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Joseph J. Dioguardi is a former member of Congress from New York and Certified Public Accountant. Dioguardi in his book “Unaccountable Congress: It Doesn’t Add Up” lists the top twelve gimmicks Congress uses to hide the true costs of government from the people. These gimmicks have been used for decades by both Republican and Democrat administrations, Congresses under both parties and government agencies. The idea behind these gimmicks is to “[K]eep Americans in the dark (or – I should say – in the red!), writes, Dioguardi. Dioguardi calls this “plastic budgeting”. As David A. Stockman, former Director of the Office...

Well,seeing the news reports on the U.S. Federal Government Debt Ceiling,the can got kicked down the road again.Considering the U.S Federal Government is borrowing about 5 Billion Dollars per Day,That is one expensive can;)

My fellow Americans, the President, the Democrats and the News Media have won a great political victory today, but the American people have lost an important battle. Republicans were elected to control the House of Representatives to stop the hemorrhaging of taxpayer monies. We have tried valiantly to rein in the spending, to stop this headlong sprint to bankruptcy that will happen to our beloved country. Those of us trying to do the responsible thing for the USA have been ridiculed, demeaned and degraded by those who pretend they wish for a 'more civilized' dialogue. We have been called terrorists,...

OK, please educate me here-- How can this even be happening, constitutionally, when all fiscal bills MUST ORIGINATE in the House?

any suggestions? my idea was to use Dem quotes, who made the quote, where and the date on page one and fun debt facts on the reverse side. put your suggestions and fun facts below...no internet links please-this is for print only . I plan to leave them at places where people sit alone and think- bathrooms, bus stops, etc.

Dan Pfeiffer’s fingerprints are all over the White House’s strategy of not negotiating with congressional Republicans over the government shutdown and debt ceiling. The senior adviser to President Obama has been plotting the White House’s every move, and is described by some within the administration as the “relentless guardian” of Obama’s no-negotiations stance. “He’s been the most ferocious on that principle,” one senior administration official said. “He was quite adamant and relentless about this. And on the face of it, it’s not an easy argument to make.” Even before the shutdown began on Oct. 1, Republicans had turned their fire...

http://youtu.be/6dxpiO2Chc0

How do you settle a rather sizeable bill for your milk delivery? If you are a cash-strapped superpower the answer is, apparently, to offer up a pair of fighter jets and a nuclear submarine as payment. The extraordinary offer was made by Russia to New Zealand in 1993, a new book reveals. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia was struggling to pay the $100m it owed New Zealand for a range of imported dairy products. In a meeting with Russian officials to thrash out payment terms, Jim Bolger, then New Zealand prime minister, was "absolutely stunned" to be...

Mr. Speaker: The debt limit exists for a simple reason: to assure that public debt isn’t recklessly piled up without Congress periodically acknowledging it and addressing the spending patterns that are causing it. If a debt limit increase is supposed to be automatic, as the President suggests, there really is no purpose to it. A new dimension has now appeared in this discussion. Unlike every one of his predecessors, this President has vowed that unless Congress unconditionally raises the debt limit, the United States will default on its sovereign debt. But a failure to raise the debt limit would not...

Fitch Ratings on Tuesday put the U.S. AAA credit rating on watch for a potential downgrade because of the standoff over raising the nation's debt limit. The company said it still believed the debt limit would be raised soon, but the "political brinkmanship" was risking a default.

House Republican leaders are preparing legislation that would fund the government until Dec. 15, extend the debt ceiling until Feb. 7 and strike the health care subsidies that members of Congress, White House appointees and staff were set to receive under the new health care law, a GOP lawmaker said. Under the new House GOP proposal — the second one they proposed Tuesday — union workers would also remain subject to a $63 health insurance tax from which they had sought an exemption. The proposal also would give the House and Senate until mid-December negotiate a new, long-term budget. "The...

House Republicans scrambled Tuesday to convince their skeptical conservative flank to support a new plan to end the government shutdown and increase the debt ceiling. Rank-and-file GOP lawmakers pushed back on the original plan from Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and his lieutenants, forcing party leaders to modify a proposal just hours after they laid it out in a private meeting. By Tuesday afternoon, Republican leaders had dropped a proposal to delay a medical device tax that has opponents in both parties, making a provision to strip employer contributions that lawmakers and congressional staff get for health insurance as the only...

