Obama and Congress Agree To Raise Debt Ceiling to $120 Trillion

Sen. Everett Dirksen on increasing the federal debt (1965)

HAT TIP: Unconfirmed Sources
by NickFun

Complicated graphs and charts prove the country is now just fine.

President Obama and Congress breathed a collective sigh of relief today as Obama signed into law a budget agreement that would raise the federal debt ceiling from it's current $12 trillion to $120 trillion.

"The country's finances are now in excellent shape", an upbeat Obama said in a prepared statement. "We now have plenty of money for education, health care, social security, NPR and funding for the wars".

House Republicans were initially against raising the debt ceiling until Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, reminded congress that without the removal of the debt ceiling congress would have to be shut down and they would be unable to vote themselves pay raises.

The President said he has a plan to have the country fiscally sound by the time the $120 trillion debt limit has been reached, which will probably be in about 10 years.

"We will start slowly paying our bills", Obama stated. "We will find ways to reduce the deficit as time goes on but let's enjoy the economic prosperity we have now found!"

Some people interviewed were skeptical of the new plan. "If I go a hundred bucks in debt I have creditors crawling up my ass!" said Ventura California bartender Melvin Grace. "Why can't I go at least a few thousand into debt and be OK?"

"You do as we say, not as we do", Obama reminded Grace.

Welcome Back Teresita

I beat it twice Kid, the first time at 44, the last time twelve years ago. Faith and courage will do you no harm. We believe in you. - Deuce

The Social Security Caper and The Surplus

The Check is in the Mail, but maybe not. Don't worry, it is in the Lockbox.



…but the money may not be there. Obama says there is no money to send out:

Gee, Why Waste Money in Space?

FT

China’s rapidly expanding satellite programme could alter power dynamics in Asia and reduce the US military’s scope for operations in the region, according to new research.

Chinese reconnaissance satellites can now monitor targets for up to six hours a day, the World Security Institute, a Washington think-tank, has concluded in a new report. The People’s Liberation Army, which could only manage three hours of daily coverage just 18 months ago, is now nearly on a par with the US military in its ability to monitor fixed targets, according to the findings.

“Starting from almost no live surveillance capability 10 years ago, today the PLA has likely equalled the US’s ability to observe targets from space for some real-time operations,” two of the institute’s China researchers, Eric Hagt and Matthew Durnin, write in the Journal of Strategic Studies.

China’s rapidly growing military might has unnerved its neighbours, many of whom are US allies, while a series of disputes this year with Vietnam and the Philippines have added to the concerns.

China’s military build-up has accelerated in recent years, as it has developed an anti-ship ballistic missile, tested a stealth fighter and is poised to launch its first aircraft carrier. The fast-growing network of reconnaissance satellites provides China with the vision to harness this hardware.

Admiral Mike Mullen, America’s top military official, said at the weekend in Beijing that it was clear that the PLA is focused on “access denial” – a term that describes a strategy of pushing the US out of the western Pacific.

“The US is not going away,” Adm Mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said. “Our enduring presence in this region has been important to our allies for decades and will continue to be so.”

China warned the US last month not to become involved in its dispute with Vietnam over the South China Sea. “[China’s] strategic priority is to keep the US out of its backyard,” Mr Durnin told the Financial Times, adding that the satellite technology needed for achieving that goal is now in place.

When China tested missiles near Taiwan in 1996, the US deployed two aircraft carriers to nearby waters. The PLA’s inability to locate the ships was a source of great embarrassment that helped spur China’s satellite programme.

“The United States has always felt that if there was a crisis in Taiwan, we could get our naval forces there before China could act and before they would know we were there. This basically takes that off the table,” said Joan Johnson-Freese, a professor at the US Naval War College in Rhode Island.
China cut-off military relations with the US early last year, after Washington announced an arms sale to Taiwan. The two militaries have been working to repair ties this year, with PLA Chief of the General Staff Chen Bingde visiting Washington in May and Adm Mullen in China until July 13.

Rufus II said...

The Bright Spot: 5.4 Gigawatt Hrs of Electricity from Solar in Ca, yesterday. Ca ISO

Most of that from projects that were completed back in the 80's, and have long since been paid for.

Basically, the cheapest electricity in the world.

Wed Jul 13, 11:39:00 AM EDT

Buon giorno

When the Lira Was  Fun

BBC
European shares have fallen further on concerns that the debt crisis in the eurozone may spread to Italy and Spain.

Italy's main index was down 4%, while Spain's was 2% lower. German's Dax had lost 2.3% and the UK's FTSE 100 had shed 1.6%.

The yields on Italian and Spanish bonds also continued to rise as worries over the two countries grew.

