Then and now: Barack Obama on raising the debt ceiling
There is a looming battle on the horizon as the new Congress is set to convene tomorrow and that battle is going to be over the budget. One of the most contentious issues which will be debated is the possibility of raising the debt ceiling. Some Republicans feel that if they do not agree to raise the debt ceiling it will force the Obama regime to begin to cut spending. This issue will not only pit Congressional Republicans against the president and Congressional Republicans against Congressional Democrats, but it will also pit Congressional Republicans against each other because they are not all on the same page as to whether this is the proper avenue to pursue in their attempt to cut spending.
The chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers–Austan Goolsbee–called the notion that Republicans would block an attempt to raise the debt ceiling irresponsible and defended Barack Obama’s request that the debt ceiling be raised by stating:
The impact on the economy would be catastrophic,” Goolsbee told “This Week” on ABC. “That would be a worse financial economic crisis than anything we saw in 2008.”
Goolsbee added: “I don’t see why anybody’s talking about playing chicken with the debt ceiling.”
He is basically warning the Republicans that if they do vote against raising the debt ceiling the results would be worse than the economic crisis of 2008 while complaining that the Republicans are playing “chicken with the debt ceiling. I am not going to sit here and pretend that I am an expert on this issue; I am not going to pretend that I understand all of the ramifications of letting the United States default on their financial obligations to other countries, but I can say this, it certainly seems like a bad idea to vote against raising the debt ceiling.
So with that in mind, I thought that I would turn to someone who should be an expert on this issue because he supposedly has surrounded himself with people he feels are economic experts–Barack Obama himself. While Barack Obama has his spokesman out there defending his decision to raise the debt ceiling, words of Barack Obama’s from 2006 have come to light which I find very interesting indeed.
Here is what Barack Obama had to say when the Republicans were looking to raise the debt ceiling when George W Bush was still the president:
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. … Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.
As a senator, Barack Obama claimed that the very fact the Senate was debating raising the debt ceiling was a sign of failed leadership in Washington. He was fairly adamant about his opposition to raising the debt ceiling, so much so that not only did he speak out vociferously against the idea, HE VOTED AGAINST raising the debt ceiling. By his own standard which he set in 2006, it would appear that Barack Obama has failed in his leadership capacity on this issue, otherwise we wouldn’t even need to be debating this issue.
So if we can take Austan Goolsbee at his word when defending Barack Obama’s new position on the debt ceiling, and if we can believe him when he states that failing to raise the debt ceiling would be “catastrophic,” we can naturally assume that as a senator Barack Obama must have known that failing to raise the debt ceiling in 2006 would also be catastrophic, but he still decided to put politics ahead of doing what is right (according to Barack Obama the president) for America because he–much like most on the left–thought it was more important to bring down President Bush than to raise up America.
In 2006, Barack Obama played a game of “chicken with the debt ceiling” and now that he is president he is condemning those that would play the same game he did just a few years ago. Barack Obama is losing any credibility that he once may have had, and if I might use the words that Hillary Clinton once used when speaking to General Petraeus on the floor of the senate, to believe anything that Barack Obama says in the future “really require the willing suspension of disbelief.”
America's Watchtower 
I am sure he would not admit it, but he is employing a double standard here. Obviously, he isn’t the first politician to do that and he certainly will not be the last, but with the condescending attitude he has, it’s almost fun to rub his nose in it.
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Almost fun? I find it very fun! 🙂
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The irony here is rich. Obama got everything right when he said that, but he was talking about the wrong president!
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He sure was, funny how he doesn’t think there is a lack of leadership now that he is the one raising the debt.
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Looks like what Goolsbee is saying is that the Democrats aren’t going along with cuts and could allow the country to default on its debts. The government is growing unnecessarily and cuts can be made across the board. He knows it, but is using the same hysterical rhetoric we heard in 2008. How many times are we going to fall for the “catastrophic” line? I say call their bluff. My guess is that they’ll give in at the 11th hour. They won’t default on Obama’s watch.
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I think you are probably right, the Democrats are once again going to try to use a “crisis” in order to continue spending. It will be interesting to see if the Republicans can hopd the line or if they will fold once again.
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The “Henney Penney” rehetoric is old and warn out. That is how we got billions of Tarp and who knows even now what else from these spin meisters. Wow, two more years…. it will be long.
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Great post. Goolsbee doesn’t want anyone to “play chicken” with the debt ceiling, huh?
Wouldn’t the folks who maxed out the gov’t credit card (again) be the chickens in this scenario?
Not the folks who have to respond to this chicken game by deciding whether to give the chicken more room to play.
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Thanks and so true! Those that have gotten us to this point are the ones who have been playing chicken all this time, and our children are the one who will pay for it.
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“Those that have gotten us to this point” are the ones playing chicken. In this case, I don’t think it is as much a case of playing chicken as it is a case of watching the chickens, one by one, as they come home to roost. And the more the debt ceiling is raised, the more chickens will come home to roost.
If US Treasury bonds, notes, bills, had first (prior) lien on government revenues, there would not be a need for any debt ceilings, since the politicians’ salaries, padded expense accounts, pork/favoritism projects, etc. could not be paid a cent until the government bonds are paid in full. In this case, no chance of default. The situation would eventually become somewhat self-correcting, in the sense that if the politicians’ salaries, perks, pork projects became in jeopardy, they would take action to prevent it.
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whats up, love your blog about when did the republicans not raise the debt ceiling
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