House Republicans scrambled Tuesday to convince their skeptical conservative flank to support a new plan to end the government shutdown and lift the debt ceiling. Rank-and-file GOP lawmakers pushed back on the original plan from Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and his lieutenants, seeking more sweeteners to what was essentially a framework crafted by the Senate. The impasse sidelined the Senate, which on Monday appeared close to a tentative deal. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) suspended their recent talks, as the Senate GOP sought to give Boehner more maneuvering room. “I don’t know if anything...

While the media and Democrats scream about the Titanic sinking of government default, there is scant evidence in financial markets of it. Here are two curves as of 1pm EST, the US Treasury yield curve and the US credit default swaps curve. The Treasury curve is upward sloping while the CDS curve is downward sloping. Actually, the CDS curve has an inverted hump. ustcdes1015E It does look like a bomb crater rather than a typical CDS curve. If we look at 1 month ago, we see an upward sloping CDS curve. 1moyccds And if we compare the current curves compared...

On the House floor on Monday, Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) argued that President Barack Obama’s activities during the government shutdown over Obamacare are a sign to him that Obama would act nefariously to attack the full faith and credit of the United States of America by taking the country into a default in a debt ceiling crisis if the president does not get everything he wants in negotiations. “Given the ruthless and vindictive way the shutdown has been handled, I now believe that this president would willfully act to destroy the full faith and credit of the United States unless...

The House's latest plan to raise the debt ceiling and end the government shutdown won't pass the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said on Tuesday. “It’s unproductive and a waste of time,” Reid said. “The House legislation will not pass the Senate.” Senate leaders are working on a deal that would end the shutdown, fund the government through Jan. 15 and raise the debt ceiling until February. House Republicans met Tuesday morning to discuss preempting the Senate by passing their own plan to raise the debt ceiling and end the shutdown. The House bill would delay Obamacare's medical device...

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Gov. Bill Haslam says a deal to open the Great Smoky Mountains National Park parks in Tennessee for the weekend came too late for the state to send money to the federal government. The price tag? $60,000 per day.

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) on Tuesday cautioned against “spiking the football” on a budget deal, predicting a long slog ahead to convince the GOP conference to go along with any plan. He expressed embarrassment at members of his own party who waged a fight to delay or defund ObamaCare — saying it was doomed to failure from the beginning. “To be candid, it is an embarrassment that we have spent all this time on a rabbit trail leading us to where we are,” he said. “Look, I may not be the best person to be interviewed this morning. We have...

House Republicans will vote Tuesday on a more conservative version of the Senate fiscal deal that would include a delay of Obamacare's medical device tax and scrapping of subsidies for members of Congress and top Cabinet officials, lawmakers and aides said. The bill would modify an emerging Senate plan crafted by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), but retain that deal's extension of the debt ceiling through Feb. 7. It would also keep the Senate measure's plan of funding the government through Jan. 15 and immediately end the shutdown. That's a shift from last weekend,...

If Washington doesn't reach a deal soon to keep paying its bills, an economic crisis could start unfolding so quietly on Thursday it will give little hint of its potential to throw millions of Americans out of work. Many people would not notice right away if the government hits a $16.7 trillion cap on its debt, which could come on Thursday. But that day will also mark America's passage into a period of heightened risk that its financial sector could freeze up in a panic, dealing a potentially severe blow to the nation's businesses and households. That's because, after then,...

The political standoff in Washington has spawned frustration and growing worries in China, which remains the largest holder of U.S. government debt, as the clock ticks down to a possible U.S. debt default this week. The crisis shows that China and the rest of the world should start to “de-Americanize,” according to a strongly worded commentary from the Xinhua News Agency, China’s leading government-controlled news outlet. “The world is still crawling its way out of an economic disaster thanks to the voracious Wall Street elites,” the commentary said. “Such alarming days when the destinies of others are in the hands...

