From my Fox Business interview on Thursday: “When we passed the last spending bill in September, we knew this date was coming. The Democrats have done nothing. They’ve not introduced a spending bill, and I don’t even think it’s passed the House yet… they’re going to do it on the last day. Well, things in the Senate take about a week to pass, and that’s the normal procedure around here… that includes amendments. If they want to force it through with no amendments and they want to do it in a short period of time, they have to have unanimous consent. Well, a lot of us don’t consent… just because the Democrats are incompetent and haven’t brought it forward that we should speed up time to let them spend more money that is bankrupting our country.

.@RandPaul: “A lot of us don’t consent to just because the Democrats are incompetent and haven’t brought [a spending bill] forward that we should speed up time to let them spend more money that is bankrupting our country.”@MariaBartiromo @FoxBusiness pic.twitter.com/iwRKfkbELN

— Mornings with Maria (@MorningsMaria) December 2, 2021

The debt ceiling is the same way; we move the debt ceiling back two months, about a month ago or so, it’s going to be coming up in the next week or two. They’ve had plenty of time to go to committee, to do all the things they need to do to do it through reconciliation. Instead, they’re going to wait to the last minute and ask people like me, who are dead set against raising the debt ceiling, like, say, ‘Oh, can you pretty, pretty please speed it up and let only Democrats pass this?’ No. If they want to raise the debt ceiling, they ought to do it. They’ve had plenty of time to do it. This is all on Democrats, it’s their incompetence in getting anything done. These people couldn’t run a 7-Eleven, much less the government.”

The post Democrats couldn’t run a 7-Eleven, much less the government appeared first on Liberty Tree.

Congress just raised the debt limit $480,000,000,000 using a bill entitled “Promoting Physical Activity for Americans Act”

Yes, it will take a lot of physical activity from hard working Americans to pay off this debt! pic.twitter.com/ODPTRQBvuT

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) October 13, 2021

The post Let’s get physical appeared first on Liberty Tree.

Tonight, I’m a no vote on raising the debt ceiling. For years, both sides have raised the debt ceiling without a plan to balance the budget or cut spending. I refuse to open the door for trillions more wasted on the backs of hard working Americans.

— Rep. Nancy Mace (@RepNancyMace) October 12, 2021

Reason’s Veronique De Rugy writes, “That’s why, back in 2011, I favored using the debt ceiling as a pressure point to extract some entitlement reforms. The political environment was completely different back then. Most Republicans seemed to be on board with the idea that some fiscal responsibility was prudent, and so were many Americans who made overspending a theme of the 2010 midterm elections. However, the strategy failed when all we got were weak spending caps that Republicans and Democrats repeatedly lifted if they got in the way of their insatiable hunger for spending.”

Read the entire column.

The post Nancy Mace: I’m a no vote on raising the debt ceiling without cutting spending appeared first on Liberty Tree.

Mises.org’s Ryan McMaken writes, “Ultimately, when a media pundit or Janet Yellen predicts the end of the world if debt doesn’t continue to skyrocket ever upward, they are simply calling for a continuation of the status quo.

And what does the status quo mean? It means a world in which the US government continues to spent trillions of dollars it doesn’t have, made possible through monetizing massive amounts of debt and forcing taxpayers to devote ever more of their own wealth and income to paying off an ever-more-huge chunk of interest.

.@ryanmcmaken on why a federal default benefits Americans, whatever statist fantasy media is peddling this week.https://t.co/6egzeRPrvk

— Peter St Onge, Ph.D.?? (@profstonge) October 5, 2021

It also means more government spending, which—regardless of whether it’s funded by debt or by taxes—causes malinvestment and, through the redistribution of wealth, rewards the politically powerful at the expense of everyone else. In other words, its keeps Pentagon generals and Big Pharma executives living in luxury while the taxpayers are lectured about the need to “pay America’s bills.”

Read the entire column.

The post Why Americans would benefit from a government default appeared first on Liberty Tree.

Mises.org’s Ryan McMaken writes, “The media and Democratic politicians assure us that any default will bring about a second Great Depression and financial collapse.

One key component of this strategy is convincing people that the United States has never defaulted before, and has always made good on its financial obligations. This is key because it helps create the impression that were the United States to default, the result would a step into the great unknown, and a ‘financial crisis and a calamity.’

“The US has never defaulted. Not once.”
~@SecYellen @WSJ

“Yet the United States government absolutely has defaulted on debts before—more than once.”
~@ryanmcmaken @mises @jasonzweigwsj https://t.co/1f5kGVhuzl

— Casey Carlisle (@UncleNap) September 29, 2021

This is likely (in part) why, in her September 19 column for the Wall Street Journal, Treasury secretary Janet Yellen repeatedly claims the US has never defaulted. ‘The US has always paid its bills on time,’ she insists, and then repeats the claim in the next paragraph: ‘The US has never defaulted. Not once.’

Yet the United States government absolutely has defaulted on debts before—more than once.”

Read the entire column.

The post Yellen is wrong. The U.S. doesn’t always pay its bills appeared first on Liberty Tree.

In the last three decades, which party has consistently raised or suspended the debt limit without implementing any serious reforms to curtail deficit spending?

Whichever party has been in power.

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) September 21, 2021

Brian Riedl writes at The Daily Beast, “Both parties play this game. During the George W. Bush presidency, there were three times in which a fully Republican-controlled government had to raise the debt limit. House and Senate Democrats cumulatively voted against these bills at a 98.8 percent rate. Schumer and Pelosi voted against each of those debt limit hikes, as did then-Senator Barack Obama. When the Democrats took Congress in 2007, the parties essentially reversed their votes on the debt limit.

Later, during the Obama and Trump presidencies, securing a bipartisan debt limit vote typically required giving the minority party some key policy priority within the legislation…

In short, every time this century that Republicans have had full control of the White House and Congress, Democrats have overwhelmingly voted against raising the debt limit unless it was attached to legislation that contained significant liberal priorities.”

The post When in power, both parties always raise debt ceiling appeared first on Liberty Tree.