Barack Obama: America has a debt problem

by NW Spotlight

President Obama has flip-flopped on raising the debt ceiling, and he no longer appears to care that Washington is putting this debt, in his words, “onto the backs of our children and grandchildren.”

Back in March 2006, then Sen. Barack Obama voted against raising the debt ceiling, stating “The fact that we’re here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. Leadership means ‘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 America’s debt limit.”

Now that the national debt is DOUBLE what it was in March 2006, President Obama is criticizing Republicans in Congress for not supporting yet another increase in the debt limit, saying that “We are not a deadbeat nation,” and claiming that an increase to the borrowing limit is not an increase in spending.

So apparently President Obama thinks it was OK for him to vote against raising the debt limit when it was $8.2 trillion, but it’s NOT OK for Republicans to vote against raising the debt limit now that it’s DOUBLE that – $16.4 trillion?

NOTE: President Obama has been in office for four years now, since January 2009, and Democrats have controlled the U.S. Senate since 2007 and also controlled the U.S. House for four years from 2007 through 2010.

Sources:

U.S. 2006 Debt of $8.2 trillion
U.S. 2013 Debt of $16.4 trillion

[h/t Ross Harke]