Obama's 2011 Budget - All Dots = 3.8 Trillion Total Budget, Red Dots = 1.56 Trillion Deficit
August 2 is the date when the U.S. government will begin defaulting on its debts if the debt ceiling is not raised.1 Almost two months ago, I advocated for not raising the debt ceiling any further, and I maintain that position. However, the Republican and Democratic leaders are feverishly working on coming up with an agreement to raise the debt ceiling and stave off the inevitable just a little bit longer. The main point preventing agreement is the Republicans’ refusal so far to agree to any tax increases.2 Pat Buchanan has written a couple of excellent articles recently addressing this crisis which I recommend reading; one is an overview of the situation, and the other is in response to the Left’s temper tantrum over the Republicans’ sticking to their promise.
Administrations of both parties contributed to this rise in the federal share of gross domestic product. But the GOP committed itself in 2010 to rein it in, without raising taxes. On that pledge the GOP triumphed and should keep its commitment. . . .
Under Obama these past two years, the nation relied on the U.S. government to pull us out of the ditch. But Obama’s $787 billion stimulus, his three deficits of 10 percent of GDP, and Ben Bernanke’s tripling of Fed assets by buying the bad paper of big banks and $600 billion in U.S. debt all failed.
For Republicans to agree now to a tax increases that would violate their principles, their promises to the voters and their basic philosophy — and be icing on the cake of Obama’s debt-ceiling increase — would be politically suicidal.
Indeed, were the Republican Party to do this, it would raise the question of why we need a Republican Party.3
Footnotes
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