Senate approves debt-ceiling increase

Senate passes debt-limit bill - The Washington Post

The Senate passed a landmark plan to raise the federal debt limit and reduce government spending Tuesday, ending a partisan stalemate that threatened to plunge the nation into default and destabilize the world economy.

The measure was approved by a vote of 74 to 26. It now goes to President Obama to be signed into law, giving the government the money to pay its bills ahead of a midnight deadline.

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Thank Gawd.

StillBallin75 said:

Senate passes debt-limit bill - The Washington Post



Thank Gawd.

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It could have been better, but at least we got something done from those who would rather harm the country than listen to reason.

megaprogman said:

It could have been better, but at least we got something done from those who would rather harm the country than listen to reason.

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Your avatar is harming my eyes and you should listen to reason and put a hot chick up there.

StillBallin75 said:

Your avatar is harming my eyes and you should listen to reason and put a hot chick up there.

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I am too busy drinking some sort of incredibly tasty yet spicy pepper sauce that came with my chinese dumplings for lunch.

Well cant say i am a fan of this agreement at all.
But hey at least we didnt default...

The Senate's approval of the debt ceiling legislation is a welcome development. With the President expected to sign it into law, the nation will have averted a wholly self-inflicted crisis. Nonetheless, the dysfunctional political environment that was exposed during the debate will likely have lasting implications. The elevated political risk is one factor that could be used to argue for a credit rating downgrade.

It is also important to note that the agreement was largely a debt ceiling increase with only a modest downpayment on fiscal consolidation. The major drivers of the nation's long-term imbalances and the Tax Code have yet to be addressed. As per the CBO's analysis (see Table 3 at the end of the report), almost 57% of the savings would depend on legislative provisions that have yet to be worked out. There is no supermajority provision that makes it difficult for Congress to waive the trigger mechanism in the legislation. Moreover, the legislation did not take the more ambitious approach of actually setting deficit targets. Finally, it should be noted that the outcomes could vary significantly depending on macroeconomic growth and interest rates. Slower growth/higher interest rates could significantly erode the projected savings.

In sum, the work toward a credible fiscal consolidation program remains to be pursued in the future and probably won't commence until at least after the 2012 elections. For now, the nation remains on a fiscally unsustainable trajectory for the medium-term and beyond. The small downpayment on fiscal consolidation has not fundamentally changed that trajectory.

TheDemSocialist said:

Well cant say i am a fan of this agreement at all.
But hey at least we didnt default...

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Yay, they've gone and reorganized the deck chairs on the titanic, so we can just ignore the fact that the ship is still sinking.

The Titanic just avoided the iceberg. We have a little time to worry about the others.

AdamT said:

The Titanic just avoided the iceberg. We have a little time to worry about the others.

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Haha... Don't be delusional. The titanic hit the iceberg in 2008.

BmanMcfly said:

Haha... Don't be delusional. The titanic hit the iceberg in 2008.

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No, we set this course around 1980 or so.

Don't confuse the captain of the rescue boat with the captain of the Titanic.

BmanMcfly said:

Haha... Don't be delusional. The titanic hit the iceberg in 2008.

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The financial crisis began a long time before that, actually. It started when we began outsourcing industries without replacing the jobs. The effects were largely masked by easy credit. Easy credit hit the iceberg when the housing market tanked. Now we are experiencing the aftermath of a 30 year correction all at once.

The truth is that cutting spending isn't going to solve the problem if that's all that is done. Something is going to have to absorb the displaced workers or they will continue to not be able to participate at the level needed to keep a consumer spending based economy afloat.

Seems like both sides have a piece of the solution. I doubt we can spend our way out of it, and we certainly can't cut our way out, either. The only way out is to pull out the stops and get people back to work. I think both government and corporate entities have a responsibility to make this happen.

Deuce said:

No, we set this course around 1980 or so.

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Helix said:

The financial crisis began a long time before that, actually. It started when we began outsourcing industries without replacing the jobs. The effects were largely masked by easy credit. Easy credit hit the iceberg when the housing market tanked. Now we are experiencing the aftermath of a 30 year correction all at once.

The truth is that cutting spending isn't going to solve the problem if that's all that is done. Something is going to have to absorb the displaced workers or they will continue to not be able to participate at the level needed to keep a consumer spending based economy afloat.

Seems like both sides have a piece of the solution. I doubt we can spend our way out of it, and we certainly can't cut our way out, either. The only way out is to pull out the stops and get people back to work. I think both government and corporate entities have a responsibility to make this happen.

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I agree with you here... and I was out sucking back tear-gas as far back as those NAFTA and other free-trade agreements (before I realized how politically useless protest had become), and I do agree with you both here that we were set on the path to collapse for a LONG while...

I could also see the argument that the end of the glass-stiegall act was the collision with the iceberg, regardless in 2008 was the year where it became clear that after the housing bubble burst there wasn't much left of the economy through which to make further bubbles...

