to effectively carry out its duties. Sounds scary. But a failure to raise the debt ceiling wouldn’t necessarily cause a default or any reduction of creditworthiness. Indeed, keeping the debt ceiling fixed might actually increase investors’ willingness to buy U.S. bonds.

I hope you like higher taxes. Much higher taxes. Last night I couldn't figure out at first blush how Boehner/Reid managed to get their "numbers" to work. Well, when I looked at it again this morning, it snapped into focus, along with a backhanded comment and, yes, math. Ok, ok, not really math. It was just a calendar. See, the Bush Tax Cuts and the FICA holiday expire at or before the end of 2012. And guess who's going to be President then - either having just been re-elected or much worse, as a lame duck?

This is from a speech Obama made in 2006: 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...

12:04pm | Reid vote still scheduled for 1pm. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the Senate will still vote on his plan to raise the debt limit today. Reid reading from AP report citing soldiers concerned about supporting their families if debt limit isn't raised. Reid says he and Obama are "hopeful" that a deal is near. "We are cautiously optimistic," adding serious issues remain to be resolved in the next few hours. "There's no agreement that has been made, but we're optimistic one can be reached." Reid thanks McConnell for being a "cheerleader" on this compromise. Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/live-coverage-debt-ceiling-sunday-negotiations-2011-7#ixzz1ThTEm13A

Returning to 2005 Spending Levels Would Match Current Revenues of 2.5 Trillion dollars. Outlays in 2005 were 2,472.2 Trillion. This solution would result in no rise the debt limit and we would have a balanced budget. This would also secure our AAA credit rating. This idea probably has too much common sense for the "Inside the Beltway Crowd."

10:56am | Good Saturday morning. The House and Senate will convene at 1pm today. The House will likely go out of session after a vote on the Reid plan to raise the debt limit, while the Senate will stick around until 1 am Sunday to vote to end debate on the plan. Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/live-coverage-congressional-debt-ceiling-showdown-2011-7#ixzz1TbPkr4wi

Government officials are scrambling to come up with ways to sell debt even if the nation’s debt ceiling isn’t raised by early next week, though officials are remaining silent on just what course of action they might take, and it’s unclear if any of the options discussed would be enough to meet the country’s massive borrowing needs, the FOX Business Network has learned. The issue of how to borrow outside the debt limit emerged during a regularly scheduled, though timely meeting, Friday between officials at the Federal Reserve, the Treasury Department and 20 banks that buy US debt. Government officials...

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) Friday that Congress must quickly to raise the debt ceiling to ease market uncertainty. During a morning phone conversation, Geithner "underscored the need for congressional action to avoid creating more uncertainty for the economy and financial markets," a Treasury spokesperson said. Reid disclosed what he called a "very sobering conversation" earlier Friday. Based on the call, Reid said businesses were having trouble borrowing outside of short-term lending "They can't borrow more money than overnight because no one knows what the interest rate will be tomorrow," said Reid.

During the current debt ceiling debate, have the media told you what your personal share of the national debt would be after the ceiling is hiked?Yeah. I didn't think so.But when it was a midterm election year in which Democrats thrashed President George W. Bush and the GOP on overspending, it was a different story.On March 16, 2006, Barack Obama was in his second year as a freshman senator and denounced the Bush administration's request for a debt ceiling increase. The debt ceiling increase passed the Senate on a 52-48 vote.

Updated as amendment, must read both for complete bill: Original "Boehner Bill": Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute — Budget Control Act of 2011 (Acrobat PDF) Revised Amendment to the Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute (Acrobat PDF) Source, House Committee on Rules, S. 627 Faster FOIA Act of 2011 (Budget Control Act of 2011)

CEOs of the nation's leading banks, including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, sent a letter to the White House and Congress on Thursday urging them to hurry up and reach a debt agreement. In the letter, sent by the Financial Services Forum to President Obama and members of Congress, the CEOs said an agreement needs to be made this week, or else there will be "grave" consequences. "A default on our nation's obligations, or a downgrade of America's credit rating, would be a tremendous blow to business and investor confidence -- raising interest rates for everyone who borrows, undermining the...

Tea Party Rep. Joe Walsh sued for $100,000 in child support BY ABDON M. PALLASCH Political Reporter/apallasch@suntimes.com July 27, 2011 9:59PM Freshman U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh, a tax-bashing Tea Party champion who sharply lectures President Barack Obama and other Democrats on fiscal responsibility, owes more than $100,000 in child support to his ex-wife and three children, according to documents his ex-wife filed in their divorce case in December. “I won’t place one more dollar of debt upon the backs of my kids and grandkids unless we structurally reform the way this town spends money!” Walsh says directly into the camera...

Yes, indeed it is. While everyone and their grandmother is foaming at the mouth how both republicans and democrats hiked the debt ceiling for umpteen times over the past x years, the truth is that never before has the ratio of the proposed debt ceiling to the tax receipt ratio been as high as it is now. At nearly 6 times, this means that the top line (forget bottom line) cash inflows into the Treasury are 6 times lower than the current debt ceiling. And following the upcoming $2.5 trillion this number will surge to almost 8 times. So please...

President Obama has no intention of allowing the U.S. government to default on its financial obligations regardless of whether the government's borrowing limit is raised... This means that the president has been bargaining in bad faith with congressional leaders by raising the specter of a default, knowing full well he won't allow it to happen. This is another way of putting it: the president has been lying to the nation.

Who do you trust more to handle the debt ceiling? President Obama Congressional Republicans Neither President Obama 25% Congressional Republicans 35% Neither 39% Total votes: 570

■Provides two increases in the debt limit -- $900 billion and $1.6 trillion — totaling $2.5 trillion. It gives the President an immediate $900 billion increase given that Congress does not vote to disapprove it. It gives the President another $1.6 trillion increase next year if a bill written by a new Super Committee passes both houses and becomes law. ■Reduces spending by only $1.2 trillion over the next ten years. This amount won't even come close to balancing the budget, as the debt is expected to grow by as much as $10 trillion over the next decade. The plan...

It seems like we’ve been talking about the debt ceiling for an awfully long time. Probably because we have been talking about the debt ceiling for an awfully long time. President Obama made a primetime appearance on Monday night to address the nation over this impending financial doom. I disagree with the president on a lot of issues. That’s ok. But lying is not. There were so many mistruths coming out of our leader’s mouth during that speech that I’m throwing any shred of political correctness out the window and calling him out. I’ll be awaiting my invitation to the...

South Africa and apartheid, Custer’s Last Stand — those are not exactly great moments in world history. But Chris Matthews says that today’s Tea Party-influenced Republican Party fits in the same category. On his Monday MSNBC program, Matthews asked the Huffington Post’s Howard Fineman why he thought the GOP was taking a tough stand on the debt ceiling negotiations. “What’s going on here as I see it is a kind of slow-motion secession,” Fineman said. “This is an ending of the social compact. This is two, three generations worth of agreement about Social Security, about Medicare, about the role of...