Tidbits

Fareed Zakaria pointed out that only one country in the world other than the U.S. has a debt ceiling: Denmark, which has set the ceiling so ridiculously high it will never be reached. Every other country on earth effectively raises the debt ceiling every time it passes a budget where expenditures exceed revenues (and the budget which authorized the expenditures in the first place was passed by both the House and the Senate.)

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The U.S. debt ceiling has been raised 78 times -- uneventfully -- since 1960. The worst spendthrift was Reagan, who raised it 17 times, tripling the debt. The second worst was Bush Jr., who raised it 8 times, doubling it.

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John Perr, in an article at Crooks & Liars entitled The Republican Debt Orgy in Pictures, says:

The total federal tax burden as a percentage of the U.S. economy is at its lowest level in 60 years even as income inequality is at its highest in 80. As Krugman summed it up:

Now, pointing out the Obama spending binge is a myth generally produces rage: people know that it happened, because Rush Limbaugh and the Wall Street Journal say so. But that doesn't make it true.