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Congressman John Campbell

Government Shutdown Day 7

Government Shutdown Day 7: It wasn’t a very good weekend for my sports teams. The Kansas City Chiefs won and are 5-0. And, the Boston Bruins are 2-0. But, in car racing and baseball and college football, nothing came out as I wanted. And, my son crushed me this weekend in our NFL fantasy league, although I did win our NASCAR fantasy league this week. Ah, but there is always next weekend.

Such is not the case with the government shutdown. For, as John Boehner now quite famously quipped at a press conference on Friday in response to a question about the president saying he was “winning”, “This is not some damn game!” So, what happens next? What will break the stalemate?

It is quite clear now that this is no longer just about the shutdown and funding the government for the year, but it is also about the debt limit. The Treasury Department has been saying that by October 15th, they would have exhausted all borrowing authority and will be left with about $30 billion in cash. Independent analysts believe that the $30 billion buys them about another 7 to10 days. That gets you until October 22-26. But, those same analysts are… Read More

Congressman John Campbell

Debt Ceiling Conditions

The president says that we should just extend the debt limit, or cede the authority to him to expand it as he wishes. I’m sure he probably doesn’t think we even need such a discipline at all. He says he will not negotiate on this issue. He says that Congress has already approved all the spending that led to these deficits.

Like on most things, the president is completely wrong.

If credit cards had no limit on them, a whole lot of people would spend without end. The debt limit is like that. It is a discipline that reminds us – “Oh yeah…we’ve just borrowed $16.4 TRILLION. That’s kind of a lot. Maybe we shouldn’t spend so much.” We’ve borrowed 35% ($5.805 trillion) of that since Obama took office. Maybe we ought to think about it before we try to borrow $7 trillion more, which is an approximation of how much more this president wants to borrow in his second term. And, as I understand him, the president won’t negotiate on this. In fact, he has yet to negotiate on anything. No change here. And, as far as Congress already approving the spending….that’s not correct either, Mr. President. Sixty percent of all… Read More