On Monday, eurozone finance ministers said they were ready to pass new measures to stop the crisis spreading.

The euro was also lower, falling in early Tuesday trading to a four-month low against the dollar at $1.3958.

'Contagion risk'
The concern is that Italy and Spain may have to follow Greece, Portugal and the Republic of Ireland and seek a European Union and International Monetary Fund (IMF) bail-out.

Eurozone finance ministers said increased efforts to "improve the euro area's systemic capacity to resist contagion risk" would include "enhancing the flexibility and the scope" of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF).

This is the bail-out fund to which eurozone member states contribute.

Finance ministers also agreed to look at lowering the interest rates that Greece, Portugal and the Irish Republic have to pay, plus lengthening the maturities of their loans.

Italian cuts


Eurozone finance ministers are now due to meet later in Brussels with their colleagues from European Union nations that do not use the euro.

Concern that Italy could be the next country to require a financial bail-out comes as Italy's Finance Minister, Giulio Tremonti, announced that he would leave Tuesday's talks early so he could continue to work on an austerity budget to reduce Italy's public deficit.

He has proposed 48bn euros ($67bn; £42bn) in budget cuts over three years and aims to cut the deficit to zero by 2014 from this year's 3.9% of gross domestic product.

However, financial markets were unsettled by remarks from Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who indicated in a newspaper interview that the austerity plan might not have full cabinet support.

Shares in Italian banks continued to fall, with Intesa SanPaolo down 6.6% and UniCredit 7.1% lower.

Spanish banks also declined further, as did lenders in other countries.

Santander's stock was down 5.4%, Germany's Deutsche Bank was 5.6% lower, and in the UK Lloyds Banking Group dropped 4.7%.

In a sign that investors are growing more risk averse, the yield on Italian 10-year bonds on Tuesday increased to 5.9% from 5.6% on Monday.

Meanwhile, yields on 10-year bonds issued by the Spanish government rose to 6.3%, from 6.1%.

Analysts say both these yields are now close to levels at which the two countries will have problems servicing their debts.

Asian shares had earlier closed lower, with the situation in the eurozone being closely monitored around the world.

Japan's Nikkei index lost 1.4%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined 1.4%. US shares also declined overnight, with the Dow Jones down 1.2%.

Jean-Francois Robin of French investment bank Natixis said: "We find ourselves at one of the worst moments of the European monetary crisis.

"The idea of a contagion from the Greek crisis to other eurozone countries like Italy and Spain is gaining ground."

'Effective solutions'
Eurozone finance ministers also discussed on Monday how, and by how much, banks and other financial institutions could contribute to a new rescue package for Greece.

However, no final decision was reached on this, as it also has to be agreed with the IMF.

Speaking from Washington, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde said it was not yet ready to discuss terms for a second Greek bail-out.

"Nothing should be taken for granted," she said.

Meanwhile, Greece's Prime Minister, George Papandreou, called for a comprehensive solution to his country's debt problems.

"I thus believe it is time now to address our fundamental problems head on and produce a comprehensive package of solutions that clearly signals our determination not to see the European project further damaged or destroyed," Mr Papandreou said in a letter to Jean-Claude Juncker, chairman of the eurogroup of finance ministers.

Obama and House Republicans Destroying US Space Destiny

In 2009 the American Public spend $25.3 Billion on Video Games.

Astronomers reacted with immediate dismay, fearing that the death of the Webb telescope could have the same dire impact on American astronomy that killing the Superconducting Supercollider, a giant particle accelerator in Texas, did in 1993 for American physics, sending leadership abroad.

Canceling the Webb telescope would “have a profound impact on astrophysics far into the future, threatening U.S. leadership in space science,” said Matt Mountain, director of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which would run the new telescope. “This is particularly disappointing at a time when the nation is struggling to inspire students to take up science and engineering,” he added.

US lawmakers vote to kill Hubble successor
(AFP) – 2 days ago

WASHINGTON — In a fresh blow to NASA's post-shuttle aspirations, key US lawmakers voted Thursday to kill off funding for the successor to the vastly successful space-gazing Hubble telescope.
The US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science approved by voice vote a yearly spending bill that includes no money for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
The move -- spurred on by belt-tightening in cash-strapped Washington -- still requires the full committee's approval, the full House's approval, the Senate's approval, and ultimately President Barack Obama's signature.
But the relatively mild dissents in the committee, which said in a terse statement this week that the project "is billions of dollars over budget and plagued by poor management," suggests the JWST faces an uphill fight to survive.
The vote struck a blow at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's goals with the space shuttle program about to end after 30 years, and Obama's decision to axe a new plan to return astronauts to the moon.
NASA plans to lay out a budget that "will allow us to launch the Webb telescope in this decade," deputy administrator Lori Garver told reporters at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
"We will be working with Congress to assure them we can manage this program and develop the most amazing space telescope," she said, calling the JWST "a perfect example of reviewing the unknown and reaching for new heights."
In February, NASA Inspector General Paul Martin told lawmakers the JWST had careened billions of dollars over budget.
Initial estimates put the cost of the telescope, designed to help the hunt for knowledge about early galaxies in the universe, at $1.6 billion, but now the total price tag has ballooned to $6.5 billion, he said.