The point I was making previous was that it's delusional to think that what this new "deal" has created is little more than making sure that the band keeps playing, that the chairs are in sequence and that the people don't freak out too hard while the ship drops below the sea.

there are a couple things both sides could do. a massive infrastructure rebuilding project would be possible with a major reallocation of tax money. this would require an immediate end to nation building abroad.

other ideas : perhaps we could allow corporations to pay their taxes by directly hiring people for a few years. or a lower base rate for those who hire domestically.

i would also support ending the pot part of the drug war. there is some revenue to be generated by doing that, and a lot of enforcement money could be saved, too. i'm sure that would be controversial, but it seems that our skyrocketing debt is pretty controversial as well.

I really like Germany's approach to unemployment. At least in part, instead of watching folks get fired and then paying them until they can find new employment, Germany pays companies to keep their employees on staff, even if it results in a shorter work week. By doing this, workers don't lose their skills and employers don't have to find and train new employees when economic conditions improve.

I just raised my debt ceiling too and encourage all Americans to do the same thing with their personal financial situations.

Awesome! said:

I just raised my debt ceiling too and encourage all Americans to do the same thing with their personal financial situations.

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Haha... When you put it into that kind of perspective it makes you wonder what these people are thinking, and further, how that thinking somehow leads to the assumption that this will make things better.

But, if it IS that simple (I'm sure it's not quite that simple, but similar in principle at least), and these people making these decisions know this, then you have to ask if these people are acting like this intentionally, and if so, for what purpose?

Awesome! said:

I just raised my debt ceiling too and encourage all Americans to do the same thing with their personal financial situations.

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If I had maxxed all my credit cards and was unable to pay my bills, the system provides me the option of declaring bankruptcy. I don't think we really want the US government to declare bankruptcy?

vvx said:

If I had maxxed all my credit cards and was unable to pay my bills, the system provides me the option of declaring bankruptcy. I don't think we really want the US government to declare bankruptcy?

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Yes, and usually instead of declaring bankruptcy there is first a level of inflation or hyper-inflation until nobody accepts the dollar anymore and the government as a defacto bankruptcy. Either way is painful.

BmanMcfly said:

Yes, and usually instead of declaring bankruptcy there is first a level of inflation or hyper-inflation until nobody accepts the dollar anymore and the government as a defacto bankruptcy. Either way is painful.

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That choice to endure the pain was taken from the people when Barry, and wee little Timmy from NY, along with Ben decided to print more and more money. They wanted to mask the pain, and believed that contrary to historical proof that it could work this time even if Vimar should have been a stark lesson as to how that turns out. Not good for the people.

So here we are...Left in the ashes of a Keynesian economics failure, and the usual suspects are still foolishly claiming that it isn't that Obama's misguided ideology didn't work, it is only that he hasn't been allowed to do enough of it.....Good God! I know, let's just shred the Constitution and create a "Super Committee" that will have the power to by pass the usual levers of congress and force them to do the WH will with the threat of cutting defense at a time when differing factions of this nations enemies are plotting to attack, and our borders are left totally defenseless purposely.

This man is gone in '12....If he doesn't destroy the country first.

j-mac

I think that post should inspire a new GOP slogan: "Vote Republican -- endure the pain!!" :lol:

j-mac said:

That choice to endure the pain was taken from the people when Barry, and wee little Timmy from NY, along with Ben decided to print more and more money. They wanted to mask the pain, and believed that contrary to historical proof that it could work this time even if Vimar should have been a stark lesson as to how that turns out. Not good for the people.

So here we are...Left in the ashes of a Keynesian economics failure, and the usual suspects are still foolishly claiming that it isn't that Obama's misguided ideology didn't work, it is only that he hasn't been allowed to do enough of it.....Good God! I know, let's just shred the Constitution and create a "Super Committee" that will have the power to by pass the usual levers of congress and force them to do the WH will with the threat of cutting defense at a time when differing factions of this nations enemies are plotting to attack, and our borders are left totally defenseless purposely.

This man is gone in '12....If he doesn't destroy the country first.

j-mac

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Yes... This is "conspiracy theory" level bad. On the light note, Obama has returned to his "Christ" appeal, sitting himself at the head of the table with 12 "apostles".

I'm just glad someone else said it before I did... I expected this to be seen, like many other times, as something that would be DEEP in conspiracy land where people would jump in with jokes about aliens.

Thank you Teabaggers for showing us that 2010 was the year Americans truly jumped the electoral shark putting an unprecedented number of unqualified people in positions of power...

Well done!

From the August 2, 2011 edition of The Washington Post:

Despite immediate relief in Washington that a government default had been averted, America’s creditors remain concerned that the political breakthrough did not translate into the far-reaching steps the United States needs to take to restore its financial health.

The agreement fell short even of the goals set by members of both U.S. political parties, who had said the government needs to find at least $4 trillion in savings to bring the national debt under control. Recent promises by political leaders that they would address the dangers posed by ballooning debt only raised expectations that were not met.

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Debt deal fails to soothe foreign critics - The Washington Post