Debt ceiling

Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday, “We’ll have offers on the table when we find somebody that’s not crazy to deal with…” judging by what the Democrats’ leaders are saying it looks like it is going to be a long shutdown, if it can’t end until someone who is not crazy represents them at the negotiating table.

Much as we dislike the substance of the Democrats’ promises, as Republican Rep. Tom Reed’s flirtation with voting for the Democratic rules package demonstrates, it is hard to argue with the appeal of politicians who actually do what they say they will do, even if what they promise is a disaster waiting to happen.

We urge CHQ readers to call the toll-free Capitol Switchboard (1-866-220-0044) to ask for House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy. Tell Rep. McCarthy that the Freedom Caucus is right: We support funding our troops, however, growing the size of government by 13 percent is not what the voters sent Republicans to Congress to do.

While Erik Prince’s views on the conservative agenda need to be explored further before we can make any kind of endorsement, we do know a lot of things we don’t like about Senator John Barrasso, and first among them is his crony relationship with Mitch McConnell.

The central message of the poll is “dance with the one who brung ya,” and more specifically, dance with the Trump voters and their agenda.

If democracy, as Freedom House contends, is in global retreat, one reason may be that, in our new age, legislatures, split into hostile blocs checkmating one another, cannot act with the dispatch impatient peoples now demand of their rulers. In the days of Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, Congress was a rival to even strong presidents. Those days are long gone.

December, is the traditional time when Congress packages bad legislation into midnight “Omnibus” bills that are laden with pork and funding for anti-conservative programs and policy.

President Trump shouldn’t get suckered into owning the debt ceiling increase, because it is Congress that holds the purse strings and Congress that authorizes and appropriates the vast deficit spending that has driven the debt past $20 trillion.

Mnuchin has made it clear he isn't a fan of legislation that would prioritize which payments get made and which don't if the debt ceiling couldn't be raised in time. But in reality, Treasury is already widely expected to forgo some normal federal spending in the event it can't borrow any more, in order to make sure it keeps up debt service payments.

Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress are poised to stand in the way of lifting the nation's borrowing limit next month, increasing the chances of real problems for House and Senate leaders as they try to increase the debt ceiling by an end-of-September deadline. House and Senate conservatives have long insisted that debt ceiling increases be accompanied by spending reforms, and that hasn't changed this year, even under a Republican president who is insisting on a "clean" debt ceiling increase.

All presidents want a clean debt ceiling increase. The only way automatic debt ceiling increases will stop is if grassroots conservatives turn out and demand that spending be cut, as President Trump’s budget proposed, and that Congress implement debt reforms now.

The Boehner – Ryan policy of governing via continuing resolution means that federal spending remains on auto-pilot, with no opportunity – other than the debt ceiling vote – for conservatives to have any chance of cutting spending.

Any Republican that votes to bring the #ZombieBudget to the Floor deserves a Primary election challenge. We urge you to call your Representative, the House switchboard is 1-866-220-0044, tell him or her you demand a NO vote on the rule to bring the #ZombieBudget to the House floor and an end to the secret deals with Obama to increase spending and the debt ceiling and burden our children and grandchildren with billions of dollars of new Establishment Republican debt.

The suspense -- or rather, the suspension -- is over. The U.S. debt ceiling has been reset at $18.113 trillion, the Treasury Department said Tuesday. That new limit on public debt is about $1 trillion above where it stood in February 2014, when lawmakers decided to "suspend" the ceiling through this past weekend.

The United States has yet again reached its borrowing limit, setting the stage for a broad fiscal debate that could be the defining issue of the 114th Congress. The nation will again reach its statutory debt limit on Monday, March 16, 2015. Its return has sent the Treasury Department hunting for funds to continue paying the bills, as lawmakers begin strategizing over the issue behind some of the most pitched battles of President Obama’s tenure.

The gleeful speculation of the “demise” of the tea party amidst disappointing 2014 primary results is giving way to a very different reality. Seasoned political observers have come to realize that the opposite is in fact true; the tea party is maturing as a political movement. 

Jim DeMint said, “I think a lot of Americans, regardless of political labels, feel the same way. This [the Tea Party] is just millions of Americans who are concerned about spending and debt … a lot of folks who believe in limited government, less spending and debt are concerned that under this president.”

Jim DeMint believes R's did the only thing they thought they could do. "Repub. leaders have figured out that they either give Obama all the money and debt he wants or he's going to close the gov't down and blame it on them."

When does the Repub. Party, put in power by the Tea Party, plan to honor its commitment to halt the growth of the Federal monolith and bring the budget back into balance? Is there is any hope things will be different, should the Tea Party help produce a GOP Senate in '14? If the Tea Party is in some despair, is it not understandable?

For decades CHQ Chairman Richard Viguerie has been hammering away on the Republican establishment on Capitol Hill for trying to dupe limited government constitutional conservative voters. Now a new generation of conservatives is joining Viguerie in calling out the Republican congressional “leaders” as frauds. Sign and share the "Fire Boehner" petition.