National Debt: Hittin' the Ceiling and Head Buried in the Sand?

Hat tip goes to The New American Magazine, the June 6, 2011 issue, for including Michael Tennant's article, “Hitting the Ceiling or Going Through the Roof." Where does our feckless "leader" President Obama stand on raising the Debt Ceiling limit today?

Read carefully the opening paragraphs of the article quoted above. Read the entire article if you wish here.

“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit,” said the Senator, “is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our government’s reckless fiscal policies.... Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here.’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt limit.”

Who is this mystery Senator railing against raising the federal debt ceiling? Kentucky’s Rand Paul, perhaps? South Carolina’s Jim DeMint? Oklahoma’s Tom Coburn?

No, the mystery Senator is none other than Illinois’ Barack Obama, who spoke those very words in March 2006 as Congress was considering — at the behest of the George W. Bush administration — increasing the amount of debt the U.S. Treasury could issue to almost $9 trillion.

Cartoon by William Warren found at http://PoliticoMafioso.blogspot.com

I strongly agree with Tennant's conclusion regarding the decision to allow the debt ceiling to be raised:

... Only good can come from holding the line on increased debt; only financial catastrophe can come from caving in to the administratior's demands. Americans, as Sen. Obama said, do indeed deserve better.