Obama Asks for $1.2 Trillion Debt-Limit Increase
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Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo
President Obama took the first step toward raising the debt limit again today, officially asking Congress for a $1.2 trillion increase.
In a formal letter, the president informed the Speaker of the House that “further borrowing is required to meet existing commitments.”
The increase will occur unless the House and Senate pass a resolution against it, under the budget deal reached in August to prevent a government default. Congress now has 15 days to reject the request.
Republicans are expected to use the request as an opportunity to attack the president’s spending policies. “Washington’s mounting debt is a drag on our economic recovery, and this request is another reminder that the president has consistently punted on the tough choices needed to rein in the deficit and protect important programs for American seniors from going bankrupt,” a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said.
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I seem to recall someone saying that raising the debt ceiling is a sign of failed leadership.
Posted by: newcountryman | January 12, 2012, 5:40 pm 5:40 pm
STOP spending OUR money!!!
Posted by: CrazyRay | January 12, 2012, 6:08 pm 6:08 pm
He shouldn’t get it.
He didn’t really cut……so he shouldn’t be allowed to spend.
Posted by: Rick McDaniel | January 12, 2012, 6:10 pm 6:10 pm
Can you throw some of that my way. $10,000 or so.. Thanks.
Posted by: Jim Bob jr. | January 12, 2012, 6:12 pm 6:12 pm
That’s right. Borrow MORE money so we can continue to provide “aid” to all of the countries of the world that hate us.
Posted by: D-Money | January 12, 2012, 6:13 pm 6:13 pm
Here come all the Republicans with their fake innocence and indignation about the debt. What a joke.
Posted by: Jim | January 12, 2012, 6:16 pm 6:16 pm
The debt is not about Republicans or Democrats. It’s the debt. You owe on it, and so do I.
So you might want to consider your leadership carefully, regardless of their party affiliations.
Posted by: Doug | January 12, 2012, 6:36 pm 6:36 pm
NO MORE BORROWING!!!!!!!!!!! we r in HELL already
Posted by: Blaine | January 12, 2012, 6:40 pm 6:40 pm
Change you can believe in, that’s bankrupting our country ! Thanks Barack and his merry band of ignorant followers !!!!
Posted by: we're broke | January 12, 2012, 6:41 pm 6:41 pm
Are you kidding me? He has put us 5 trillion in debt already. NO MORE SPENDING>>>>PERIOD!!
He must know he has no chance in hell to get re-elected. I voted for him last time but I learned my lesson………….NO WAY this time.
Posted by: Pam | January 12, 2012, 6:53 pm 6:53 pm
Are you kidding me? He has put us 5 trillion in debt already. NO MORE SPENDING>>>>PERIOD!!
He must know he has no chance in hell to get re-elected. I voted for him last time but I learned my lesson………….NO WAY this time.
Posted by: PJ | January 12, 2012, 6:54 pm 6:54 pm
This is for , “We’re Broke”. Let us not forget who got the ball of debt rolling, George W. Bush, or had you forgotten that he took the country from being in the red, through Clinton’s efforts, into an economic crisis he didn’t even realize until the bitter end………………..So let’s not talk about ignornat followers.
Posted by: Joanne | January 12, 2012, 6:55 pm 6:55 pm
Jim (6:16 PM); Indignation? Not really, for me it’s more about Obama’s hypocrisy concerning the U.S. debt.
Posted by: newcountryman | January 12, 2012, 6:58 pm 6:58 pm
Joanne…….Keep believing, that hope and change is on the way !
Posted by: We're Broke | January 12, 2012, 7:01 pm 7:01 pm
OF COURSE he does!!! —– Obama never met a deficit he didn’t like!!! — Here’s an idea…. CUT something!!!! — How about some of that huge increase in discretionary spending the Democrats authorized your first two years in office!!!!
Posted by: TheLoyalOpposition | January 12, 2012, 7:04 pm 7:04 pm
This idiot president needs to look up JIM SAMMONS and follow his advice quickly
Posted by: Tom | January 12, 2012, 7:07 pm 7:07 pm
Just say NO!
Posted by: newcountryman | January 12, 2012, 7:08 pm 7:08 pm
Well if Obama is running $4-$5 trillion deficits, then why just ask for $1.2 trillion??? He’s just going to have to come back in 3 months and ask for MORE!
Posted by: Michael Rogge | January 12, 2012, 7:13 pm 7:13 pm
Change you can believe in, that’s bankrupting our country !
=============================
This country is nowhere near bankrupt. In fact certain sectors of our populace have more wealth than they’ve ever had, -more wealth than the rest of the nation combined, and pay the lowest tax rates in decades. But protecting all that wealth and keeping it right where it is is the Republicans’ top priority.
Posted by: baloney patrol | January 12, 2012, 7:20 pm 7:20 pm
Just say YES!
Posted by: Jim Bob jr. | January 12, 2012, 7:22 pm 7:22 pm
The $4-5 T are from his cumulative annual deficit spending – including the $1T stimulus.
Posted by: deanbob | January 12, 2012, 7:24 pm 7:24 pm
“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.” ~Senator Barack Obama (2006)
Posted by: blackconservative | January 12, 2012, 7:29 pm 7:29 pm
All the phony posts from the right wing pretending they don’t have a clue how the country’s debt, deficit and budget ended up like this – look to your own Republican president Bush who overspent and undertaxed and left the country in pitiful shape for the economic collapse on his watch.
After billions are stripped out of the government revenues because of the 8 million jobs lost during that economic crash, what do you expect?
After Bush put in place two wars and borrowed money from China to do so, what do you expect?
After the economic crash put huge demands of government resources, what do you expect.
The right wing are nothing if not hypocrites and phonies.
