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The Budget Out-of-Control Act in Numbers

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  January 18th, 2012 at 07:19 PM  | 

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Earlier today, the House voted to disapprove of Obama’s request for an additional $1.2 trillion increase in the debt ceiling.  Needless to say, they failed to garner the requisite two-thirds majority to preclude Obama from issuing more debt.  The total federal debt will inexorably rise to at least $16.4 trillion by the end of the year.

But wait.  Didn’t we pass a Budget Control Act to usher in a new era of budget austerity?

On August 1, the total federal debt stood at $14,342,358,440,969.10.  Today, it stands at $15,236,288,061,558.65.  That’s an increase of $894 billion.  What’s the significance of August 1?  That is the day Congress passed the Budget Out-of-Control Act.  It took us from the country’s founding until 1982 to accrue $894 billion in debt, yet we have accomplished that in a half year.

Thus, on average, we have incurred an additional $5.26 billion in debt since passage of the debt deal.  That’s $219 million per hour.

As Senator DeMint noted today, “This isn’t what winning looks like.”

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  • trevorb

    has made it clear that he will cut nothing from the budget, except for the military, and that’s just to increase spending on his social programs. If anything, he will grow the budget even more if he wins a second term.

    The house has fought him and just when it seemed we might be able to start cutting he proposed ANOTHER spending bill, a second stimulus. The country can’t afford this level of spending and if it continues, we will go the way of Greece.

  • http://www.redstateeclectic.com enrique

    has made it clear that it will cut nothing from the budget, except maybe the rate of growth on the military, and that?s just to increase spending on their social programs like Medicare and Social Sercurity. If anything, they will grow the budget even more if they hold the House.

    The president has fought them and just when it seemed we might be able to start cutting they proposed continued increased spending. The country can?t afford this level of spending and if it continues, we will go the way of Greece.

    Thanks Republican ‘leadership’ (and Democrats).

  • repubnut

    It appears that voting in a Republican House didn’t STOP Obama’s spending !!!!

    • docinpa

      Boehner isn’t the biggest problem. The biggest problem (as was already pointed out at RS) is Mitch McConnell and the squishes in the Senate. Specifically, the New England trio, Murk, Alexander, etc., etc. However, Boehner also has a serious problem with messaging and the House Leadership is essentially a bunch of eunuchs. When one declares that “there will be no shutdown”, you’re basically haggling over how big the increase is going to be. If they did one department at a time, sent the bills to the Senate and waited, tings would be a lot different. But noooo, gotta let Prince Harry back ‘em into a corner, there’s 2 days left gotta do the omnibus….Idiots.

  • http://www.dhancock.com dhancock

    The increase the administration is asking for will raise the total US debt from $15.2 trillion to $16.4 trillion, or 112% of GDP – and nobody seems to care. Conservatives were shocked last year when they thought we were borrowing $4 billion per day and now it turns out that over the last 6 months the rate of borrowing has actually been closer to $5.34 billion per day. What makes me want to scream are the Republicans who voted for the increase in 2011 but then came out against it this time (when they knew it didn’t matter) so they could have something nice to say in their campaigns.

  • billstanley

    During the 2008 campaign, Czar Obama said, “The first thing you do when you’re in a hole is what? … You stop digging. So the first thing that we’re going to have to do is to stop adding to our deficit.? Three years later, Czar Obama and tax-spend big-government politicians are driving the U.S. bus closer to the same cliff that Greece and Italy plunged over. During the 35 full months of Czar Obama’s reign, the national debt increased by $4.59 trillion to $15.22 trillion, at an annual rate of $1.57 trillion. The increase in the last 12 months was $1.20 trillion www.newsandopinions.net.

  • gmcgann

    Andrew Jackson made paying off the debt a priority, and in 1840 the debt was retired. The $6.3 trillion was accumulated from John Tyler to GW Bush, not from George Washington.

  • gmcgann

    Andrew Jackson made paying off the debt a priority, and in 1840 the debt was retired. The $6.3 trillion was accumulated from John Tyler to GW Bush, not from George Washington.