Obama Once Got It Right

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. 

. . . Barack Obama

U.S. Senate Speech

March 2006

Then Senator Obama was proclaiming intolerance for, and urging his colleagues to reject a proposal to raise the limit on the nation's debt to $9 trillion. Under his presidency, the debt has risen to more than $14 trillion and he now wants to raise the legal limit on it to allow it to soar even higher.

As a percentage of the nation's gross domestic product the federal debt has climbed from 40.3% in 2008, to 53.5% in 2009, to 62.2% in 2010, and an estimated 72% this year. Many analysts expect it soon to hit 90% or 100% of our gross domestic product.

Note: None of the above figures include any of the nation's huge off-balance-sheet unfunded liabilities.