Transparency: What do you call it when an administration blatantly lies to the public to get its way in a debt ceiling fight, then covers it up for two years? For the Obama White House, it’s called “par for the course.”

Here's how the most transparent admin ever blatantly lied to Americans & covered it up for 2 years. https://t.co/SWnweWrjP7 #tcot

— IBDeditorials (@IBDeditorials) February 2, 2016

Carson: I won't raise the debt ceiling as president

Carson: I won't raise the debt ceiling as president https://t.co/IkNHFV4fER pic.twitter.com/bihP0Ohorz

— The Hill (@thehill) October 28, 2015

Reuters national online tracking poll of likely GOP voters: Carson 33, Trump 26, Rubio 10,… https://t.co/mhSY3UYsIW pic.twitter.com/VRkS8yt8jI

— HotAir.com (@hotairblog) October 27, 2015

'Mind-Numbingly Stupid'

◼ If Democrats would wake up and realize what Rep. Trey Gowdy is saying is true, then we can begin to move the ball in the right direction. - Bubba Atkinson/IJReview

“Like it or not, it’s his party now”

◼ Angry at Ted Cruz, Republicans should remember what he represents - Byron York/Washington Examiner @ByronYork

There is at least one common thread in the shutdown and debt ceiling incidents, and that is Sen. Ted Cruz. For whatever reason, the Texas freshman has at times goaded his party to dysfunction, embarrassment, and defeat. (Not quite singlehandedly; others, like Sens. Mike Lee and Rand Paul, have also been done their bit.)

Many in the GOP believe Cruz is just out for himself. But even if that's true, they have to remember that he represents more than just Ted Cruz. There are a lot of Republicans -- it's not clear how many, but a significant portion of the party's base -- that cheers Cruz on when he battles with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. They want to see a Republican throw a wrench in the Washington spending machine, even if it creates chaos and damages the GOP's standing with independent voters. And it is that conviction that is really behind the party's problems; it is why Republicans would not enjoy smooth sailing even if Cruz were to retire tomorrow....

Senate Republicans met in their weekly lunch a few hours after Boehner's announcement. The short version of events is that McConnell urged colleagues to allow a vote on the House debt limit bill. If the GOP did not object, it could be passed with a simple 51-vote majority, and since there are 55 Democrats in the Senate who would vote for it, every Republican could vote against it and it would still pass. Problem solved; there would be no more default talk, and Republicans could go back to slamming Democrats over Obamacare.

Then Cruz stood up and said there was no way in the world he would stand by and allow a debt ceiling increase to be passed with just 51 votes. Cruz insisted on a 60-vote threshold, which the rules allowed him to do. That meant at least five Republicans would have to join Democrats for the debt limit to be raised....

◼ Fair or not, though, the problem with today’s Republican Party is that the only incrementalism people see is incremental surrender. Like the surrender they saw on the debt ceiling. And if the establishment doesn’t turn that perception around in a hurry, they won’t be the establishment for much longer. - David Harsanyi/The Federalist

As much as some of us are fans of “dysfunction,” tactically speaking, playing defense forever is no strategy. Yes, the establishment works tirelessly within the political realities of the day. Cruz, it seems, is more interested in changing the reality of his situation. Forcing a 60-vote threshold on the debt ceiling wasn’t only about the debt ceiling (which Cruz surely understood would be hiked), and it wasn’t only about his presidential ambitions (which he surely has), but creating the type of problems for the GOP that will help bring a bunch of Matt Bevins into the Senate and solidify his position.

◼ Ted Cruz is Winning - Ed Driscoll/PJMedia

...Faster please. As great as Cruz personally is, his actual value will become apparent if he really can change the culture in DC. As Milton Friedman once said, “It’s nice to elect the right people, but that’s not the way you solve things. The way you solve things is by making it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right things.”

◼ Ted Cruz, Rand Paul top huge Tea Party poll; Chris Christie, Jeb Bush dead last - Paul Bedard/Washington Examiner

The online poll of 62,000 grassroots activists provided exclusively to Secrets finds that conservatives and Tea Party organizers stand fully behind the heroes of their movement, including outspoken surgeon Ben Carson, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and 2008 vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

“There’s a resounding message in these poll results for the Washington establishment. This is not a survey of casual Republicans or sometimes voters. These are activists who pound the pavement, make the phone calls, and cast their votes in every election every year,” said Todd Cefaratti, founder of TheTeaParty.net.

“They have a message for the candidates of status quo Washington: We are coming for you. We will beat you. And we will send you packing from the halls of power,” he added.

◼ Ted Cruz takes heat for telling the truth about debt limit - Star Parker/Washington Examiner

Ted Cruz is one of the few who is actually doing his job.

