National Debt
On First Day Of Obama’s Convention US National Debt Hits 16 TRILLION Dollars
Sep 5th
The United States Treasury reports that the total public outstanding debt is: $16,015,769,788,215.80. This is the first time in American history debt has eclipsed the $16 trillion mark.
The debt has increased approximately $5.4 trillion since President Obama took office on January 20, 2009.
Here’s a chart, from the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee detailing the increase in national debt over the last dozen years:
“Federal debt at the end of the current fiscal year will stand at $16.2 trillion—$6.2 trillion above where it was 4 years earlier,” the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee notes. “In the last 4 years, the debt increased by more than it did in the previous 17 years.”
The committee warns that under President Obama’s proposed budget, the debt will surge to $25.4 trillion in 2012. Here’s a chart detailing the projected debt increase:
Senator Jeff Sessions, ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, says:
“This is a grim landmark for the United States. The gross debt of our federal government will, for the first time, surpass $16 trillion. That’s more government debt per person than Portugal, Italy, Spain, or Greece. Yet the President seems strangely unconcerned. His budget, which received zero votes in the House or Senate, would add another $66,000 in debt for every American household. And the President’s majority in the Senate, which is required by law to produce a budget plan every single year, has refused to do so for more than 1,200 days.
“We are on a dramatically unsustainable path. Forty cents of every dollar we spend is borrowed. Systemic factors, such as our aging population, make this the most serious financial challenge our nation has ever faced. This year will mark the fourth straight deficit in excess of a trillion dollars. In the last 3 months, more people have been permanently been added to the disability rolls than have found jobs. The IRS is mailing billions of dollars in tax credits to illegal aliens, and the USDA is partnering with Mexico to boost enrollment in food stamps. Washington is disconnected from reality.
“But this crisis cannot be ducked. By failing to outline any serious plan for the financial future of this country, Democrats who run the Senate and the White House have no basis on which to ask to be kept in their majority. The nation is in desperate need of strong executive leadership to end the financial chaos, restore discipline to government, and lead us to an economic renaissance.” source – Weekly Standard
Obama Produces Fourth Straight Year Of 1,000,000,000,000+ Debt (That’s TRILLION)
Aug 22nd
Prepare for another year of $1 trillion-plus deficits
CLICK HERE to view the whopping tab that Dear Leader has created for every one of us
From Fox News: The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected Wednesday that the deficit for 2012 will run $1.1 trillion, the fourth year in a row the shortfall will exceed $1 trillion.
The projection is down a bit from an earlier estimate pegging the deficit this year at $1.2 trillion.
The report also warned that a new recession is likely if an ongoing stalemate over tax and spending cuts continues between Democrats and Republicans.
In its annual summertime report, the budget office said Wednesday that letting decade-old tax Bush tax rates expire and sweeping spending cuts occur in January — which will happen without congressional action — “would lead to economic conditions in 2013 that will probably be considered a recession.”
If that happened, the economy would contract by 0.5 percent — a gloomier projection than the budget office made earlier this year when it envisioned slight growth under that scenario. Unemployment would rise to around 9 percent by late next year if the standoff persists, the analysts said.
The budget office’s latest warning came amid a presidential and congressional election year in which neither President Obama nor congressional Republicans have shown any signs of giving ground in their protracted battle over taxes, spending and the budget. The lethargic economy and massive federal deficits are top-flight issues in this year’s campaigns.
Obama wants to renew expiring tax cuts for everyone except individuals earning over $200,000 and couples who bring in above $250,000. Republicans are demanding that all tax cuts be extended. The two sides also have made no progress over how to prevent budget-wide spending cuts from taking effect. These automatic cuts were sat in motion by the failure of lawmakers last year to reach a bipartisan debt-reduction agreement.
Letting the tax rates continue and preventing the spending cuts from taking effect would leave a deficit next year of just over $1 trillion. If the reverse occurs, the shortfall would be $641 billion — in effect sucking roughly $400 billion out of a U.S. economy that is already struggling.
Though continuing the tax rates and blocking the spending cuts would produce higher economic growth over the next two years, “it would reduce output and income in the longer run and is ultimately unsustainable,” the budget office warned.
It also envisions an economy recovering at only a modest pace the rest of this year, growing at an annual rate of 2.25 percent. source – Fox News
US National Debt Has Increased Under Obama by $5,027,761,476,484.56 (That’s TRILLION)
Apr 18th
The $5 Trillion Dollar Man
(CNSNews.com)- In the 39 months since Barack Obama took the oath of office as president of the United States, the federal government’s debt has increased by $5,027,761,476,484.56.
