Barack Obama's new Platinum credit card

Back when I studied civics, I was taught the inherent wisdom that exists in making change difficult. I was taught that our system of government in the United States was based on that inherent wisdom: Congress can be thwarted by a Presidential Veto; a Presidential Veto can be overridden by Congress; Congress alone can declare war; the President alone can engage in war; the Supreme Court can declare laws passed by Congress unconstitutional; Congress and the States can amend the Constitution; etc.

We recently saw a prime episode of those checks and balances in the budget fiasco. But apparently there was a reason why one group didn't want to give in to the agreement. That reason is appearing now, quietly, with little more than a peep out of the White House. CNN did run a short segment on it that I just happened to catch, but when I went to their web site, it was buried among all the speculation and prediction concerning the 2012 Republican Primaries.

The Obama administration will formally ask Congress later this week to raise the nation’s debt ceiling by $1.2 trillion, a Treasury Department official tells CNN.

The latest request is the third of three requests authorized by the contentious debt ceiling agreement reached last August and is expected to come on December 30 – the day the debt is projected to fall within $100 billion of the current $15.194 trillion ceiling. The new request asks the ceiling be raised to $16.39 trillion.

Source: whitehouse.blogs.cnn.com...

As I understand this, the recent budget deal included a nice little benefit for the President to use to in his spending spree: he has the ability to ask for a debt ceiling increase when the US debt comes close to the budget ceiling. That part hasn't changed. What has changed is that when he makes this request, it is pre-approved unless Congress specifically denies it, an act which requires Congress to be in session.

In other words, Congress no longer has to approve a debt ceiling increase; they have to disapprove it to stop it from happening!

Our debt is already over 100% of our GDP. Now it can go even higher on the well-timed manipulation of governmental spending by one single man. Be that man Obama, Bush, Clinton, Reagan, whoever... that in itself is strictly against that time honored principle I was taught way back when. Now, amid our country's credit rating dropping and economic depression hanging on, instead of curbing spending we are making it easier to spend more... and more,,, and more...

It is self-evident (or should be) what this will do to our economy.

I'm a bit amazed no one else has brought this to attention here. So, what say you, ATS?

TheRedneck

Originally posted by TheRedneck
I'm a bit amazed no one else has brought this to attention here. So, what say you, ATS?

Actually, it was widely discussed here at the time.
Everyone was thoroughly disgusted, but of course unable to do anything about it.

Edit - here is one thread from August in which Vitchillo explains the numbers...
Debt ceiling will have to be raised again on September 29


Edit2 - just rereading that thread, the numbers were even worse than predicted.
Back in August, round 2 of debt increase (at 15.194 trillion) was expected to happen in March.
But now, its December 30. Months ahead of what was expected.

The train is accelerating towards the cliff.

Remember how up in arms people were when $787 Billion TARP fund was slammed down our throats?

Rule without checks and balances is corrupt.

Corruption already existed in areas of bureaucracy, and now Congress (Senate) built corruption into the Executive branch.

Chicago politics corruption has found it's way into the White House.

There's no reason left to respect the office of the President or the houses of Congress.

It's completely irresponsible to allow this $1.7 Trillion to pass when we need to CUT $4 Trillion.