The absolute HYPOCRISY of Congressional members, of "political parties" , in general, never cease to amaze me and make me want to throw up!
While the four Republicans in Congressional leadership positions are attempting to hold the debt limit increase hostage NOW, the same four combined their votes for a debt limit increase TO GIVE 19 "YEAS" during the presidency of George W. Bush. In doing so, they increased the debt limit by nearly $4 trillion. Out of 20 voting opportunities on RAISING THE DEBT CEILING, THESE FOUR VOTED "YEA" 19 TIMES OUT OF 20. ALL BUT KYL VOTED 'YEA' EVERY SINGLE TIME!
While Bush2 raised the ceiling 7 times, Obama can't quite hope for one more, or the 4 more he needs to tie Bush2's hikes.
Looks to me like the Republicans would rather gnaw off their own legs than agree with ANYTHING BigO comes up with.
Database searches will reveal NOT ONE demand from the above four 'legislators' that debt increases had to be accompanied by drastic spending cuts during the BUSH2 terms, not once, so how dare they demand that NOW? In fact, the May 2003 debt limit increase these 4 jokers agreed to passed the Senate the same day as the $350 billion Bush tax cuts for the WEALTHY. Double bonus? Those cuts cost us, you and me, PLENTY!
When Bush was in office, the current Republican leaders viewed increasing the debt limit as "vital to keeping America’s economy running". But with Obama in the White House, DIFFERENT STORY! WHY? Why no "keep the economy running" NOW?
NO, REALLY, WHY THE SUDDEN CHANGE, THE SUDDEN DEMAND FOR 'DRASTIC SPENDING CUTS'? WHY didn't they think of that the 7 times they raised the ceiling for Bush, the 18 times they raised it for Reagan, or the 9 times they raised it for Bush1?
At the beginning of the Bush presidency, the United States debt limit was $5.95 trillion. Despite promises that he would pay off the debt in 10 years, Bush increased the debt to $9.815 trillion by the end of his term, with plenty of help from the four Republicans currently holding Congressional leadership positions: Speaker John Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl.
Here is a breakdown of the five debt limit increases that took place during the Bush presidency and how the four Republican leaders voted:
June 2002: Congress approved a $450 billion increase, raising the debt limit to $6.4 trillion. McConnell, Boehner, and Cantor vote “yea”, Kyl votes “nay.”
May 2003: Congress approved a $900 billion increase, raising the debt limit to $7.384 trillion. All four voted "yea".
November 2004: Congress approved an $800 billion increase, raising the debt limit to $8.1 trillion. All four voted "yea".
March 2006: Congress approved a $781 billion increase, raising the debt limit to $8.965 trillion. All four voted "yea".
September 2007: Congress approves an $850 billion increase, raising the debt limit to $9.815 trillion. All four voted "yea".
The ceiling was raised TWICE in 2008, but I can't find a source to show how all the Congress voted then...still looking...
The White House Office of Management and Budget keeps tabs on when and how much the debt ceiling has been raised.
Among its historical tables is one labeled "Statutory Limits on Federal debt 1940 - Current" (Table 7.3) The table lists 106 increases to the federal debt limit since 1940.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2013/assets/hist07z3.xls
More specifically, it lists 18 increases to the debt ceiling between February 1981 and September 1987. In other words, there were 18 under President Ronald Reagan. And there were seven increases between January 2001 and January 2009 -- during George W. Bush's presidency, and it was raised TWO TIMES in 2008. We should also note that the first time it was raised under Obama was one month after he took office.
So, if the ceiling is raised each of his remaining years, he will be TIED with BUSH2, but neither will ever top Reagan's 18 times!
Now, let's turn to stats out as of January 11, 2013, found here:
http://billmoyers.com/2013/01/11/the-partisan-history-of-the-debt-ceiling/
Who has increased the debt ceiling the most since 1944?
Sorry, GOP, your guys did! Republican Presidents increased it 54 times to Democrats 40 times.
While BUSH2 increased it 7 times, his dad, BUSH1, increased it 9 times, trailing LBJ & Carter by 1. But BUSH1 was a one-term president!
In his 8 years, Clinton had 4 increases.
As this chart clearly shows, only after Obama took office did REPUBLICANS stop voting for debt ceiling increases after over a decade of voting FOR them!
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4129/5158464551_066809a4e6.jpg
They even voted "yea" on some of Clinton's 4 requests in 8 years!
As OpenCongress detailed after January's party-line vote to add $1.9 trillion to the debt ceiling, Republican intransigence began in earnest when Bush left the White House for good. As Donny Shaw documented:
[see: http://www.opencongress.org/articles/view/1500-The-Republicans-Haven-t-Always-Been-Against-Raising-the-Debt-Ceiling ]
"The Republicans haven't always been against increasing the federal debt ceiling. This is the first time in recent history (the past decade or so) that no Republican has voted for the increase. In fact, on most of the ten other votes to increase the federal debt limit that the Senate has taken since 1997, the Republicans provided the MAJORITY of the votes in favor."
Now if you click on the numbers of the Senators who voted "AYE" on the chart Shaw put together, it will take you to the voice votes of EACH one who voted! They can't deny their own voice votes!
Oh, please do go read this website page!
"10 Inconvenient Truths About the Debt Ceiling"
[ 10 truths]
Though it was written about 18 months ago (June, 2011), it applies today and is stunning in documentation alone.
