On the Debt Limit, Obama Administration Games Continue

RedDollarSignAn article by Terry Jeffrey published yesterday by CNSNews.com gives a grim hint about a second term Obama Administration’s willingness to tackle our federal debt problems in a grownup way.

Jeffrey points out that two Senators, Orrin Hatch (Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee) and Jeff Sessions (Ranking Member of the Budget Committee) sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner asking the Treasury Department “to provide detailed, periodic updates regarding the Department’s financial resources and debt-management activities” in light of the expectation that the federal government will again reach its debt limit before the end of the year.

More specifically, they wanted to know the date by which the Treasury Department would need to start to use “extraordinary measures” to meet government obligations without exceeding the debt limit, and the date by which these measures would be exhausted.

These are reasonable things for every American, not just the Ranking Members of the Finance and Budget Committees, to know.

Yet the Obama Administration did not even reply.

Soon the White House will be screaming that approaching debt limit deadlines require Congress to raise the limit. The White House will blame an “unwillingness to compromise” for the government’s self-imposed fiscal crisis. The news media will say fiscal conservatives are being irresponsible and unrealistic in seeking to keep government spending within the government’s means. But where are all these people right now, when two conservative Senators are asking very reasonable questions in an honest attempt to do necessary work?

Addendum, 11/7/12: I see that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said today that, “compromise is not a dirty word.” Neither is cooperation. Telling people you are supposed to be working with to avert a crisis just when said crisis is expected to take place is in no way unreasonable.



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