Raising the Debt Limit: I Couldn’t Have Said It Better

“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure.  It is a sign that the US government cannot pay its own bills.  It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies.  Increasing America’s debt limit weakens us domestically and internationally.  Leadership means saying that ‘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.  America deserves better.”

Barack Obama, excerpts from remarks to the US Senate, March 16, 2006, explaining why he was voting against increasing the debt ceiling.  This quotation has been repeated a lot lately, and deservedly so, because it so fits today’s situation.