Debt Ceiling Round 3
Just 5 short months from the debt ceiling debacle of 2011, the Obama administration is preparing to ask Congress to raise the debt ceiling by another $1.2 trillion later this week. Since the gamesmanship of last August has worked so well that the debt has continued to soar more than a trillion dollars, so the Obama administrations answer is to simply print more money and sell more treasury bonds to the Chinese.
The latest request follows 2 prior requests from the administration authorized by the debt ceiling agreement from the summer. The request is expected to land at Congress’s door this coming Friday when the country approaches the current limit of $15.4 trillion.
Debt Ceiling Wrist Slap
Congress has but one card to play at this point and that’s a joint resolution disapproving the increase. With the Senate controlled by the Democrats that’s highly unlikely to occur, and even if it should the president can simply veto the resolution. This entire process was authorized by the debt ceiling bill enacted in August and demonstrates how useless the U.S. Congress has become.
A congressional resolution against the increase in the debt ceiling serves no purpose but to allow the cowards on Capitol Hill to get on the record against increasing the debt ceiling. Liberal Democrats can run home after authorizing the debt ceiling increase and tell their constituents how they prevented the Republicans from causing the economy to tank. Republicans can vote against the debt ceiling increase, run home and exclaim how their vote represented their call for responsibility in government.
People have voiced how quiet the Tea Party has become since the summer; however another increase in the debt ceiling will once again place the Tea Party at the center of calls for smaller government and reduced spending.
It’s like a $15 trillion tennis match; the Congress serves up a lob to the Tea Party who smash the usual government softball back in their faces; the only problem is nothing ever changes. Perhaps it’s time for the Tea Party to state united and unequivocally that they will pull all support and actively campaign against all congressmen and senators that vote for the debt ceiling increase. Until they are sent packing and are replaced by a new generation of legislators that understand that we’ve had enough of the same-old same-old Washington games we’ll see this rerun over and over again.
Term limits, term limits, term limits.
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