The debt-ceiling deadline gets an extension
It turns out that the Obama’s administration’s self-imposed Aug. 2 deadline for reaching a debt-ceiling deal isn’t as drop-dead as we’ve been told. From the New York Times:
Thanks to an inflow of tax payments and maneuvering by the Treasury Department, the government can probably continue to pay all of its bills for several days after Aug. 2, providing potentially critical breathing room for Congress to raise the debt ceiling, according to estimates by several Wall Street banks and a Washington research organization.
The consensus is that the government will not run short of money until Aug. 10, when it would be unable to cut millions of Social Security checks without borrowing more money.
Note that, while some of us have observed in the past that the Treasury could continue making interest payments on the debt and meet its obligations on Social Security and essential defense even past Aug. 2, this report is talking about continuing to pay all the bills after Aug. 2.
Having a few extra days is no bad thing, given that House Republicans don’t want to pass Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s plan and that their own plan is is as much as 30 percent less effective than advertised.
It would be nice to have a GOP that is not just vocal about cutting spending but also competent at writing bills that, you know, cut spending. (Sigh.)
– By Kyle Wingfield
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227 comments Add your comment
Linda
July 27th, 2011
6:34 pm
MarkV@6:21, Regardless of the thriving economy Bush inherited from Clinton, the fact is that we were attacked on 9/11/01 & the economy started going into a recession in ‘07 & ‘08, mainly due to the Democrats’ social justice program put into place in the ’90s & which Bush advanced.
What Obama inherited was an unemployment rate of 7.6% & a debt of $10 T. His policies have created a recession & could create a depression.
MarkV
July 27th, 2011
6:35 pm
F. Sinkwich @6:29 pm: You clearly would not recognize the truth it it were sreved to you on a silver platter. I could not care less if you are tired by hearing the truth about Bush and his policies. We all have seen the results.
MarkV
July 27th, 2011
6:38 pm
Linda @6:34 pm: “Regardless of the thriving economy Bush inherited from Clinton, the fact is that we were attacked on 9/11/01 & the economy started going into a recession in ‘07 & ‘08, mainly due to the Democrats’ social justice program put into place in the ’90s & which Bush advanced. ”
Yeh, and the Bush tax cuts, unpaid war and unpaid prescription program had nothing to do with it.”
F. Sinkwich
July 27th, 2011
6:40 pm
You’ve convinced me, MarkV, I won’t vote for Bush next year.
Linda
July 27th, 2011
6:42 pm
Truthy@6:24, I know the date, both the month & the day. As a matter of fact, right under your name lists both. It’s July 27, 2011. Congratulations!
If whites had not voted for Obama, he would have never been elected. You are insulting whites who voted for Obama, accusing them of being racist. How does that advance your agenda?
You are using some pretty rough speech here that might get you in trouble. You might want to tone down your rhetoric, at the same time you are changing out your bell bottoms.
MarkV
July 27th, 2011
6:44 pm
Linda @6:34 pm:”What Obama inherited was an unemployment rate of 7.6% & a debt of $10 T.”
And how many people were losing jobs per month just before Obama came to power??
Linda
July 27th, 2011
6:49 pm
MarkV@6:31, The problem is that the people who actually PAY income taxes do not feel they are getting a bang for their bucks. Their bucks are going to people who do not PAY income taxes.
JDW
July 27th, 2011
6:50 pm
He!! Kyle, I would be happy with a GOP that did not just LIE THROUGH THEIR TEETH as a matter of course….
MarkV
July 27th, 2011
6:54 pm
Linda @6:49 pm:”The problem is that the people who actually PAY income taxes do not feel they are getting a bang for their bucks. Their bucks are going to people who do not PAY income taxes.”
That is a inanity, a generalization without any substance.
F. Sinkwich
July 27th, 2011
6:54 pm
Hey, MarkV, how about you highlight your Messiah’s accomplishments since he’s been in office and his European socialist vision for the future instead of dwelling in the past?
Oh, that’s right, libs don’t want to go there for some reason. It’s easier to blame Bush.
MarkV
July 27th, 2011
6:58 pm
F. Sinkwich @6:54 pm:
I certainly will not discuss this subject with you. Once somebody starts using the word “socialism” togather with Obama, it is clear that he is an ignorant, who does not know anything about what he is talking about..
Linda
July 27th, 2011
7:02 pm
MarkV@6:38 & 6:44, Regardless of who did what & when, the fact remains that Obama’s policies have failed, miserably, & have deepened the recession & made unemployment & all the other economic indicators worse & could cause a decline in the credit rating of the US for the first time in history & could cause either a double dip recession, or ever worse, a depression.
Linda
July 27th, 2011
7:08 pm
MarkV@6:58, So if I start using the word “socialism” together with Obama, will that mean that you will no longer try to prolong this discussion with me?