In a few minutes, House Republicans will meet in the Capitol’s basement. The chief topic of conversation: the emerging Senate deal. But before the meeting even begins, House conservatives are bashing it behind the scenes, and they’re pushing the leadership to reject the compromise. A flurry of phone calls and meetings last night and early this morning led the consensus among the approximatley 50 Republicans who form the House GOP’s right flank. They’re furious with Senate Republicans for working with Democrats to craft what one leading Tea Party congressman calls a “mushy piece of s—t.” Another House conservative warns, “If...

Sen. Mark Pryor ((D-Ark.) said he expects the Senate and White House to announce a deal Tuesday that could pass the upper chamber by Wednesday. Pryor said he and a group of a dozen lawmakers drafted the framework — which Senate leadership based their deal on — with the intent of gaining as many as 80 votes to put pressure on the House to act. “It should have bipartisan support in the House,” he said. “And one of the goals we really set out in our group is we said look we don’t want 60 votes. We wan to get...

....... But while both Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, and Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, praised the progress that was made in the Senate, it was already clear that the most conservative members of the House were not going to go along quietly with a plan that does not accomplish their goal from the outset of this two-week-old crisis: dismantling the president’s health care law. “We’ve got a name for it in the House: it’s called the Senate surrender caucus,” said Representative Tim Huelskamp, Republican of Kansas. “Anybody who would vote for that in...

After a weekend of meetings, there is still no agreement on the debt ceiling or budget. debtceilgst The reaction? US credit default swaps rose this morning. But notice they are still lower than they were on October 10th. uscds101413 The US has the fastest rising CDS. Simply because the alleged default on US sovereign debt isn’t hurting any other country. sovcds101413 So, President Obama and Congress are digging in their heels on cutting spending or debt. Even though Germany is cutting back on its debt. debtdrop Two different philosophies: austerity to balance sovereign budgets (Europe) or spending like there is...

The Donald weighs in

....The most important thing the Republicans have to do is make any default Obama’s responsibility. The way to do that is for them to pass today—a “clean” debt ceiling increase to cover a period of two or three months and keep the government shut down. Forget passing anything else, including any conditions attached to the debt ceiling increase. Obama and Reid will use whatever appendages a bill has attached to it as an excuse to turn it down.If the Republicans do that,there’s still a chance to turn the tables on Obama......The key is to keep the government shut down while...

".......What remains are more detailed issues, mostly involving how many weeks to fund agencies and how long to suspend the $16.7-trillion ceiling on the federal debt. But those details have important implications for future negotiations and, as a result, have been subject to intense haggling. Senate Republicans want to extend the debt ceiling for just a few weeks, but would fund government agencies for a longer period to lock in current low spending levels. Democrats want to extend the debt ceiling until after next fall’s congressional elections, but they prefer a shorter extension of funds for government agencies. That would...

The dance we are watching this weekend is a very important moment in modern American history with big implications for how the executive and the legislative branches interact in the future. The House Republicans have staked out a position that they can use their constitutional power of the purse to force the President to negotiate over key issues. President Obama and Senate Democratic Leader Reid believe they can break the House Republicans and force them to reopen the government and pass a debt ceiling hike with no negotiations and no conditions. Senate Republicans are split between a majority who want...

(Reuters) - Three of the world's most powerful bankers warned of terrible consequences if the United States defaults on its debt, with Deutsche Bank chief executive Anshu Jain claiming default would be "utterly catastrophic." "This would be a very rapidly spreading, fatal disease," Jain said on Saturday at a conference hosted by the Institute of International Finance in Washington. "I have no recommendations for this audience...about putting band aids on a gaping wound," he said.

President Obama called House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Sunday as lawmakers are attempting to reach a deal to avert a default on the U.S. debt, the White House said. Obama and Pelosi “discussed the way forward on the pressing fiscal matters facing Congress today,” the White House said. The Democratic leaders agreed on the necessity of a “clean” bill to hike the U.S. debt limit, which the Treasury Department has said the federal government will reach on Thursday, according to a White House statement about the call. “This afternoon the president spoke with Leader Pelosi over the phone,”...

