Tannishblog

I have to ask. I know I’ll seem like an idiot - not for the first time, though: What good is a spending ceiling if you raise it any time you want? From Washinton Post:

It was the fourth debt-ceiling increase in the past five years, after boosts of $450 billion in 2002, a record $984 billion in 2003 and $800 billion in 2004. The statutory debt limit has now risen by more than $3 trillion since Bush took office.

I vaguely recall some campaign rhetoric about our “CEO President” running an oil company into the ground. It’s one thing to have been an officer of a corporation, it’s an entirely different matter is that same company was successful. One one level at least, the government must run like a company, or a household, using sound financial strategies to maximize spending potential. This administration can only maximize spending - there is no potential, it seems, outside of the potential of fiscal collapse.

“This should be a wake-up call for every member of the Senate, every member of Congress, and a wake-up call for the president of the United States,” said Sen. Kent Conrad (N.D.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee. “The question is: Are we staying on this course to keep running up the debt, debt on top of debt, increasingly financed by foreigners, or are we going to change course?”

It wont be. Our President is “Resoloot.” Have I mentioned that before?

The bright side, if there is one, is not all Republicans voted for raising the ceiling:

“Congress must stop hiding wasteful spending under the American flag,” said Rep. Jeb Hensarling (Tex.), one of several Republicans who voted against the final bill.

Amen, Jeb. Nice to hear that from a Texan these days. It’s a welcome sign of the times.