Obama tried invoking Ronald Reagan yet again in his speech on the debt limit but I still haven’t heard any commentators mention one thing that I see as standing out in his speech. Leave out the usual class warfare talking points and the poll tested “balanced" approach” and you will see how he wants to be treated differently than his predecessors.
Defaulting on our obligations is a reckless and irresponsible outcome to this debate. And Republican leaders say that they agree we must avoid default. But the new approach that Speaker Boehner unveiled today, which would temporarily extend the debt ceiling in exchange for spending cuts, would force us to once again face the threat of default just six months from now. In other words, it doesn’t solve the problem.
First of all, a six-month extension of the debt ceiling might not be enough to avoid a credit downgrade and the higher interest rates that all Americans would have to pay as a result. We know what we have to do to reduce our deficits; there’s no point in putting the economy at risk by kicking the can further down the road.
In fact the president has said repeatedly that he will not agree to any short term deals.
Understand – raising the debt ceiling does not allow Congress to spend more money. It simply gives our country the ability to pay the bills that Congress has already racked up. In the past, raising the debt ceiling was routine. Since the 1950s, Congress has always passed it, and every President has signed it. President Reagan did it 18 times. George W. Bush did it 7 times.
(Emphasis added)
One fact that Obama pointedly did not mention is that he, Biden and Reid all voted against raising the debt ceiling for George W. Bush. No ideology involved there of course.
Reagan and Bush had the debt limit raised a total of 25 times over 16 years. Obama wants the largest increase ever with the fewest strings attached, as Speaker Boehner said “a blank check”. And he wants it done one time in four years just to make sure he doesn’t have people thinking about his spending while he campaigns for a second term.
Reagan deliberately increased defence spending and by doing so he caused the collapse of the Soviet regime, something that the left told him was not possible. The left still argue that Reagan was a doddering fool who was out of touch with reality. His tax cuts were decried as draining the US Treasury while, in fact, federal revenues doubled between 1980 and 1990.
George W. Bush had 9-11 on his watch and two wars which were started to prevent future attacks. Despite these “unfunded” wars he still handed Obama an economy which was 19% larger than he began with. What, exactly, has Obama done to deserve better treatment than Reagan or Bush?
