That The Debt Deal Was A Bad Deal Has Never Been More Clear Than Now

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Written By:
Rob Port

Jan 10, 2012
12:30pm

Last year Congress pushed the nation to the bring of shut down in a fight over raising the national debt ceiling. Ultimately, Republicans agreed to a deal that would allow the President to raise the national debt ceiling twice in exchange for the creation of a “Super Congress” committee that would propose spending reductions.

We all know now that the “Super Congress” was a flop, and that the debt deal is going to result in very little in the way of actual spending reductions, but rest assured that the last increase in the national debt limit is going to sail through Congress with little problem. President Obama is expected to ask Congress for a $1.2 trillion increase in the debt cap, taking the total amount of national debt authorized by Congress to a very, very scary $16.4 trillion.

And there’s little Republicans can do to block this request, or leverage it in a push for more spending reductions, because the debt deal they passed last year pre-authorized it. In order to block the hike in the debt cap now, a resolution of disapproval must pass both houses of Congress and be signed into law by the President. That won’t happen with Democrats holding the Senate, and Obama wielding his veto pen.

As of the end of 2011, President Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress has presided over a 42% increase in the national debt including a 65% increase in publicly-held national debt (that held by the Social Security trust fund, etc.). By the time this latest $1.2 trillion increase in the national debt cap is used up, our debt will have increased by roughly 50%.

The national debt doubled under President George W. Bush’s time in office, going from $5.73 trillion when he took office to $10.7 trillion when he left. Now, after just one term in office, Obama is on pace to double it again.

That means our national debt is, literally, growing at an exponential rate and for the next year there’s little Republicans can do to stop it having already conceded their only leverage, the debt cap.