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday he would not vote for a deal to reopen the government and raise the debt limit if it cannot attract support in the Republican-led House, arguing there is little point in claiming victory if a deal does not pass muster in the other chamber of Congress. If the deal cannot attract the majority of House Republicans, “that really does compromise Speaker Boehner’s leadership,” Mr. Graham told ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, adding he understands that defunding or delaying Obamacare is not a viable option. Mr. Graham said the last thing Mr. Boehner needs...

According to The Federal Reserve G.19 Report for August, consumer debt topped $3 trillion! Of course, Federal government debt has topped $16 trillion, over 5 times the amount of consumer debt. Note that pickup in Federal debt growth compared to consumer debt growth after Q2 2008 (red box). feddebtconsumer Here is a chart of revolving consumer credit versus non-revolving credit. Non-revolving debt (e.g., auto loans) have effectively replaced revolving debt. revnonrev Business loans have finally grown past the prior peak in 2008. frbusloasn On the government side, current expenditures (purple line) continue to grow, but the rate of growth flattened...

Rolling back the automatic budget cuts known as the "sequester" has emerged as a critical sticking point in the negotiations to reopen the government and avoid default. Democrats don't want to lock in 2014 government funding at the reduced level required by the sequester, but Republicans refuse to increase spending and say Democrats are overplaying their hand. “The dispute has been how to undo the sequester,” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on "Face the Nation" on CBS on Sunday, explaining that Democrats want a mix of entitlement reforms and revenue increases. But Republican lawmakers on the Sunday talk shows vowed...

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) suggested Sunday that Democrats would consider raising the debt limit with only 51 votes in the Senate. Democrats tried to pass a $1.1 trillion increase in the debt limit Saturday, but they failed to achieve the 60 votes needed to overcome a Republican filibuster. On "Fox News Sunday," host Chris Wallace asked Manchin to explain Sen. Dick Durbin's (D-Ill.) comment that Democrats have "several somethings" they can use as a back-up plan to raise the debt ceiling and avoid default. "I would assume that they might be referring to the so-called 'nuclear option,'" Manchin said. "If...

The White House and the Senate are working to squeeze House Republicans into accepting a bipartisan compromise from the upper chamber to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling. Any emerging deal, however, will leave ObamaCare largely intact, angering conservatives who have demanded defunding or delaying President Obama’s signature achievement. House Republicans are fuming over the prospect that Senate Democrats and Republicans are working on a plan to jam them with a last-minute deal they would have to accept or risk triggering a federal default. “They are trying to jam us with the Senate and we are not going...

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew slammed Republican arguments that failure to raise the debt ceiling doesn’t guarantee default as based on “faulty logic.” This is despite the fact that Moody’s, the internationally respected financial rating service, supports the GOP case. “They say that maxing out our borrowing just means that we will have to cut spending somewhere, that we could continue to service our debt while we make cuts elsewhere,” Lew recounted. “What they are forgetting is that the decision on whether to default or cut other spending is in our hands, not theirs.” Calling the failure to raise the debt...

enate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) are taking the lead on talks to raise the debt limit and reopen the government, according to senators. Reid and McConnell are working off a six-point proposal sponsored by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) that would fund the government for six months and raise the debt ceiling until Jan. 31, 2014. Senators view discussions between the two leaders as a promising sign of potential bipartisan compromise. “Reid and McConnell are talking now and those discussions continue so I see that as progress,” said Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas)....

Democratic leaders in the Senate are rejecting an offer by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) to end the budget impasse, arguing it asks for too much in return for too little, aides and senators tell POLITICO. The Collins plan, which was drafted with input from West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin (D) and other senators, called for a six-month extension of government funding and a debt limit increase through January. But it asked for a delay in Obamacare’s medical device tax for two years and a requirement for income verification for Obamacare subsidies. .....This means that there is little time for the...

House GOP members are meeting at Capitol. The meeting is about how to increase the debt limit for the USA. If Democrats and Republicans cannot reach an agreement, the USA is head for … default! 2012-movie-431x300 (1) It is true that the US is at (or actually a little past) its statutory debt limit. debtceilgst But what do credit default swaps, the price for insurance against sovereign default, tell us? First, the 5y CDS did rise after the specter of default reared its head. But fell towards the end of the week as rumors surfaced that President Obama was willing...