The 10 Inconvenient Truths are:
1. Republican Leaders Agree U.S. Default Would Be a "Financial Disaster"
2. Ronald Reagan Tripled the National Debt
3. George W. Bush Doubled the National Debt
4. Republicans Voted Seven Times to Raise Debt Ceiling for President Bush
5. Federal Taxes Are Now at a 60 Year Low
6. Bush Tax Cuts Didn't Pay for Themselves or Spur "Job Creators"
7. Ryan Budget Delivers Another Tax Cut Windfall for the Wealthy
8. Ryan Budget Will Require Raising Debt Ceiling - Repeatedly
9. Tax Cuts Drive the Next Decade of Debt
10. $3 Trillion Tab for Unfunded Wars Remains UNPAID
Well, sad but true...we face the truth like the 'soldiers' we are and go ahead and vote the same ones in again NEXT time...because that's what sheeple people do;
the same thing, over and over again , expecting different results...a sure sign of INSANITY.
Saaaay, what happened to our illustrious new "SUPER CONGRESS"? I thought they had to FIX things by the end of 2011!
What is the Super Congress?
The official name for the Super Congress is the 'Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction'.
They select the JOINTS so the Comittee can toke-up, mellow out, and laugh about the federal deficit!
No, no, they (probably) don't do that...here's what they really do, supposedly anyway:
The term Super Congress refers to a select group of 12 members of both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate chosen to identify ways to reduce the national debt by $1.2 trillion over 10 years.
The Super Congress, or super committee, was created under the Budget Control Act of 2011. The law was passed by the U.S. Congress in the first two days of August 2011 to increase the nation's $14.294 trillion debt ceiling in order to avoid a potential default. It was the fourth increase of the mandatory borrowing cap in President Barack Obama's first term.
The Super Congress consists of six members of the House and Senate, evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats. The House members were chosen by Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. The Senate members were chosen by Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
The members of the Super Congress, and those who selected them, are:
~DEMOCRATS:
-U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, a Democrat from Montana who chairs the Senate Finance Committee. He was chosen for the Super Congress by Reid.
-U.S. Rep. Xavier Becerra, a Democrat from California who is a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee. He was selected by Pelosi.
-U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland. He was appointed to the Super Congress by Pelosi.
-U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, a Democrat from South Carolina and the third-ranking Democrat in the House. He was chosen for the post by Pelosi.
-U.S. Sen. John Kerry, a Democrat from Massachusetts who ran unsuccessfully for president in 2004. He was chosen for the Super Congress by Reid.
-U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington who serves as chairwoman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Chosen by Reid, she will serve as co-chairman of the Super Congress.
~REPUBLICANS:
-U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican from Ohio who served as the White House budget director under President George W. Bush. He was appointed to the Super Congress by McConnell.
-U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl, a Republican from Arizona who is the second highest-ranking Republican in the Senate Republican Caucus behind McConnell. He was appointed to the Super Congress by McConnell.
-U.S. Rep. Dave Camp, a Republican from Michigan who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee. He was selected for the Super Congress post by Boehner.
-U.S. Rep. Jeb Hensarling, a Republican from Texas who chairs the House Republican Caucus. He serves as a co-chairman of the Super Congress. He was selected for the post by Boehner.
-U.S. Sen. Pay Toomey, a Republican from Pennsylvania who once chaired the anti-tax group Club For Growth. He was appointed to the Super Congress by McConnell.
-U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, a Republican from Michigan who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He was selected for the Super Congress post by Boehner.
Super Congress "Responsibilities"
The Budget Control Act of 2011 immediately raised the nation's debt ceiling by $400 billion, to $14.694 trillion, so the federal government could meet spending obligations previously approved by Congress.
But it required the Super Congress to find ways to reduce the national debt by $1.2 trillion before the end of 2011. If the panel's plan is approved by Congress, the debt ceiling can be increased by the same amount. If the committee fails in its mission, automatic spending cut measures will be triggered.
Proposals from the Super Congress would be placed on a fast track through the House and Senate, with no allowance for the legislation to be amended by lawmakers.
[source: http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/federalbudgetprocess/a/What-Is-Super-Congress.htm ]
So, what happened?
On November 21, 2011, CNN was one of the first to report our "SUPER Congress" had FAILED! 12 lousy Congressmen, 6 of each "party" could not agree on either jack nor squat. FAIL, FAIl, FAIL!
[ http://articles.cnn.com/2011-11-21/politics/politics_super-committee_1_deficit-reduction-republicans-committee?_s=PM:POLITICS ]
HuffPost was less than kind on their assessment of the "SUPER-C"...
[ HuffPost Super Fail]
TaxVox did a fair job of nailing down WHY these 12 thieving liars failed:
Five Reasons Why the Deficit Super Committee Failed
1~ The parties could not bridge their theological differences.
2~ Republicans would not budge off their no-tax pledge.
3~ Democrats tied spending cuts to tax hikes.
4~ The bipartisan leadership was AWOL.
5~ There was never a serious penalty for failure.
Yeah, yeah, same old reasons. Let's hear it for the two-party system...ever DOOMED to failure, ever DOOMED to FAIL THE U.S. CITIZENS!
Greedy, ego-maniacal bunch of self-serving hypocrites, the lot of them!
I have a few suggestions for a SERIOUS PENALTY for failure... even minus an OPEN SEASON on liars and CON-men, as some have suggested....
So, here we are, and it will be US, the "little people", the "middle class", the workers, the wish-we-were-workers-again, the very ones who put these rogues in office who will suffer some more because Congress is a miserable lot of scoundrels who don't deserve their posh little lives paid for by WE, THE PEOPLE.
I don't care which "WING" you fly on, which "party" you blindly follow, something has to give and give soon to keep ALL of us from being screwed-over AGAIN by the Capitol Hill GANG!
Seems no matter what they do, WE LOSE!
Maybe WE should DO something! Maybe instead of whining and complaining we should get off the couch and DO something!
The answer to the Congress of 2013 just may be "1776"...reckon?
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