NoisyRoom.net

by: Nancy Matthis at American Daughter

Senator John Thune (R-SD) is trying to save $$ with an amendment to the Democrats’ expansion of the US debt.

Despite the clear message of the Massachusetts election this past Tuesday, Democrats plan to raise the debt ceiling by $1.9 trillion:

The Senate opened debate Wednesday on a plan to raise the nation’s debt limit by $1.9 trillion, a move that Democrats hope will see the Treasury through this fall’s congressional elections.

The record increase would raise the Treasury’s legal ceiling for borrowing to $14.3 trillion — about the size of the nation’s overall economy….

Do you get the significance of that casually reported phrase? We will be in debt by as much as our whole economy is worth.

Meanwhile, Barack Obama plans to use the remaining funds in the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), reportedly about $200 billion, as a piggy bank for pet projects in Democratic legislators’ districts, to buy back voter support. These expenditures would be entirely unrelated to the original purpose for which TARP was passed — to buy toxic assets.

Senator Thune has submitted an amendment to the legislation to raise the debt ceiling, calling for an immediate end to TARP and lowering the debt limit by an amount equal to whatever funds are recovered from TARP. From the Daily Caller — TARP has run its course by Sen. John Thune:

….TARP funds may become just another slush fund for Democrats to spend on pet projects that might be good for them politically, but do nothing for our national economy. Far from spending our way out of this recession, this flawed approach would just dig us into a deeper hole.

Take the president’s last $800 billion stimulus package as an example. He billed that as a guaranteed way to create up to 4 million jobs. Since that stimulus was passed last February, our economy has lost 2.7 million jobs, and unemployment has risen to 10 percent….

TARP has already strayed far from its original purpose of taking toxic assets off the books of financial institutions so they could get back on their feet….

This week Senate Democrats will vote to again expand the nation’s debt limit by at least $635 billion $1.9 trillion, and I have introduced an amendment that would end TARP immediately and lower the debt limit by an amount equal to whatever funds we get back from the program. Taking steps now to reduce the uncertainty created by a ballooning national debt will have a far greater impact on righting our economy and allowing private businesses to create jobs than will any new spending by the government.

TARP was never meant to be the president’s piggy bank for costly new stimulus spending, and the wisest thing we could do with the remaining TARP money is to end the program so these funds won’t be wasted. I hope Senate Democrats will take this opportunity to join their Republican colleagues in supporting my amendment to finally end the TARP experiment. In doing so, we can take one small—but significant—step on the path toward fiscal responsibility.

H.J.Res.45 – Increasing the statutory limit on the public debt was introduced in the Senate yesterday. You can track this resolution at Open Congress here.

ACTION ITEM: Call, fax or email both of your US senators and tell them to support the Thune Amendment to House Joint Resolution 45. Find contact information for your senators here.

[Editor's Note to our readers -- The legislation to increase the national debt ceiling is House Joint Resolution 45. Don't confuse this with House Resolution 45, the egregiously anti-gun-rights bill titled Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009. The first is a joint resolution with the Senate, while the second is simply a House bill. They just happen to have the same number.]