They want the black guy out of office and until that happens they're going to drag their feet and scream like little bitches about every single possible issue whether it's sensical or even sane or not. If the roles were reversed and Bush was in office right now, they'd be accusing everyone who wanted to fix the budgetary issues of being Anti-American terrorists.
Then-Sen. Barack Obama, floor speech in the Senate, March 16, 2006
Mr. President, I rise today to talk about Americas debt problem. The fact that we are here today to debate raising Americas debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. government cant pay its own bills.
It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our governments reckless fiscal policies. Over the past five years, our federal debt has increased by $3.5 trillion to $8.6 trillion. That is trillion with a T. That is money that we have borrowed from the Social Security trust fund, borrowed from China and Japan, borrowed from American taxpayers.
When Obama took office in the midst of the Great Recession, the total national debt was $10.6 trillion; it is now $16.4 trillion.
This rising debt is a hidden domestic enemy, robbing our cities and states of critical investments in infrastructure like bridges, ports and levees; robbing our families and our children of critical investments in education and health-care reform; robbing our seniors of the retirement and health security they have counted on."
Our debt also matters internationally. My friend, the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, likes to remind us that it took 42 presidents 224 years to run up only $1 trillion of foreign-held debt. This administration did more than that in just five years.
Now, there is nothing wrong with borrowing from foreign countries. But we must remember that the more we depend on foreign nations to lend us money, the more our economic security is tied to the whims of foreign leaders whose interests might not be aligned with ours.
Increasing Americas 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. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase Americas debt."
Senator Barrack Obama
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The increase in the debt limit passed on a vote of 52 to 48, with a handful of Republicans joining all Democrats (including then-Senators Joe Biden and Hillary Rodham Clinton) in opposition.
What a difference a change in seats makes.
