Obama On Raising the Debt Ceiling
This is from a speech Obama made in 2006:
The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies.
Over the past 5 years, our federal debt has increased by $3.5 trillion to $8.6 trillion.That is “trillion” with a “T.” That is money that we have borrowed from the Social Security trust fund, borrowed from China and Japan, borrowed from American taxpayers. And over the next 5 years, between now and 2011, the President’s budget will increase the debt by almost another $3.5 trillion.
Numbers that large are sometimes hard to understand. Some people may wonder why they matter. Here is why: This year, the Federal Government will spend $220 billion on interest. That is more money to pay interest on our national debt than we’ll spend on Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. That is more money to pay interest on our debt this year than we will spend on education, homeland security, transportation, and veterans benefits combined. It is more money in one year than we are likely to spend to rebuild the devastated gulf coast in a way that honors the best of America.
And the cost of our debt is one of the fastest growing expenses in the Federal budget. This rising debt is a hidden domestic enemy, robbing our cities and States of critical investments in infrastructure like bridges, ports, and levees; robbing our families and our children of critical investments in education and health care reform; robbing our seniors of the retirement and health security they have counted on.
Every dollar we pay in interest is a dollar that is not going to investment in America’s priorities.
Senator Barack Obama
Senate Floor Speech on Public Debt
March 16, 2006
I hadn’t heard this speech before, but it’s actually pretty impressive. I’m not sure where this guy went, but I wish he’d come back before our current President drives us to bankruptcy. The current budget deficits just can’t be sustained.
Hat Tip Tabitha Hale and Gateway Pundit
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Yuh, we should elect this guy, whoever he is, that wants tor educe national debt… oh wait…
Part of me feels that Obama honestly does want to cut the deficit. Nancy Pelosi and her crazy band of lunatics maybe not, but somewhere in my cold heart, I feel Obama does want to cut it. And I do expect him to cut it over the next few years.
However, unless he is willing to make phenomenal cuts across the board, things won’t get under control. Once the economy rebounds, though, and the GDP rises, if those cuts are made, the deficits will get balanced. And if that occurs, then maybe, just maybe, we can start working on getting rid of that bloody debt.
@Jacob
Unfortunately nothing in the past year has made think Obama wants to stop spending. He just proposed a 3.8 Trillion budget with a 1.56 Trillion deficit. That’s not trying very hard to cut things. His current proposal is to have a deficit of 700 Billion in his last year. I’m not impressed with his “cutting” since that is still higher than every single year before he was president
It’s all very confusing. Mr. Nobel Prize Krugman seems to have thought the stimulus was a real boffo good idea from his tranquil hideout in the Caribbean…