Every time the debt ceiling comes up, Cruz forces the nation to pay attention. This stuff matters, and we should be grateful to him for refusing to quietly roll over as the nation sinks.

Throwing a brick through the window to wake up the nation to the mess that has been created is an act of patriotism. I am mystified by those who think it’s all a game of psychology.

Cruz’s antics make Republicans look bad, they say. Meanwhile, Obama and his party are having a field day with the Republican congressional cave-in, passing a condition-free debt ceiling increase.

◼ CNN’s Candy Crowley Invokes ‘The Sound of Music’: ‘How Do You Solve a Problem Like Ted Cruz?’ - Newsbusters

◼ Ted Cruz forces GOP leaders to vote for bill they wanted to pass - Timothy P. Carney/Washington Examiner @TPCarney

In the recent intra-Republican drama, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell wanted to let Democrats suspend the debt limit, but he wanted all Republicans to get credit for opposing the move.

Sen. Ted Cruz didn't want to let McConnell and the rest of the Senate GOP Conference get away with this approach. Cruz and allies say this maneuver is all about misleading the conservative base. If Republicans really oppose a suspension of the debt limit, then they should use the filibuster to block it. Republicans who are fine with such a suspension, Cruz reasons, ought to vote for it....

Democrats played this game last decade -- railing against debt-limit hikes (think Senator Obama) and holding votes to defund the Iraq war -- while happily letting the GOP win in the end. The result: a pacified Democratic base, and Democratic victories in 2006 and 2008.

McConnell would like to repeat that play. Cruz won't let him.

No Debt Ceiling Battle A Bitter Pill

◼ As tough as it is for fiscal hawks like myself, tea party conservatives, and anyone concerned about America's spending problem there is a strategy here which we have to swallow. In time we will see if the strategy plays out well for the Republicans. - David Webb/Breitbart's Conversation

Politically, and this is important, a debt ceiling fight / shut down battle would give the Democrats more political bullets. Political reality is if your opponent has the gun, you don't buy them the bullets. One vote is important and always is but in this case it may be future multiple votes and voters that matter for those of us that are again disappointed in no change in Federal government spending habits.

This does allow Republicans to focus on Obamacare going into 2014 in both the Senate and the house. Speaker Boehner, the Republican leadership and even Democrats will go home next week to many Americans like me who are angry at the repeated congressional failures to be responsible and cut spending. Boehner and his Republican cohorts had better fight hard to accomplish the correct policies for America between now and November 2014.

◼ Filling our monthly bitter-pill subscription - John Hayward/Breitbart's Conversation

The real problem is not so much the intractable Barack Obama as the intractable and invisible Harry Reid. Reid is the hit man who quietly murders every good bill to emerge from the Republican House. On the rare occasions when someone at the press bothers to point a camera at him, the results are sickening and repulsive to the American people ("Why should I care about kids with cancer when government employees are suffering?") but that almost never happens. The public doesn't know how he scuttles pro-growth House bills or "fills the amendment tree" to poison legislation. They blame the Republican Party in a nebulous sense for do-nothing gridlock, when it's really this one guy who is personally responsible for most of it. His invisibility means President Obama never has to pay the political price for openly vetoing bills that would sound great to the voters. For whatever reason, the GOP leadership doesn't even try to explain that to the American people.

Instead, the GOP leadership accepts a media narrative that blames them for everything, especially when they think some of the blame can be dumped on those conservative and Tea Party upstarts they hate. They fight internal battles with glee, but shrink from external conflicts with the Democrats, afraid to use anything resembling the fiery language routinely deployed against them.

After the GOP-led House of Representatives on Tuesday voted to increase the nation’s debt ceiling with no strings attached, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) vowed to seek out a 60-vote threshold when the Senate votes on the measure.

◼ Ted Cruz’s Latest Stand Is Going to Infuriate Republicans (and Democrats)

When the debt ceiling bill, passed in the House with the help of 28 Republicans, reaches the Senate on Wednesday, Cruz plans to object to the simple majority vote, the Texas senator’s office confirmed. This could very well mean a Cruz filibuster.

“You’re not even going to clap for me for getting this monkey off of our backs?”

◼ The End of Debt Limit Brinkmanship? - Roll Call

Here are the 28 Republicans who voted with the Democrats to pass the 'clean' debt ceiling increase http://t.co/dPSkkVduWh

— The Right Scoop (@TheRightScoop) February 11, 2014

John Boehner gave up. Again. http://t.co/4v7UsLrEdR

— The Fix (@TheFix) February 11, 2014

GOP-led House passes ‘clean’ debt ceiling increase, without any conditions http://t.co/uYD7RthL9k

— TheBlaze (@theblaze) February 11, 2014

◼ Boehner Goes for Clean Debt Limit - Bill Kristol/Weekly Standard

...The speaker has followed a long and winding (and at times confusing!) path to a reasonable outcome, one that lets Democrats own the debt increase, and lets conservatives have a clean shot at advancing key parts of their legislative agenda....

