I was beginning to despair whether Congress could get a passable bill together. Once again, thanks to all those who recognized the importance of compromising to get the greater good done. Thanks to Obama for working with Boehner when his own party disagreed. Thanks to all the Republicans and Democrats who swallowed hard and voted for this thing. Thanks to the Tea Party for getting us on a deficit reduction path, I think, not knowing where this current path will lead. I also suspect that everyone who voted against this bill is too dangerous an idealist to be in Congress, whichever side they were on.
We'll see what happens next...
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http://robertreich.org/post/8396689309
Day of Debt Deal U.S. Posted Largest One-Day Debt Hike Ever
By Katie Pavlich
8/4/2011
Great news! On the same day President Obama signed the new debt deal into law, which according to the CATO Institute doesn't cut federal spending at all, U.S. debt shot up to a new record high.
U.S. debt shot up $239 billion on Tuesday — the largest one-day bump in history — as the government flexed the new borrowing room it earned in this week’s debt-limit increase deal.
The debt subject to the statutory limit shot way past the old cap of $14.294 trillion to hit $14.532 trillion on Tuesday, according to the latest the Treasury Department figures, which are released on the next business day.
That increase puts the government already remarkably close to the new debt limit of $14.694, which means one day’s new borrowing ate up 60 percent of the $400 billion in space Congress granted the president this week.
Debt numbers go up and down regularly, depending on what the Treasury Department is redeeming or issuing on any day, but have been on a steep upward trend for the past decade as spending has ballooned and revenues have fluctuated.
We have a deal! Now onto the economic collapse. To top it off, as Elisabeth reported yesterday, the U.S. is now borrowing at 100 percent of GDP.
At the same time, many economists are saying that if the government cuts spending too precipitously, the economy will tank because of the loss of money in unemployment and loss of wages. Let's hope the deal is the right balance between turning around the deficit and yet not shocking an already precarious recovery.
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