Government Posed To Increase National Debt Ceiling To $13 Trillion

Surviving the Middle Class CrashJanuary 26, 2010
U.S. Government Posed To Increase National Debt Ceiling To $13 Trillion
Posted by Barbara Peterson under Survival, economy
By Kathryn Smith

January 26, 2010

Permission is granted to reprint this article. Please send this all over the web, post it to blogs, and contact journalists and citizen journalists. Ask them for reports. Feel free to email this article widely. Thank you for your help!

A bill H.J. Res. 45, Increasing the Statutory Limit on the Public Debt, is currently up for vote on the Senate floor. The bill proposes a national debt ceiling hike to $13 trillion dollars, using “entitlement spending” to pay for it. Facts here on the Government Executive website:

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1209/122909cdam1.htm.

See also the Senate website at www.senate.gov.

“Entitlement spending” to pay for this national debt is Social Security, Medicare, Veteran’s Benefits, and Medicaid, according to an aid in my Senator’s office. Basically, this means that all of the above programs will either be cut back or could possibly disappear entirely as funds are diverted to paying for the monstrous debt.

The Democratic Underground writes their deeply concerned analysis and explanation of the facts here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=7489143

So while we pay double for this—-with our taxes, and our social security earnings—-the Congress is bold enough to go ahead and even consider such a thing.

The status is as follows, from the Senate.gov’s website:

H.J.RES.45
Title: Increasing the statutory limit on the public debt.
Sponsor: No Sponsor (introduced 4/29/2009) Cosponsors (None)
Related Bills: S.CON.RES.13
Latest Major Action: 1/25/2010 Senate floor actions. Status: Cloture motion on the joint resolution presented in Senate.


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MAJOR ACTIONS:

4/29/2009 Introduced in House
4/29/2009 Passed/agreed to in House: Pursuant to the provisions of S. Con. Res. 13, H.J. Res. 45 is considered passed House.
1/20/2010 Senate Committee on Finance discharged by Unanimous Consent.
1/25/2010 Senate floor actions: Cloture motion on the joint resolution presented in Senate.

The why’s and wherefore’s? “In a letter (to Congress), Paulson said Congress should hike the $8.965 trillion debt ceiling “as soon as possible” to preserve the “full faith and credit” of the United States. Congress must increase the debt limit or else the United States, upon breaching that cap, would face default on its worldwide financial obligations and risk a government shutdown because it would be unable to pay its bills. That has never happened before, although lawmakers regularly use must-pass debt limit legislation to debate each party’s fiscal priorities.” More here: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0707/073107cdam1.htm?oref=rellink

On the other side of the coin, The News Tribune reports that enrollment in the army is growing because people are finding it difficult to get any other type of work in the current economy. www.thenewstribune.com/355/v-lite/story/682788.html

Is the national credit concern a mere excuse, or is it valid? Why would we propose such a monumentally large debt as a way to obtain good credit? How can we possibly “pay our bills” when we have such a huge debt? Wouldn’t that debt, in itself, be to “risk a government shut-down” which, to note, has “never happened before” ? Is this a mere scare tactic? Is it possible that the national debt ceiling hike is designed to encourage more enrollees to serve for Haliburton’s sake, by breaking the economy? You decide.

Fortunately, the national debt-increasing legislation has not yet been voted for.

Here is what we can do:

a) Call your Senators NOW to stop this. Remind them that our founding fathers penned “A Government Of the People, By the People and For the People”, not A Government Of Haliburton, By Haliburton and For Haliburton. Tell them that this is a betrayal of the people and of the Constitution. Tell them that if they vote for this, we will vote them out of office, spreading word far and wide with our pens. Further, if they even intend to vote for this, or if they have not yet released any statement about it, we will blow the whistle too, with our pens.

b) Undercut a business on businessmen’s terms: In the pocketbook.

Do not send your kids to war. “Just Say No!” To wars without end and based on proven lies. (No weapons of mass destruction were ever found. PS: The US Government has them in spades. Is this good enough reason for other nations to attack us? Let’s hope not! PPS We attacked the wrong country. Oops! Iraq had nothing to do with the events on 9-11-01).

Start carpooling to work or ride the bus. Saves green (money, and the environment): Win-win!

Slow down when you drive. In my car, we save about seven miles per gallon of gas by driving 55mph instead of 65 mph.

If you have cruise control, use it. Saves about 5 mpg of gas in my car.

Organize a wide-spread “call in to work sick” day. Don’t pay taxes for this!

Consider leaving the country to pay your taxes elsewhere.

Spread word far and wide! Post this article to blogs, send it out by chain email, dial in to radio talk shows, and ask people to be proactive (Call their Senators and Representatives) instead of lying down passively! “The Greatest Evils are often Committed by the Silence of Good People” wrote Edmund Burke. How true!

Join organizations such as Downsize DC, which are devoted to ousting bad apples from Congress (on a non-partisan basis) and bringing in good ones.

Advocate for term limits in the House and Senate alike. Advocate for campaign finance reform.

c) Get ready for a major financial crash, of epic proportions. To prepare now is to be empowered when the time comes. We can also start educating the community, to avoid looting and other crimes later.

See the website Surviving the Middle Class Crash www.survivinthemiddleclasscrash.wordpress.com this site has instructions for how to make your own solar generator for under $350, how to make your own soap, gardening ideas, container gardens for urban areas, vertical gardening, food storage and canning information, and more.

See also my article about ideas for surviving such an economic crash. This includes links posted by bloggers to a previous article I had written, such as communal power coops, how to make your own solar oven, how to convert cat food tins to stoves, food storage and gardening ideas, how to obtain land for gardening that one would never have thought was available (such as was done in Northern California, with land actually donated by the local Utilities Company), using pumpkins to make delicious recipes and feed a whole family, and more: http://www.opednews.com/articles/Surviving-an-Economic-Cras-by-Kathryn-Smith-081120-898.html

d) Leaflet your community (Apartment complexes, neighborhoods, school newsletters, etc):

To practice gardening at home now, even if just in containers, is important because it does take just that, practice. And know-how. Encourage people to talk to their local nursery, and to purchase books about what will become an increasingly important subject. Remember: Even urban residents can garden in containers, using vertical poles to line up containers in a compact area. Such poles must be sturdy and well-built, on a strong structure. Books about building such strong structures would be available at one’s local library too, or on the web.

Pass out any articles you like about how to survive an economic crash. Tell those to whom you pass out the article about the proposed $13 trillion dollar debt, so they don’t think your are “far-fetched”.

Talk with your neighbors about survival ideas, and how you can all work together instead of steal from each other. To do so now is to assure a better outcome later.

Thank you for all your help and for spreading word widely.