House seeks debt limit increase to $10.2 trillion

[Joanne98]

Source: Reuters

The government's debt limit would be raised to $10.2 trillion under a budget plan for next year approved by the U.S. House of Representatives.

The House's fiscal 2009 budget, which passed on Thursday, would increase U.S. borrowing authority by $385 billion from the current limit of $9.815 trillion, according to the House Budget Committee.

The Senate on Friday passed its own version of a fiscal 2009 budget that did not address the question of raising federal borrowing authority.

The two chambers in coming weeks are expected to try to work out their differences and then pass a budget for next year that would spend $3 trillion while projecting a deficit in the range of $340 billion to $366 billion for the year.



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN1441909020080314

[Pale Blue Dot]

1. We are in so much shit.

:scared:

[ck4829]

2. What happened to balancing the budget?

[cornermouse]

4. What budget?

A budget would imply you had money to budget. We're broke.

[ConcernedCanuk]

3. Well that will help out a whole lot, now won't it?

.
.
.

I know the best thing I did was give up the credit thing decades ago.

But I guess the USAmerican government is smarter than me.

More debt = "good"

Bullshit.

[justinsb]

5. That's reasonable

That means (if you can keep the interest to 5% or less) only 500 billion annually in interest payments. Which (if the budget were balanced) would only be 20% of revenue :hide:

[burf]

6. Reasonable?

The 500 billion in debt service would be the interest only. So what you are suggesting can be compared to making the minimum credit card payment that would not reduce the actual debt that is owed. Kinda like some versions of sub prime mortgages that got us into the predicament that we are now in. To refute Cheney: Deficits DO matter.

[justinsb]

7. Sorry...

I didn't think it really required the sarcasm tag.

It's completely horrific - espcaially considering that Social Security, Medicare and Medicade will soon take up over half of the budget. That combined with debt interest would be 70% of federal income and Defense hasn't even been touched yet (or education, the environment, principle on the debt, etc., etc., etc., etc.,)

[burf]

9. I figured it

was sarcasm, otherwise you wouldn't be slipping down the chimney!

[no_hypocrisy]

8. Did the House calculate inflation?

[Usrename]

10. So, when all is said and done...

didn't Bush borrow about $5 trillion dollars in order to give $3 trillion dollars in tax cuts to the rich?

[appleannie1]

11. So how long is our country supposed to survive on borrowed

money we cannot afford to repay? And the budget does not include the war debt. Wouldn't it be nice if the average person could just raise their debt limit when they cannot afford to pay what they already owe?

[Heywood J]

12. "Wouldn't it be nice if the average person could just raise their debt limit when they cannot afford

to pay"

They did. That was called a "stated income loan". We saw how it turned out.