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The Debt Limit and the Troops

The Debt Limit and the Troops

OCTOBER 27, 2009

According to press reports, Democrats are planning to attach legislation to increase the national debt ceiling to the Fiscal Year 2010 Defense funding bill to avoid taking a clean vote on the nation adding more debt.  In short, Democrats are holding up funding for troops in harm's way in an attempt to heap trillion's in new debt on future generations.

The Fiscal Situation: 

 

  • The national debt subject to the limit is now at $12.031 trillion or 85 percent of Gross Domestic Product.
  • Democrat's raised the debt limit from $11.315 trillion to $12.104 when they passed their failed trillion dollar "stimulus" bill, just nine months ago.
  •  The government is now roughly $70 billion away from reaching the current limit.
  • In August, Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner notified Congress that the limit would have to be raised by mid-October and the Senate has yet to act.

 

 Democrat Responsibility: 

 

  • Democrats rammed through a debt increase in February, promising that borrowing another trillion dollars would create jobs "immediately" and unemployment would not rise above 8 percent.  However, last month, there were 263,000 job losses and unemployment reached 9.8 percent-a 26 year high.
  • Since Democrats took control of Congress in January, 2007, debt has increased by 37 percent, from $8.670 trillion $11.897 trillion.
  • Under the President's bloated budget, debt will soar from $9.961 trillion at the beginning of 2009 to more than $24.4 trillion in 2019-an increase of 144 percent.

 

Playing Politics with Troops in the Field:

 

  •  Fearful of the political ramifications of a stand-alone vote to heap unprecedented debt on future generations, Democrat leaders are contemplating attaching the increase to the must-pass Department of Defense funding bill to garner votes.
  • Democrats are delaying $636.3 billion in critical troop funding, including $128 billion in contingency spending for overseas deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq, forcing almost 180,000 men and women in harm's way to make do with last year's funding levels.
  • This tactic places the needs of American troops in combat in a distant second to the Democrats' fear of public outrage over their big-spending policies.
  • If Democrats truly believe incurring more debt to fund frivolous government spending is best for the country, why won't they simply have a vote on a stand-alone debt increase?

 

Democrat Hypocrisy:

 

  • Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus has made it clear Democrats will hide behind troops to pass a debt increase by any means necessary, saying, "I care less how it's done so long as it is done."
  • Before calling for more debt to fund his spending spree, then Senator Obama said of an earlier debt limit increase, "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."