Post by John Wilson on Jul 28, 2011 14:10:30 GMT -5
To my knowledge, the debt ceiling has been raised by every single Congress since the debt ceiling was put in place. The President cannot raise the debt ceiling. Congress has to do it on his behalf.
Someone on CNN today gave the history of the debt ceiling. (World War 1 ... 1917 I believe) Before that, Congress had to approve every time the Federal Government wanted to borrow money. Congress created the debt ceiling to avoid having to vote on every instance of borrowing. So, instead they said "Borrow all you want, whenever you want, but don't go over this amount."
And they have.
Congress owns the purse strings, not the President. Congress has failed to manage the budget at every turn whether controlled by the Democrat or Republican party.
I notice whenever Obama wants to seem Presidential he compares himself to Reagan. Reagan (whom I believe to be the best President after the Founding Fathers) did a lot of deficit spending. I agree with many of his reasons for doing so, but Congress had the responsibility to either stop it, or to eliminate spending in other areas to cover the new spending. No President can spend what Congress does not authorize, therefore Reagan did not lift the debt ceiling- Congress did when Reagan asked them to. (A Democrat-controlled congress, at that. At the time, people were mad at Reagan for having a good relationship with Tip O'Neil (D), the Speaker of the House.) Reagan gave into quite a few of Tip O'Neil's demands in order to get his own projects through Congress.
Someone on CNN today gave the history of the debt ceiling. (World War 1 ... 1917 I believe) Before that, Congress had to approve every time the Federal Government wanted to borrow money. Congress created the debt ceiling to avoid having to vote on every instance of borrowing. So, instead they said "Borrow all you want, whenever you want, but don't go over this amount."
And they have.
Congress owns the purse strings, not the President. Congress has failed to manage the budget at every turn whether controlled by the Democrat or Republican party.
I notice whenever Obama wants to seem Presidential he compares himself to Reagan. Reagan (whom I believe to be the best President after the Founding Fathers) did a lot of deficit spending. I agree with many of his reasons for doing so, but Congress had the responsibility to either stop it, or to eliminate spending in other areas to cover the new spending. No President can spend what Congress does not authorize, therefore Reagan did not lift the debt ceiling- Congress did when Reagan asked them to. (A Democrat-controlled congress, at that. At the time, people were mad at Reagan for having a good relationship with Tip O'Neil (D), the Speaker of the House.) Reagan gave into quite a few of Tip O'Neil's demands in order to get his own projects through Congress.
