Party of fiscal responsibility, my ass
Treasury Secretary John W. Snow said yesterday that the United States could be unable to pay its bills in early 2006 unless Congress raises the government’s borrowing authority, which is now capped at $8.18 trillion.
Snow, in a letter to lawmakers, estimated that the government is expected to bump into the statutory debt limit around the middle of February.
“At that time, unless the debt limit is raised or the Treasury Department takes authorized extraordinary actions, we will be unable to continue to finance government operations,” Snow wrote.
And this is not the first time the Republican controlled government raised the limit:
The last time Congress agreed to boost the debt limit was in November 2004 — from $7.38 trillion to the current $8.18 trillion. The government’s statutory borrowing authority was also pushed up in 2002 and 2003.
I guess fiscal responsibility is just a talking point during elections.
December 30th, 2005 at 11:59 am
FINALLY something SayUncle and I agree on. We haven’t had much common ground lately.
I think, maybe not like SayUncle, that we ought to go through the federal budget and cut everything that doesn’t conform to foreign affairs, national defense, and interstate commerce. Kill anything that makes the government a nanny state, such as entitlement programs, government retirement programs for non-government workers, bridges to no-where, etc. If those goals are deemed necessary, let the states do them.