Congress Increases Debt Limit To $ 14,294,000,000,000

Fri, 02/05/2010 - 11:00am | posted by Doug Mataconis

WASHINGTON — The House on Thursday voted to allow the government to go $1.9 trillion deeper in debt – or about $6,000 more for every U.S. resident.

The measure, approved 217-212, would raise the cap on federal borrowing to $14.3 trillion. That’s enough to keep Congress from having to vote again before the November elections on an issue that is feeding a sense among voters that the government is spending too much and putting future generations under a mountain of debt to do it.

Already, the accumulated debt amounts to roughly $40,000 per person. And the debt is increasingly held by foreign nations such as China.

Passage of the bill would send it to President Barack Obama, who will sign it to avoid a first-ever, market-rattling default on U.S. obligations.

“I can’t think of a more reckless or irresponsible act. Defaulting is not an option,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass. “If the United States defaults, investors will lose confidence that the U.S. will honor its debts in the future.

Do you really think that anyone believes that we’re good for that $ 14 trillion Congressman?

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Tagged: debt ceiling Deficit Spending national debt

Quoted from this week’s TMQ:

“Last week, in his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama spoke of the need to restore fiscal discipline and end runaway borrowing. Members of Congress clapped and nodded approval. The following day — the following day! — the Senate voted to raise the national debt ceiling by $2 trillion, to $14.3 trillion. Resolve about reducing debt didn’t even last 24 hours in the Senate.

Then on Monday, President Obama released his next federal budget proposal, complete with a projected fiscal 2010 deficit of $1.6 trillion — the worst-ever peacetime deficit — and $100 billion in new deficit-based spending that Obama neglected to mention when speaking to Congress. The president’s resolve about reducing the debt didn’t even last a week.”

He then goes on to decry Paygo as a “complete fraud.”

Man, I love TMQ. :)

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