America’s National Debt Hits Record High As Private Income Shrinks And Government Benefits Balloon
“The U.S. National Debt Hit $13 Trillion Today, A Stratospheric Number With Looming Implications For Every Citizen.” (“National Debt Clock — Tracking the Red,” Fox News, 5/26/10)
In the House, Republicans continue to wait for the Democrats to present a budget as required by law. Democrats are afraid presenting a budget will cost them elections in November.
In the Senate, they are considering the fiscal year 2010 supplemental appropriations bill, H.R. 4899. Votes are possible on amendments to the bill during the day. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid filed cloture on the bill yesterday. There were no votes in the Senate yesterday, but senators agreed to bills naming 14 post offices.
In the Senate offices, the case for the nomination of Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court is being advanced. The real danger is that Kagan portends to be a "moderate" -- pleasant, smiling, confident, so much so that even some Republican senators are reportedly "warming up" to her as she makes the rounds on Capitol Hill. But these Senators must stop being fooled or at least played.
Obama didn't put forth Kagan because she was a moderate or an experienced judge. He choose her because she is a radical and an activist. She has ZERO experience as a judge. Alsom she has manged to hide her record from the American public and the U. S. Senators while the White House has shielded her from the media. Her record is very slim. Her litigation experience is negligible. And one of her prior decisions as as Dean of the Harvard Law was taken all the way to the Supreme Court and unanimously overturned by the Supreme Court justices. It is time for Republicans to stop their love affair with allowing almost all judicial nominations to be approved because the "president should get his way on judges." Time to recall that the Democrats held up (stopped) Bush's nominations for numerous judges when the Democrats were in charge during the last two years of Bush's second term.
As Congress approaches its next recess, Democrats are once again scrambling to extend unemployment insurance that expires at the end of this month. This is a recurring theme for this Democrat-run Congress. At the end of every month, Democrats struggle to extend unemployment benefits because their leadership refuses to pay for the benefits, preferring to add it to the massive government debt. That debt reached an unprecedented $13 trillion today, but Democrats are urging passage of an extenders bill that would add another $130 billion to that total.
Roll Call explains the situation today: “[T]his week, Democratic infighting could put the blame for inaction squarely on the majority’s back. Unless Democratic leaders can get their act together quickly, unemployment benefits will expire while Congress is on its weeklong Memorial Day recess. On Tuesday, House and Senate Democratic leaders were still struggling to find the votes to pass a nearly $200 billion tax extenders bill that happens to include the latest extension of unemployment benefits. . . . At press time, House Democrats had still not figured out a way to bring the bill to the floor, with defections piling up from lawmakers worried about the bill’s cost, the $134 billion increase in the deficit over the coming decade or the provisions increasing taxes on carried interest that hedge fund managers receive for managing investments.”
Speaking on the Senate floor this morning, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said, “[A]ny delay in passing this bill is coming from the other side of the aisle. And I say this not to point fingers, but because we’ve seen the Democrat Playbook. We know they’ll try to blame Republicans for their own inability to come to an agreement if we don’t go along with their effort to add another $130 billion to the deficit by the end of the week. So let’s be perfectly clear: there’s one reason Democrats are having trouble getting an agreement on this bill and one reason only — and that’s because it’s so blatantly reckless. Europe’s in the midst of what German Chancellor Angela Merkel describes as an existential crisis, all brought about by governments that spent money they didn’t have. Americans are watching this crisis play out, and they see Democrats doing the same thing here day after day after day. This extenders package is just the latest example, just the latest evidence of a majority that’s out of control.”
Consider this fact, if Democrats pass this bill, they would, in one vote, wipe out all ten years of the supposed deficit savings in the health care they spent all of March boasting about. That is if the health care law ever really would have saved any money; recent reports identify that it is going to cost even more than initial estimates.
Unlike the Democrats, Republicans will be offering an alternative bill to extend unemployment and tax cuts. The Hill points out, “The Republican bill would be offset with rescissions to unspent discretionary funds from the stimulus bill.”
Sen. McConnell laid out the stakes earlier today and added: “Far from doing anything about our own looming debt crisis, Democrats only seem interested in making it worse. The true emergency here is our national debt. A line must be drawn somewhere. Americans are running out of patience.”
Tags: Washington, D.C., US Senate, US House, US Congress, National Debt, trillions, unemployment benefits, Elena Kagan, SCOTUS To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
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