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To Celebrate Worst Inflation in 39 Years, Biden Raises Debt Limit
Friday morning, the Labor Department reported that US inflation reached its highest level since 1982. The consumer-price index, which measures what consumers pay for goods and services, rose 6.8% in November from the same month a year ago.
But President Joe Biden has a plan: more debt spending. “[T]he challenge of prices underscores the importance that Congress move without delay to pass my Build Back Better plan, which lowers how much families pay for health care, prescription drugs, child care, and more, Biden said. “Passing BBB is the most immediate and direct step we can take to deliver.”
Granted, the Congressional Budget Office reported Friday that BBB will add $3 trillion to the national debt. But President Joe Biden has a plan for that too: raise the debt ceiling again.
I just signed a bill to fast-track the process to raise our debt limit. The nation’s full faith and credit has always been a shared responsibility. The bipartisan support of this legislation shows that it is still possible for leaders to work across the aisle and deliver. pic.twitter.com/o4czW0KjwO
— President Biden (@POTUS) December 10, 2021
When the new inflation numbers came out, the debt ceiling was a measly $28.7 trillion. Now, it’s much, much higher. How much higher? Who knows, since “the exact amount Democrats plan to raise the debt ceiling by has yet to be revealed.”
Chuck Schumer said “the American people can breathe easy and rest assured” … that America will have a federal debt 125 percent higher than our Gross Domestic Product.
You thought the Housing Bubble bursting was bad in 2008? Wait until the Debt Bubble bursts.
Published in General
Mid-80s paid $.25 for this. It’ll be worth $.30 soon?
Old Econ Discard bin books. Might be worth a Quarter again?
Let’s go Brandon.
If he was deliberately trying to destroy the country, what would he be doing differently?
And so many spineless Republicans do nothing to stop this.
Don’t you mean Cocaine Mitch and the Never Trumper Caucus allowed the debt limit to be raised $2 frigging Trillion?
Ya know it’s just too trying wrangling some leverage from the Saintly Progressive Commi-tard Democrats! We just gotta cave. It’s no big deal ; the Dems are just tearing the Country apart as well as bankrupting it. We might have a few years left.
Not to be spoiled sport, but if the debt service on our nearly $29 trill debt was at the historical 6% average, over half of all Federal Revenue would be used to service that debt. Even it we used the remaining revenue just to pay for Defense, Social Security and Medicare we would still have a deficit of over 3% of the GDP without paying for running the government, Obama Care and Welfare.
“You just have to give us the House. We promise this time we won’t piss away our power like we did in 2016.”
It seems to me that the reasonable policy tradeoff is raising the debt ceiling. It is conceivable that Congress would come together and make some very unpopular and (almost certainly) very disruptive spending changes to avoid breaching the debt ceiling while servicing the debt but this is, while conceivable, very unlikely. I don’t see not raising the debt ceiling given that most all policy decisions are trade-offs. Perhaps McConnell could have extracted more from Biden in exchange for allowing a simple majority vote, since Democrats have frequently done that, but I don’t see not raising the debt ceiling given that the alternatives are more painful than inflation.
I guess that means I can look forward to a pretty hefty increase in monthly Social Security, NEXT year.
As I recall, the highest increase so far was around 15%, back in 1983 or thereabouts.
Rich Lowery links to the Best SNL skit ever:
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/everybody-will-be-a-millionaire/
I didn’t vote for any of this. How is it my responsibility?
[Emphasis added]
I may have missed it but it doesn’t appear this Failure Theater bravado held up very well over a brief 2 month lifespan:
The key line: “This will…give the unified Democratic government more than enough time to pass standalone debt limit legislation through reconciliation.”
Again, I may have missed it but I have yet to see such language applied to this “bipartisan support” gimmick.
Looks like the experts who pushed modern monetary theory are wrong – and Tom Nichols wonders why we don’t trust “experts”
I don’t get this ploy either.
Future generations will revile us for this weakness.
Not really. Anyone who thinks the debt will be paid off is fooling themselves.
I’m not saying that some day the country will repay its debts. I agree that this will never happen. But what cannot continue will not continue, and this cannot continue. Technically, Evergrande doesn’t have to pay its debts off either, and believe me — they won’t.
That’s who’s not gonna get the money.
A trillion dollar platinum coin will fix all the problems.
I think they might need several of those coins by now.
They’re relatively cheap to make.
He couldn’t have done it without the GOP. And if they are this weak in the minority their majority won’t be worth dog excrement.
This whole period will be looked upon as insanity.
So when does Clueless Joe break out Jerry Ford’s WIN buttons?
I’d rather see a return of these buttons:
The ruling classes will do all right in an inflationary environment. For others, inflation will be more painful than the alternatives.