◼ UPDATE: HOUSE PASSES 'CLEAN' DEBT LIMIT INCREASE - Jonathan Strong/Breitbart

The vast majority of Republicans voted against the bill, while nearly 200 Democrats carried it across the finish line. 28 Republicans voted “yes.”

Speaker John Boehner, who usually does not vote, voted "yes," as did Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Whip Kevin McCarthy. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan voted "no."

Cantor blamed the debt ceiling increase on Democrats. "House Republicans need more responsible and willing partners in Washington so we can finally and boldly address our long term debt crisis," he said in a statement.

Ryan called the vote a "missed opportunity."

"We need to pay our bills today and make sure we can pay our bills tomorrow," Ryan said in a statement after the vote.

The House GOP's inability to force even a modest fight on the debt ceiling prompted an outcry from conservative groups, including several calls to replace the current House leadership.

◼ Group calls for Boehner's head - Seth McLaughlin/Washington Times

The Senate Conservatives Fund says that it is time for House Speaker John Boehner to go and they will keep track of the GOP lawmakers that support their effort to oust him from his leadership post.

The group, which is targeting several incumbent Republicans in primary races this year, said Mr. Boehner, Ohio Republican, has sold out small government principles on too many occasions and the last straw came this week when House GOP leaders signaled they were going to support a bill to increase the nation’s borrowing limit without attaching any strings to reduce spending.

◼ CBO Director Warns 'Large and Growing Federal Debt' Could Produce 'Fiscal Crisis' - CNS News

◼ Boehner and Cantor Declare No Debt Ceiling Increase Without Obamacare Delay and Keystone Approval - Red State

Oh . . . what? What’s that you say? Oh. Sorry.

That was back last year.

Sigh.

How many times are they going to yank the football away from themselves before Republican voters kick them to the curb?

◼ NANCY PELOSI TO DEMS: 'DON'T GLOAT' - Tony Lee/Breitbart

The caving was that bad.

Groundhog Day: Debt Limit

◼ Video captures everything our Congressional leaders have ever said. Is it time to remind them we've heard this before -- many times before? - Heritage

8 Things in Washington That Could Hit Your Wallet This Year

◼ Several developments in Washington could have a significant impact on the economy and, ultimately, on your wallet in 2014, whether you are a business owner, a homeowner in a high-risk flood area, or an online shopper. - Rodrigo Sermeno/PJ Media

Your share of the national debt is now $1.1 million

◼ Each Taxpayer Has Federal-Debt Liability of $1.1 Million... - Rare
◼ Keep spending! Senate Democrats call for automatic debt limit hikes... - AP

Economy

◼ Current Spending Pace Puts Debt on Track to Reach $22 Trillion by Feb '14... - ETF

Just imagine an undisciplined out-of-control spender whose credit limit has just been extended. In other words, they can continue overspending without any accountability. That “they” is the U.S. government.

It’s been almost a week since Congress reached a temporary deal to suspend the U.S. government’s debt ceiling and the Treasury department has already wasted no time by adding another $375 billion in new debt.

Suspension of a cap on U.S. debt, which was previously fixed at $16.69 trillion, means the Treasury department, headed by Jack Lew, can effectively spend whatever amount of money it needs or wants.

How much debt can the U.S. government rack up by the next debt ceiling deadline on Feb. 7, 2014? At the current spending pace of $375 billion per week, U.S. public debt would reach $22.70 trillion.

◼ CENSUS: 49% of Americans Receive Gov't Benefits... - CNS
◼ REPORT: U.S. Spent $3.7 Trillion on Welfare Over Last 5 Years... - Daniel Halper/Weekly Standard
◼ Administration fights to keep food stamp payments secret... - Josh Gerstein/Politico

South Dakota's Argus Leader newspaper urged a federal appeals court Wednesday to reverse a ruling blocking the newspaper from receiving data on how much the federal government pays to stores that redeeem food stamp benefits.

"The Argus is not asking for the invoices. They’re asking for the payment information. All we’re really doing is asking: how does the government spend its money in this instance?" Arneson told the three-judge panel sitting in St. Paul, Minn. "Because of the way FOIA is intended to be applied, we’re entitled to the benefit of the doubt. If there’s doubt here, the Argus is entitled to that benefit."

Ted Cruz Is Just Getting Started

◼ Cruz to CNN: ‘I don’t work for the party bosses in Washington’ - Ashley Killough/CNN

The Texas Republican, in an exclusive interview with CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash in San Antonio, was unapologetic for fighting to defund President Obama’s health care law in the face of outsized odds, saying he doesn’t work for the “party bosses” in Washington. (Snip) “I work for 26 million Texans. That’s my job...