AMAZING HUBBLE PHOTOGRAPHS

The GOP should stand its ground -- and fix bayonets.

July 8, 2011

An Establishment in Panic

By Pat Buchanan

By refusing to accept tax increases in a deal to raise the debt ceiling, Republicans are behaving like "fanatics," writes David Brooks of The New York Times.

Anti-tax Republicans "have no sense of moral decency," he adds.

They are "willing to stain their nation's honor" to "worship their idol." If this "deal of the century" goes down, as he calls the Barack Obama offer, "Republican fanaticism" will be the cause.

"The GOP has become a cult" that has replaced reason with "feverish" and "cockamamie beliefs," writes Richard Cohen of The Washington Post. The Republican "presidential field (is) a virtual political Jonestown," the Guyana site where more than 900 followers of the Peoples Temple drank the Kool-Aid that Rev. Jim Jones mixed for them.

Does anyone think this an appropriate description of such mild-mannered men as Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty and Jon Huntsman?

"The GOP's Hezbollah Wing Is Now Fully in Control," screams The New Republic over a recent lead editorial.

Other columnists charge the GOP with holding America "hostage" by refusing to accept tax hikes to avert a default on the debt.

What to make of this hysteria?

The Establishment is in a panic. It has been jolted awake to the realization that the GOP House, if it can summon the courage to use it, is holding a weapon that could enable it to bridle forever the federal monster that consumes 25 percent of gross domestic product.

To bully and blackmail the GOP into surrendering the weapon and betraying its principles and signing on to new taxes, that establishment has unleashed rhetoric more befitting a war on terror than a political dispute.

For how, exactly, are Republicans threatening the republic?

The House has not said it will not raise the debt ceiling. It must and will. It has not said it will not accept budget cuts. It has indicated a willingness to accept the budget cuts agreed to in the Biden negotiations.

Where the GOP has stood its ground is on tax increases.

Is fanaticism behind this stance? Does this manifest insanity? How does this imperil the nation's honor and future?

Behind the GOP opposition to tax hikes is the party's word given to the country that elected it in 2010, its political principles, its traditional view of what not to do when the nation is in a slump, and party history.

Fully 235 Republican House members signed a 2010 pledge not to raise taxes. And by giving their word they were rewarded with victory.

Should they now dishonor that pledge, what would differentiate them from George H.W. Bush, who famously promised in 1988: "Read my lips! No new taxes!" then went back on his word and took the party down to defeat with him?

Second, the GOP is the party of small government and low taxes.

Why would it agree to raise taxes on the private productive sector when federal spending, now at a peacetime record of 25 percent of GDP, is the problem?

Third, America is in a slump, with 9 percent of the workforce unemployed, another 7 percent underemployed and the economy growing at a tepid 1.8 percent.

What school of economic thought -- Keynesian, supply-side or monetarist -- says raising taxes in a slumping economy is the recipe for a return to prosperity? There is no such school.

Why, when the whole country is talking about the need to create jobs, would Congress raise taxes on a private productive sector that employs six in seven Americans and is the creator of real jobs?

In 1982, President Reagan agreed to the same deal being offered the party today: three dollars in spending cuts for every dollar in tax increases to which he assented. As he ruefully told this writer more than once, he was lied to. He got one dollar in spending cuts for every three in tax increases.

What of the charge that the Republican House is holding America hostage, blackmailing the nation with a suicidal threat to throw us all into national default if it does not get its way?

This smear is the precise opposite of the truth.

The Republican Party has not said it will refuse to raise the debt ceiling. It has an obligation to do so, and will.

The House has simply said it will not accept new taxes on a nation whose fiscal crisis comes from overspending.

If the GOP keeps its word, raises the debt ceiling and accepts budget cuts agreed to in the Biden negotiations, the only people who can prevent the debt ceiling's being raised are Senate Democrats or Obama, in which case, they, not the GOP, will have thrown the nation into default.

It is the establishment that is resorting to extortion, saying, in effect, to the House GOP: Give us the new taxes we demand, or Obama will veto the debt ceiling and we will all blame you for the default.

They're bluffing.

The GOP should stand its ground -- and fix bayonets.