Obama is a socialist! I agree with Charlie Rangel!
stranger in a strange land
July 27th, 2011
7:16 pm
Didn’t Time or Newsweek say not long ago “We’re all socialists now”?
Can’t get anymore authoritative than that.
Lil' Barry Bailout
July 27th, 2011
7:19 pm
“Yeh, and the Bush tax cuts, unpaid war and unpaid prescription program had nothing to do with it.”
—————————–
Your Idiot Messiah extended the tax cuts, added another war, and made the prescription drug program more generous and more expensive.
Hypocrite.
Buckwheat
July 27th, 2011
7:23 pm
The Outlaw Josey Wales
July 27th, 2011
3:52 pm
Or are you talking about Libya, which we entered soley on the direction of a defiant Barack Hussein Obama, seeking no senate approval or legal authority?
MarkV
July 27th, 2011
7:36 pm
Linda @7:02 pm: That is your opinion, not a fact.
Linda
July 27th, 2011
7:37 pm
Buckwheat@7:23, The left are still complaining about the Afghanistan & Iraq wars, which congress approved & Democrats voted for, & mention no fact that Obama surged Afghanistan & started a third “not war” in which we don’t “take sides,” which legislators learned about from TV & which has cost $1 B.
Go figure.
MarkV
July 27th, 2011
7:38 pm
Linda @7:08 pm: :”Obama is a socialist!”
A proof that you do not know what “a socialist” means.
Moderate Line
July 27th, 2011
7:40 pm
Linda
July 27th, 2011
6:34 pm
MarkV@6:21, Regardless of the thriving economy Bush inherited from Clinton, the fact is that we were attacked on 9/11/01 & the economy started going into a recession in ‘07 & ‘08, mainly due to the Democrats’ social justice program put into place in the ’90s & which Bush advanced.
What Obama inherited was an unemployment rate of 7.6% & a debt of $10 T. His policies have created a recession & could create a depression.
++++
You can make the argument that his policies have not improved the economy but you can not make the argument that his policies created a recession. For one we have been out of the recession since we have been out of the recession since June of 2009 and we may yet go into another but so far we have not.
MarkV
July 27th, 2011
7:41 pm
Lil’ Barry Bailout @7:19 pm: I consider your verbal excrements a product of deseased mind, and they are of no interest to me.
Moderate Line
July 27th, 2011
7:42 pm
Linda
July 27th, 2011
7:37 pm
Buckwheat@7:23, The left are still complaining about the Afghanistan & Iraq wars, which congress approved & Democrats voted for, & mention no fact that Obama surged Afghanistan & started a third “not war” in which we don’t “take sides,” which legislators learned about from TV & which has cost $1 B.
Go figure.
++++
Democrats in the house voted 126-82 against the war in Iraq.
Linda
July 27th, 2011
7:55 pm
MarkV@7:02, It’s my opinion? Please tell what economic indicators have increased since Obama took office. When has the Aaa credit rating EVER been in question in the history of the US? When has the unemployment rate ever been worse than during the Obama adm.? The Bureau of Labor has been calculating monthly unemployment rates since 1948. This month is the 69th month since 1948 that the unemployment rate has been @ 8% or higher. It’s the 30th month under Obama. So, 43% of the most severe unemployment in the last 63 yrs. has occurred during Obama’s adm.
MarkV
July 27th, 2011
8:02 pm
Moderate Line @7:40 pm:”You can make the argument that his policies [Obama's]have not improved the economy…”
I beg to disagree. The Real Quarterly US GDP Growth Rate was 2.3 % in the third and 4th quarter 0of 2007,. then started dropping, getting negative in the 3rd quarter of 2008.and reaching a minimum in the second quarter of 2009, right after Obama’s inauguration. Since it has increased, got positive in the 4th quarter 0f 2009, and has then remained at or above the 2.3% since.
HDB
July 27th, 2011
8:03 pm
Lil’ Barry Bailout
July 27th, 2011
7:19 pm
“Yeh, and the Bush tax cuts, unpaid war and unpaid prescription program had nothing to do with it.”
—————————–
“Your Idiot Messiah extended the tax cuts, added another war, and made the prescription drug program more generous and more expensive.
Hypocrite.”
LBB, lest you forget that in order to ensure that those who were UNEMPLOYED continued to receive UI benefits, the President was forced to capitulate to the GOP’s demands to extend the tax breaks! You know that as well as the nation does!!
Obama did something for the GREATER good…..and it was NECESSARY!! The GOP is doing EVERYTHING to marginalize the middle class so that the rich get richer……..
It’s hypocritical for one to ignore the reasoning that generated the result!!
