Playing Chicken with Debt Limits: Obama as a Senator vs. Obama the Hypocrite President Today

President Obama is very concerned that Republicans might "Play Chicken" with the debt ceiling. The president is so concerned his aids are sending out dire warnings about dollar defaults and "catastrophic impacts" to the economy.

Please consider Don't 'play chicken' with debt ceiling

Some Republican lawmakers said Sunday they opposed raising the ceiling on the nation's debt without tackling government spending, and President Barack Obama's top economic adviser warned against "playing chicken" on the issue.

Austan Goolsbee, the chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said that refusing to raise the debt ceiling would essentially push the country into defaulting on its financial obligations for the first time in its history.

"The impact on the economy would be catastrophic," Goolsbee told "This Week" on ABC. "That would be a worse financial economic crisis than anything we saw in 2008."

Goolsbee added: "I don't see why anybody's talking about playing chicken with the debt ceiling."

Flashback March 20, 2006 - U.S. Senate Floor

Inquiring minds just may be wondering what the president's position was when he was a senator, just a few year's back.

Please consider Flashback: Previous Debt Limit Votes Have Not Been Good Ones

March 20, 2006: This was the last stand-alone debt limit vote on which then-Senator Obama voted. He was one of 48 members to vote against the increase, which passed with 52 votes.

He said: “The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can't pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government's reckless fiscal policies. … Increasing America's debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here. Instead, 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. Americans deserve better.”

Truer Words Never Spoken

• America's debt problem is a "sign of leadership failure"
• We have "reckless fiscal policies"
• Washington "shifts the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren"
• America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.
• Americans deserve better

Yes Mr. President, America does deserve better. I suggest you do the best thing you can possibly do for your country today: Resign.

Since that is unlikely, I urge Republican to take the measures Obama recommended in 2006 when he crossed party lines and voted with Republicans in 2006 to not raise the debt limit.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
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