Posted by: Jim | January 12, 2012, 7:36 pm 7:36 pm
This is for , “We’re Broke”. Let us not forget who got the ball of debt rolling, George W. Bush, or had you forgotten that he took the country from being in the red, through Clinton’s efforts, into an economic crisis he didn’t even realize until the bitter end………………..So let’s not talk about ignornat followers.
Posted by: Joanne | January 12, 2012, 6:55 pm 6:55 pm
Joanne. . . shhhhh! . . . you’ll wake them from their brainwashed coma and ignorance of history . . ..
Posted by: Jim | January 12, 2012, 7:38 pm 7:38 pm
If the Republicans are really so concerned about debt why do they keep making budget proposals which will increase the debt enormously?
Posted by: smoking cures cancer | January 12, 2012, 7:43 pm 7:43 pm
POSTED BY: BALONEY PATROL | JANUARY 12, 2012, 7:20 PM 7:20 PM the Debt is now as big as our GDP and your still believing we are not on the road to Greece, amazing By 2015 at the way we’re going we will be 25 TRILLION in debt, but that don’t matter to you as long as you get everything FREE.
Posted by: Lizzie | January 12, 2012, 7:45 pm 7:45 pm
This country is nowhere near bankrupt. In fact certain sectors of our populace have more wealth than they’ve ever had, – more wealth than the rest of the nation combined, and pay the lowest tax rates in decades. But protecting all that wealth and keeping it right where it is is the Republicans’ top priority.
Posted by: baloney patrol | January 12, 2012, 7:20 pm 7:20 pm
Correct.
Posted by: Dave | January 12, 2012, 7:54 pm 7:54 pm
Not again. I thought any idiot knew that borrowing when already in debt was a bad idea…
Posted by: Jerry | January 12, 2012, 7:55 pm 7:55 pm
How many times must it be said….the USA is not Greece. Greece is over 150% of GDP in debt, their economy is smaller than New Jersey’s, and they have nowhere near the potential for economic growth that we, the largest economy in the world by a long way, have. If we drastically cut spending while the economy is this slow we’re going to end up like Spain, Italy and Ireland. Besides, as has been pointed out time and again, all of the Republican plans so far will raise the debt even faster.
Posted by: baloney Patrol | January 12, 2012, 8:00 pm 8:00 pm
I thought any idiot knew that borrowing when already in debt was a bad idea
==============================
Any idiot should know there is a big difference between household and national finance.
Posted by: baloney patrol | January 12, 2012, 8:03 pm 8:03 pm
baloney patrol………….Any idiot should know there is a big difference between household and national finance……And, your basic idiot should know that it can’t go on forever !
Posted by: Enough already | January 12, 2012, 8:18 pm 8:18 pm
Wasn’t the last increase suppose to get the government beyond the election? The President is once again poking his finger into Congresses eye.
Posted by: Common _ Sense | January 12, 2012, 8:32 pm 8:32 pm
Wasn’t the last increase suppose to get the government beyond the election?
Posted by: Common _ Sense | January 12, 2012, 8:32 pm 8:32 pm
It was supposed to, the Republicans refused.
Posted by: Don | January 12, 2012, 8:52 pm 8:52 pm
I guess Michelle is planning next year’s vacation and needs a little spending money.
Posted by: grams09 | January 12, 2012, 9:14 pm 9:14 pm
Like Debbie Wasserman Schultz said of the Democrats—— “We own the economy”
Posted by: free_2_choose | January 12, 2012, 9:41 pm 9:41 pm
NO MORE SPENDING!!
Posted by: Tim | January 12, 2012, 9:49 pm 9:49 pm
“America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.”
.
Wonder who said that. A failed leader?
Posted by: Melon Collie | January 12, 2012, 10:18 pm 10:18 pm
What a Bozo!
He should be asking for 1.5 Trillion in cuts.
Why is this concept too difficult for our President to grasp?
Even Forest Gump would get it.
Posted by: Noz | January 12, 2012, 11:07 pm 11:07 pm
Oh, come on Republicans, here is where you say we need those millionaires to get tax cuts to trickle down and help the economy instead of paying for Bush’s two wars.
Posted by: Librarian53 | January 12, 2012, 11:46 pm 11:46 pm
If the Republicans are really so concerned about debt why do they keep making budget proposals which will increase the debt enormously?
Posted by: smoking cures cancer | January 12, 2012, 7:43 pm 7:43 pm
Good question. And why is it Romney has nothing better than hackneyed, inaccurate slogans for a platform?
Posted by: Denny | January 13, 2012, 12:59 am 12:59 am
“And why is it Romney has nothing better than hackneyed, inaccurate slogans for a platform?” – Denny
Ah, he’s following Obama’s lead?
Posted by: Noz | January 13, 2012, 12:39 pm 12:39 pm
“And why is it Romney has nothing better than hackneyed, inaccurate slogans for a platform?”
Posted by: Denny | January 13, 2012, 12:59 am 12:59 am
You mean hackneyed and inaccurate slogans like “Hope and Change”?
Posted by: Don | January 13, 2012, 2:02 pm 2:02 pm
President Barack Obama has been increasing the national debt during his presidency by an average of $4.24 billion per day ($4,240,506,004.34) putting him on a pace to increase the national debt by $6.2 trillion ($6,195,379,272,340.74) by the end of his term on Jan. 20, 2013, according to the debt figures published by the U.S. Treasury.
That $6.2 trillion is more debt than was accumulated by all U.S. presidents from George Washington through Bill Clinton combined.
In fact, the U.S. national debt did not eclipse the $6.195 trillion level—the amount Obama is on pace to increase it in one term—until August 19, 2002, during President George W. Bush’s second year of office.
Posted by: Here's Your Change | January 13, 2012, 2:18 pm 2:18 pm