Linda
July 27th, 2011
8:04 pm
MarkV@7:38, Maybe you are right. Maybe I don’t know what a socialist is. Maybe I’m wrong to believe that progressives are nothing more than socialists, that their actions don’t speak so loudly as to identify them for what they appear to be.
What I do know is that whoever they are, they are destroying our country.
MarkV
July 27th, 2011
8:05 pm
Linda @7:55 pm
One more time, what were the monthly numbers of people losing jobs before Obama’s inauguration, and since his inauguration? As for the exconomic indicators, see my post @8:02 pm to Moderate Line.
MarkV
July 27th, 2011
8:07 pm
Linda @8:04 pm: In that one thing I can agree with you – you do not know what a socialist is.
Got to go,.
Lil' Barry Bailout
July 27th, 2011
8:09 pm
Rep. James Clyburn and a group of House Democrats are urging President Barack Obama to invoke the 14th Amendment to raise the debt ceiling if Congress can’t come up with a satisfactory plan before the Tuesday deadline.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/60038.html
—————————–
I guess the demitard isn’t familiar with the Constitution’s whole “separation of powers” thing.
He also conveniently ignores another part of the 14th Amendment:
“Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.”
Democrats: Fascists.
Linda
July 27th, 2011
8:09 pm
Moderate@7:40, Really? You might want to ask people who are out of work. The unemployment numbers include only those receiving unemployment. The numbers do not include all the high school & college students who graduated last month, nor those who are underemployed.
chris h
July 27th, 2011
8:11 pm
Thanks, Drake.
Lil' Barry Bailout
July 27th, 2011
8:11 pm
MarkV: Lil’ Barry Bailout, I consider your verbal excrements a product of deseased mind, and they are of no interest to me. And yet I must respond.
———————-
Whatever.
HDB
July 27th, 2011
8:17 pm
Linda
July 27th, 2011
7:55 pm
Linda, we know that the unemployment indicators are LAGGING indicators…..and the true effect is anything from 6-36 months AFTER an economic event!! If one takes the extreme point, people are still suffering from the Bush Effect!!
“When has the Aaa credit rating EVER been in question in the history of the US?” Since the GOP has failed to do what previous Congresses have routinely done: increase the debt limit! Under Reagan and both Bushes, Republican Congresses ROUTINELY increased the debt limit by sending a CLEAN bill! Only now, when Obama became President, is the GOP concerned about spending…when it is evident that the only entity that could rapidly address the economic problems of the nation is the GOVERNMENT!!!! THAT’S why Obama’s spending is NECESSARY!!! Once the economy improves, then we can better address balancing the budget, addressing the debt, and eliminating the deficit!!
Linda
July 27th, 2011
8:20 pm
HDB@8:03, When Johnson launched his War on Poverty, the poverty rate was 14.3%. It’s still 14.3%, with trillions of dollars spent. The Democrats keep dumbing down the poor, in an effort to get votes. It’s worked for decades.
Lil' Barry Bailout
July 27th, 2011
8:20 pm
The Idiot Messiah has zero interest in balancing the budget, good economy or bad. He believes, like most incompetent sheeple Democrats, that government is what makes America great.
Lil' Barry Bailout
July 27th, 2011
8:21 pm
The Bush Effect: Eight years of 4-5% unemployment.
HDB
July 27th, 2011
8:31 pm
Linda
July 27th, 2011
8:20 pm
….and where is the preponderance of those who are in poverty? Appalachia!! Isn’t that where there is NO diverse industry and much that could LIFT people out of poverty has been taken OFFSHORE?? Who controls Corporate America? The GOP!!!
Lil’ Barry Bailout
July 27th, 2011
8:20 pm
The government is the one entity that ENSURES America’s greatness by the freedom and liberty its laws GUARANTEES to EVERY person within the nation’s borders! Note the Preamble to the Constitution:
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
What is the entity that “we, the people” have created so that EVERYONE in the nation has such capability?? The GOVERNMENT!!! Lest you forget, prior to 1964, not EVERYONE had such Constitutional protections…….
Linda
July 27th, 2011
8:32 pm
Mark@8:05, One more time??????
The Dept. of Labor has always based its unemployment rate of the number of jobs created less the number of jobs lost = the net number of jobs created or lost.
Democrats had this incredulous new employment assessment the last couple of years. They came up with this new statistic of the number of jobs created or SAVED, without subtracting the number of jobs lost, as if the American people were stupid, which they thought, which was inaccurate.
The unemployment statistics under Bush, compared to Obama, are overwhelming.
http://www.miseryindex.us/urbyyear.asp
Fletch
July 27th, 2011
8:32 pm
LBB -” Fletch gave me all of seven minutes before he became erect over my failure to respond. It’s been twice that since I posed my question to him with no “response”. Do I need to look into Viagra?”