I can't count that high!
Although he has served less than a term, Obama is now the first American president to see the federal government’s debt increase by more than $5 trillion during his time in office.
During the full eight years that George W. Bush served as president, the federal government’s debt increased by $4,899,100,310,608.44. (Rising from $5,727,776,738,304.64 to $10,626,877,048,913.08.)
The $5,027,761,476,484.56 that the debt has increased during Obama’s presidency equals $16,043.39 for every one of the 313,385,295 people the Census Bureau now estimates live in the United States.
At the close of business on Jan. 20, 2009, the day Obama was inaugurated, the federal government’s debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08, according to the U.S. Treasury. By the close of business on April 16, 2012—as many Americans were working to finalize their 2011 tax returns to meet an April 17 filing deadline—the debt had reached $15,654,638,525,397.64.
The $5,027,761,476,484.56 in additional debt that the U.S. government has taken on during the 39 months that Obama has been president is more debt than the federal government accumulated in the first 219 years of the Republic. source – CNS
Obama Begins Slashing Military Budget 8,700 Jobs Cut
Dec 9th
With deeper budget cuts looming, the Pentagon is starting to cut back by trimming the Defense Department’s civilian workforce.
The Army said Thursday it is moving forward with plans announced in July to cut about 8,700 positions, using a mix of early retirement offers, buyouts and attrition to trim the jobs by the end of the fiscal year in late September.
Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta has warned that the federal budget cuts could be “devastating” for the Pentagon. (Jonathan Ernst - Reuters)
“Army commands and agencies are continuing to take necessary actions to reduce their civilian on-board strength to meet funded targets established by the secretary of defense and reflected in the President’s budget,” Thomas R. Lamont, assistant secretary of the Army for manpower and reserve affairs, said in a statement. “To the maximum extent possible, the Army will rely on voluntary departures to achieve these manpower reductions.”
The cuts will come in 37 states at 70 different locations across eight commands and agencies with nearly 90 percent of the cuts taking place within the Installation Management Command, Army Materiel Command and the Training and Doctrine Command. Most of the cuts are likely to occur in Virginia and Texas, where most of the DOD’s civilian workers are located.
In addition to eligible workers who retire, commanders will be able to use voluntary early retirement offers and buyouts to cut jobs, the Army said.
The failure of the bipartisan debt supercommittee means the Pentagon budget could be cut by a total of $1 trillion over the next decade — what defense leaders warn is a “huge” cut that would amount to a 23 percent reduction in the defense budget, resulting in furloughs and layoffs of “many” civilians and a reduction in the size of the military. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta has warned that the cuts could be “devastating” for the Pentagon, creating a “substantial risk” that the country’s defense needs might not be met. source – Wash Post
Obama to Propose $300 Billion STIMULUS to Jump-start Jobs
Sep 7th
Debt…what debt?
WASHINGTON (AP) — The economy weak and the public seething, President Barack Obama is expected to propose $300 billion in tax cuts and federal spending Thursday night to get Americans working again. Republicans offered Tuesday to compromise with him on jobs — but also assailed his plans in advance of his prime-time speech.
In effect, Obama will be hitting cleanup on a shortened holiday week, with Republican White House contender Mitt Romney releasing his jobs proposals on Tuesday and front-running Texas Gov. Rick Perry hoping to join his presidential rivals Wednesday evening on a nationally televised debate stage for the first time.
Lawmakers began returning to the Capitol to tackle legislation on jobs and federal deficits in an unforgiving political season spiced by the 2012 presidential campaign.
Adding to the mix: A bipartisan congressional committee is slated to hold its first public meeting on Thursday as it embarks on a quest for deficit cuts of $1.2 trillion or more over a decade. If there is no agreement, automatic spending cuts will take effect, a prospect that lawmakers in both parties have said they would like to avoid.
According to people familiar with the White House deliberations, two of the biggest measures in the president’s proposals for 2012 are expected to be a one-year extension of a payroll tax cut for workers and an extension of expiring jobless benefits. Together those two would total about $170 billion.
