The Republican leadership joins with Democrats to pass a debt limit extension.
The Republican leadership joins with Democrats to pass a debt limit extension.
Current Speaker of the House John Boehner pushed through a clean debt limit bill on Tuesday that gives the White House unlimited borrowing power for the next year. Only 28 Republicans – mostly allies of Boehner – voted for the bill while 199 Republicans opposed it.
To me, this extension is a disaster, as it appears to give Obama a blank check. The silver lining is that the Republican Party, minus its cowardly leaders, appears increasingly more unified behind stronger actions against spending. After the November election that trend should certainly continue.
If it doesn’t, bankruptcy is sure to follow.
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The Republican leadership joins with Democrats to pass a debt limit extension.
Current Speaker of the House John Boehner pushed through a clean debt limit bill on Tuesday that gives the White House unlimited borrowing power for the next year. Only 28 Republicans – mostly allies of Boehner – voted for the bill while 199 Republicans opposed it.
To me, this extension is a disaster, as it appears to give Obama a blank check. The silver lining is that the Republican Party, minus its cowardly leaders, appears increasingly more unified behind stronger actions against spending. After the November election that trend should certainly continue.
If it doesn’t, bankruptcy is sure to follow.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
I certainly agree an unlimited debt ceiling makes no sense.
It should be limited to what was agreed in the budget (plus 10% perhaps). [What goes on in the mind of Boehner(a very limited professional politician) is probably beyond comprehension.]
I would guess that the “Fed” and treasury dept use this opportunity to somehow(and quietly) increase borrowed “reserves” beyond budget requirements, and the Congress will pass “supplemental bills” to take advantage of this windfall.
It will be educational to see what the true added debt is one year from now. The passed budget requires ~1.1 trillion borrowing.
But, I must disagree that rank and file republicans really want to reduce government spending. Republicans voted for the sequester’d budget option, and it was working in actually limiting government spending; but now that it bites into pentagon contracter profits and jobs, never mind about that debt crisis rhetoric… this is the Republican style Keynsian “shovel ready” stimulus program, overwhelmingly approved by the rank and file. This reveals the true level of commitment of the current republican congress.
You (and I!) hope for a change after Nov., but a majority of voters in this country want a government guaranteed(or supplemented) free life–at someone elses expense, of course. Single mother births followed usually by welfare and disfunctional lifes; foodstamp disbursements; structural unemployment; the destruction of middle class business creation by onerous government and bureauocratic mandates, requirements and taxes; and the enormous public dept to pay for these expanding entitlements, are at historically high levels and increasing. It seems to be the inevitable end of most mature democracies. A country is only as great as its people, and we are not a great people or a great country anymore….and this will not change in november, regretably, regardless of the election outcomes.
As pertaining to my previous comment…
The following message was making the rounds of emails last year.
It may not be absolutely true, but it has much to commend:
“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as
a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist
up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves
generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the
majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from
the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally
collapse over loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship.”
“The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to complacency; From complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.”
Hoping for Congressional leaders who will fight for reduction in federal spending and authority. Results from 2010 not an encouragement. I am sure the previous commentor is correct – that most people want a concierge form of government. What elected leader wants to fight to take the lollipop out of his constituent’s hands then return home only to be condemned rather than feited as the minor hero they all believe themselves to be?