Sorry LBB, I headed out to my condo in Savannah for the weekend after my last post. My point being, is that I will expect the same outrage in 2 years when it becomes necessary to raise the debt ceiling again. I’m all for a balanced budget, but since it took us 30 years to get here, the possibility of bringing things in line by the time Obama is either re-elected or replaced is doubtful at best. I’m just hoping that those who are adamant about the cause now will be just as angry at a member of their own team should the need arise.
Lil' Barry Bailout
July 27th, 2011
8:36 pm
And what Constitutional protections were added in 1964? None. What entity denied some their rights prior to 1964? What entity denied Chrysler shareholders their property in 2009?
HDB
July 27th, 2011
8:38 pm
Lil’ Barry Bailout
July 27th, 2011
8:21 pm
“The Bush Effect: Eight years of 4-5% unemployment.” NOT QUITE TRUE!! Immediately after 9/11, the unemployment rate climbed to 8% due to massive layoffs in the airline and IT industries! United Airlines laid off 25,000 people two weeks after 9/11….and many of those employees were unemployed for periods greater than two years! We also know that in certain segments of society that the unemployment rate is TWICE the national average! Note the black unemployment rate under Reagan and Bush was over 15%!! During the Bush Recession, higher unemployment rates were just starting…..from 7% in 2007 to current levels!!
If you want to know the TRUTH, ask someone who was truly affected by the Bush Effect!!! I KNOW many who have……..
Lil' Barry Bailout
July 27th, 2011
8:38 pm
I will expect the same outrage in 2 years when it becomes necessary to raise the debt ceiling again.
——————-
Prepare to be disappointed. The adults have arrived. While it will be necessary to raise the debt limit for some years into the future, we now have our best chance in forever to make progress toward reducing the growth of government spending. All thanks to the Tea Party and Republicans.
You’re welcome.
Fletch
July 27th, 2011
8:40 pm
Linda – ” Please tell what economic indicators have increased since Obama took office.”
Can’t name all of them, but I kicked some ass on the DNKN IPO today.
Lil' Barry Bailout
July 27th, 2011
8:41 pm
The Idiot Messiah would kill to get his unemployment rate down to the level it was at any point of our President Bush’s eight years. Unemployment under Obozo has been higher in every month than in any month of President Bush’s administration.
Obozo: Inferior to Bush on keeping unemployment low.
Lil' Barry Bailout
July 27th, 2011
8:43 pm
HDB, you might want to get your fact straight, too. Unemployment never got above 5.7% in 2001.
Don’t fear facts.
http://scottstanzel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/President-Bush-Monthly-Unemployment-Percent1.jpg
Fletch
July 27th, 2011
8:44 pm
LBB – “Prepare to be disappointed. The adults have arrived. While it will be necessary to raise the debt limit for some years into the future, we now have our best chance in forever to make progress toward reducing the growth of government spending. All thanks to the Tea Party and Republicans.
You’re welcome.”
Won’t affect me either way, I don’t rally for either side. I merely ask questions and hope for answers. I stopped being a cheerleader after voting GW in the first time. After that it was painfully obvious that no politician was really going to make or break me, and I’ve seen nothing since then to change that reality.
“
HDB
July 27th, 2011
8:44 pm
Lil’ Barry Bailout
July 27th, 2011
8:36 pm
“And what Constitutional protections were added in 1964? None.”
Lest you forget that people of color were not considered American CITIZENS until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1964/65 which GUARANTEED the right to vote and FULL Constitutional protections!! Recheck your history……………….
” What entity denied some their rights prior to 1964?” State governments, particularly in the SOUTH!! You CAN’T forget that aspect of American history….or are many conservatives this obtuse????
HDB
July 27th, 2011
8:46 pm
Lil’ Barry Bailout
July 27th, 2011
8:43 pm
Check the time frame from 9/11/2001 to 12/31/2003…….and ask someone who was laid off as an effect of 9/11! You find out DIFFERENTLY that what you’re espousing! Not only do I KNOW many who were effected…I WAS one of the affected!!!
Reality……what a concept!!!
Linda
July 27th, 2011
8:50 pm
HDB@8:17, You are badly misinformed. The reason the credit rating agencies are threatening to downgrade our Aaa rating has nothing to do with raising the debt ceiling. The problem is the debt.
They are demanding that it be cut by $4 T.
The govt./entity that rapidly addressed the economic problems the nation faced failed miserably & only added to the problem: the debt.
Fletch
July 27th, 2011
8:51 pm
LBB – “The Bush Effect: Eight years of 4-5% unemployment.”
That actually is true. Unfortunately, between 03 and 07, much of that was based on the same financial principles that lead us to the implosion of the economy. Lot’s of digital money floating around all built on a hyper inflated lending and investing market that couldn’t be sustained.