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan lashed out at Senate Republicans for interfering with the House GOP’s talks with the White House to reopen the government and lift the debt ceiling, suggesting his colleagues on the other side of the Capitol were betraying Speaker John Boehner. “They’re trying to cut the House out, and trying to jam us with the Senate. We’re not going to roll over and take that,” Ryan told reporters. When asked if he felt “double crossed,” Ryan said “you look at the facts and draw your own conclusions.” Senate Republicans, led by Senator Susan Collins of...

Obama told 25 governors on a conference call that the shutdown "is hurting local economies." President Obama hit Congressional Republicans on Friday telling a bipartisan group of governors that the "brinksmanship strategy" of shutting down the government and threatening default is something "the country can't afford." Obama made the comments to 25 governors on a conference call aimed at discussing the effect of the federal shutdown on state budgets and the overall economy, according to a White House readout of the call....... Obama was joined on the call by senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, NEC Director Gene Sperling, Deputy Office of...

“There is precedent for a government shutdown,” Lloyd Blankfein, the chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs, remarked last week. “There’s no precedent for default.” How wrong he is.

President Obama seemed to go comparison-shopping on Friday as he met with Senate Republicans to discuss their proposals for ending the government shutdown and raising the debt ceiling. Obama did most of the talking but also took questions from GOP senators who rode buses down Pennsylvania Avenue to meet on the president’s turf. The Republican senators used their time to try to eke out details of the bargaining that had happened the previous evening between Obama and House negotiators. GOP senators are pushing their own plans to open the government and raise the debt ceiling. “We tried to find out...

The rhetoric in Washington DC and the media is … silly. Here is a chart of Federal government receipts and Federal government expenditure on interest for Treasury debt. fedrecifedint Does that look like the US can’t afford to pay its debt? Of course not. The problems is the voracious spending in DC which no one seemingly wants to stop. Now, if I plot Federal government current receipts against Federal government current expenditures, we see a different picture: its the spending that’s the problem. govtrevexp You can see in the picture that the much vaunted reduction in the deficit was a...

Poll Who is more to blame for the federal government shutdown? Thank you for your vote. Republicans 28% Democrats 29% They're both equally to blame 41% Read more: http://www.sj-r.com/#ixzz2hOCQZQ4Q

Debt Talks: When Treasury Secretary Jack Lew repeatedly says the government has no choice in paying its bills if the debt ceiling is breached, he must surely know it's not true. So why say it? In a word, politics. As the nation's chief financial officer, the Treasury secretary has an enormous responsibility to shoot straight with the American public about the state of our finances. So does President Obama, for that matter. But when it comes to the political dispute over raising the debt ceiling from its current $16.7 trillion, Lew unfortunately has not leveled with us. Opting for political...

If Congress doesn't raise the debt ceiling soon, the U.S. government won't be able to pay its debts. Here's who the government owes money to — all the holders of U.S. Treasury debt, broken down by category and by how much government debt they hold. Notes The graph includes debt owed to the Social Security trust fund and other federal funds. These are sometimes excluded when calculating the debt for other purposes. For details, see this GAO report. Source: Federal Reserve; FMS; GAO; Social Security Administration Credit: Quoctrung Bui For more, see our story: What A U.S. Default Would Mean...

.........Ryan’s office said that merely convening a conference or agreeing on a budget would not be enough to reopen the government or raise the debt ceiling, however. “A budget resolution doesn’t have the force of law. So passing a budget resolution wouldn’t reopen the federal government. And it wouldn’t raise the debt ceiling, either. To open the government, pay our bills today, and make sure we can pay our bills tomorrow, we will need to do a lot more,” House Budget spokesman William Allison said. A leading Democrat slammed a budget conference under the threat of a continued shutdown and...

WASHINGTON (AP) - House Speaker John Boehner planned to ask fractious Republican lawmakers on Thursday to support a six-week extension of the government's ability to borrow money, even as Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew warned Congress of "irrevocable damage" that an unprecedented federal default would risk. Boehner, R-0hio, was expected to broach the plan at a private morning meeting of GOP House legislators, just hours before he and other Republican leaders were traveling to the White House to discuss their budget battle with President Barack Obama.