Obama: Senate vote against debt ceiling a mistake

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE

WASHINGTON (AP) - As the White House presses Congress "not to play chicken" with a vote to raise the nation's debt ceiling, President Barack Obama says his vote as a senator in 2006 against raising the debt cap was a mistake motivated by politics.

"Nobody likes to be tagged as having increased the debt limit for the United States by a trillion dollars," Obama said.

It's Republicans who are now threatening to withhold their support for raising the limit. As a result, Obama says Senate Democrats will have to carry the burden of an unpopular vote when Congress votes on whether to lift the limit sometime during the next three months.

The U.S. will hit its debt limit of $14.3 trillion by May 16. The government could be thrown into default if Congress doesn't raise the limit by early July.

Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20110414/D9MJNTD00.html

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President Barack Obama walks on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Thursday, April 14, 2011, as he travels to Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

[sakabatou]

1. If it does default

it's gonna be chaos.

[freshwest]

2. Everything from TARP on down has been an effort to stave off default. The Tea Party wants a default.

The GOP is lying when they blame the Tea Party. They want it too.

[Demeter]

5. I don't know if you've noticed, but it's chaos already

and has been since Glass-Steagal was repealed.

A default will have consequences that Treasury and Fed Reserve CANNOT by definition paper over, literally.

And it's those consequences in the halls of power that we desperately need, since the Powers that Be will not yield gracefully to any other argument but brute force.

It could be the making of a truly democratic nation. Or fascism on steroids. I'm voting for democracy, though.

[provis99]

3. Obama: Do as I say, not as I do.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

6. See also:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4814850&mesg_id=4814850

[sasha031]

4. my guess is it was a protest vote against the bush adm.

they knew there were enough votes for it to pass.

Boener has already been told by Wall Street that he better get his house in order and get it passed.