The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because the plan was still being finalized and some proposals could still be subject to change. source – Yahoo News
Under Obama US National Debt Growing By $3MILLION DOLLARS A MINUTE
Aug 23rd
New national debt data: It’s growing about $3 million a minute, even during his vacation
Swallow all liquids in your mouth before reading any further. Updated numbers for the national debt are just out: It’s now $14,639,000,000,000. When Barack Obama took the oath of office twice on Jan. 20, 2009, CBS’ amazing number cruncher Mark Knoller reports, the national debt was $10,626,000,000,000.
On last week's three-day Midwestern tour in the president's new $1.1 million Death Star bus, the National debt went up $16,988,000,000 while he rode around speaking and buying ice cream cones.
That means the debt that our federal government owes a whole lot of somebodies including China has increased $4,247,000,000,000 in just 945 days. That’s the fastest increase under any president ever.
Remember the day the Democrat promised to close the embarrassing Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility within one year? That day the national debt increased $4,247,000,000. And each day since that the facility hasn’t been closed.
Same for the day in 2009 when Obama flew all the way out to Denver to sign the $787 billion stimulus bill that was going to hold national unemployment beneath 8% instead of the 9.1% we got today anyway? Another $4,247,000,000 that day. And every day since, even Obama golfing and vacation days.
Same sum for the day Obama flew Air Force One nearly four hours roundtrip to Columbus, Ohio for a 10-minute speech about how well the stimulus was working in the politically crucial Buckeye state. Ohio’s unemployment rate just jumped to 9% from 8.8% anyway.
Numbers with that many digits are hard to grasp, even for a Harvard head. So, let’s put it another way:
One billion seconds ago Bill Clinton was nearing the end of his two terms and George W. Bush’s baseball collection was still on the shelves in the Austin governor’s office.
The nation’s debt increased $4.9 trillion under President Bush too, btw. But it took him 2,648 days to do it. Obama will surpass that sum during this term.
Now, how to portray a trillion, or 1,000 billions. One trillion seconds ago much of North America was still covered by ice sheets hundreds of feet thick. And the land was dotted by only a few dozen Starbuck’s.
Obama is saying yes, we can get control of the national debt. But ominously every time he says that he adds that trillions of dollars in infrastructure repairs are badly needed across the country. And with interest rates so low, according to the thinking on Obama’s planet, now is an excellent time to borrow even more money.
So, it looks like not too long before Americans learn what comes after 1,000 trillions. It’s quadrillion. But for Bernanke’s sake, please don’t tell anyone in Washington. source – LA Times
Leadership 101: Obama Administration Blames TEA PARTY for Credit Downgrade Debacle
Aug 8th
Tea Party Downgrade
In the wake of a bruising battle over the debt ceiling and now a first-ever credit downgrade, Democrats have launched a salvo of rhetorical attacks on the Tea Party and appear determined to blame the movement for everything from the debt crisis to the sputtering economy.
Tea Party Downgrade? Hmm, I thought Obama was in charge...silly me!
“I think they’re totally unreasonable and doctrinaire and not founded in reality. I think they’ve been smoking some of that tea, not just drinking it,” former Democratic presidential candidate and Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said.
Vice President Biden met last week with House Democrats who described Tea Party lawmakers as terrorists.
The term “Tea Party downgrade” gained currency over the weekend as Democratic leaders took to the airwaves to cast Standard & Poor’s decision to downgrade U.S. credit as a Tea Party-triggered event.
They argue that because the rating agency cited the toxic political environment in its decision, the Tea Party is culpable.
Republicans counter that Standard and Poor’s also cited the country’s failure to tackle its debt problem — something the Tea Party has urged Washington to do. They accuse Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner of lacking a plan to grow the economy, and suggested he resign over his role in the latest turn of events.
“When you open that refrigerator door, the lights don’t come on,” Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., told Fox News. “I don’t think that Timothy Geithner really has a handle on the fiscal situation here.”
The anti-Tea Party talking points didn’t start with the downgrade decision Friday. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid and others have been hammering the Tea Party throughout and since the debt-ceiling debate, casting the movement as public enemy No. 1 as Washington enters the next phase of deficit-reduction talks and the 2012 campaign season gets underway.
As Reid told reporters last week, he and his colleagues are worried about the “Tea Party direction of this Congress.” And despite repeated calls for civility, lawmakers are using some heated rhetoric to try and neutralize the Tea Party’s influence.
In a fundraising email last week, Iowa Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin condemned what he described as an effort to “appease the hostage-takers,” saying most Americans “have no use for the Tea Party extremists.” source – Fox News
