By Tom Toth
President Obama claimed that lifting the debt ceiling did not cause increased indebtedness, and while this is technically true, not even the prince of prevarication himself could claim that the day after the debt ceiling was lifted, the national debt jumped by $328 billion.
This jump answers the question that had bothered many debt watchers – how had the debt remained stable with no up or down variations for five months?
The explanation that many offered was that the Treasury Department was taking “extraordinary measures” to push the debt ceiling back. Now it has been revealed in a report by Stephen Dinan of the Washington Times (read it here), that Treasury was indeed playing tricks with the national debt reporting as they raided other government funds to the tune of $400 billion since the debt clock hit the limit back in May of this year.
Under the debt ceiling, the United States government cannot borrow any additional money from creditors, but can grab dollars stashed in federal employee pension funds among other places to keep spending apace.
This tactic allows an Administration to politically manipulate when a debt ceiling crisis manifests itself, creating a multiplied sense of urgency that can get called a “fiscal cliff” or “government default” or whatever politically charged words focus group out well in that particular month.
So friends, our nation hit the debt ceiling in May, Obama didn’t ring the alarm until October, and within one day the nation’s debt increased by $328 billion.
And who said Obama just wasn’t good with numbers?
Tom Toth is the Social Media Director for Americans for Limited Government