◼ Reviled by the Left, hated by the middle, disliked by his own party, the junior senator from Texas is exactly where he wants to be. - National Journal

The firebrand’s 21-hour faux-filibuster and no-surrender strategy during the government shutdown fight has endeared him to activists. The party establishment, meanwhile, is decrying a man they consider an ideologue unwilling to compromise even when the politics go south. Stay away from Ted Cruz, they say.

Sound familiar?

...“While establishment folks will blame him for the shutdown, he will become a rock star for standing up and fighting the fight,” said Dave Carney, a senior strategist for Rick Perry’s presidential campaign. “When Ted Cruz ran for office, from the day he announced to the day he was elected, he always said he was going to defund Obamacare and stop Obamacare, and the fact is that he did exactly what he said he was going to do.”

Carney added: “His scorn by the media and the establishment and Capitol Hill staff is just making him stronger. He comes across as a breath of fresh air.”

Sure, Cruz’s activism comes at a cost. (The same Pew Research Center poll found more non-tea-party Republicans dislike Cruz than like him.) The establishment, buttressed by the remaining moderate and liberal Republicans in the party, won’t go away quietly.

But the former Ivy Leaguer doesn’t need that wing of the party. He’s already gone a long way toward securing the activist base. Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, and Bobby Jindal, among others, will compete with him for the religious conservatives who constitute the party’s conservative wing. But Cruz has already demonstrated something they haven’t: a wild popularity among evangelicals.

◼ Jeb Bush on Ted Cruz’s Tactics: ‘Have a Little Bit of Self-Restraint’ to Achieve Obamacare Repeal - ABC News

◼ Authorities probe death threat against Cruz - The Hill



◼ TED CRUZ: ‘LOUSY’ DEAL THAT ENDED GOV’T SHUTDOWN AMOUNTS TO ‘SELLING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE DOWN THE RIVER’ - The Blaze

This Stunning Chart SHOULD Wake People Up About America's Debt

◼ Jon Gabriel at Ricochet put together this revealing chart, which should put to bed any argument that the political class is in any way, shape or form acting responsibly with the nation’s finances. - Kyle Becker/IJ Review

If the green is the U.S. government’s revenue, and yellow is the deficit, then it takes a Sesame Street-level of understanding to grasp that the red part is bad – very bad. This is beyond party bickering; both Republicans and Democrats need to get serious about this brewing fiscal disaster.

The Democrats are keeping their foot on the gas pedal, full speed ahead. The Republican establishment thinks we may need to slow down — at least a little. The bus, however, will still go off the cliff. Only the Tea Party is saying — in fact, yelling — to hit the brakes. They’re right, and they will be vindicated. The only question is this: Will Americans wake up before it’s too late?

◼ The Tea Party’s coming vindication - Jeffrey T. Kuhner/Washington Times

...The legislative deal simply does one thing: kick the can down the road. Yet the same, enduring problems remain — the very problems identified by Mr. Cruz and Tea Party Republicans. America is sitting on a ticking debt bomb, Obamacare — the most destructive law in modern memory — is a disaster, and our ruling elites are incapable of reining in out-of-control public spending....

The Obamacare Death Spiral

◼ Congress is trying to get Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius – who in any sane government would be “former HHS secretary” by now – to testify about the disastrous ObamaCare rollout. She is reportedly resisting these demands, which again should be grounds for dismissal. In the Obama era, top officials have become entirely too comfortable with refusing to testify, invoking the Fifth Amendment, and committing perjury. - John Hayward/Human Events @Doc_o

...Now, you might be thinking that if ObamaCare can’t rope in enough young suckers, the government will just print up some more funny money to cover the difference, and then in a few months Obama will be telling us how we absolutely must raise taxes and/or the debt ceiling to pay the bills Congress has already incurred, or we’ll be like a deadbeat diner trying to skip out on his supper tab. But that’s not strictly true. It’s not the government that will lose money from a shortage of youthful sheep toddling into the program. It’s insurance companies. They still exist under government control, just as certain countries noted for the authoritarian style of their governments still had private industry in the early decades of the previous century. (Ask your Grandpa how that worked out for them, kids!)

And those insurance companies can’t survive if the agonizingly slow pace of Obama enrollment keeps up. Three weeks in, there are still states reporting zero ObamaCare purchases, while others show only dozens or hundreds. There’s a grimly accurate joke going around the Internet that more people have signed up for a proposed one-way mission to Mars than have signed up for ObamaCare....

Update: The Heritage Foundation makes a convincing case that, based on the current pace of enrollment, ObamaCare could actually cause a net loss of insurance coverage in the individual market… and that’s not even counting the employer-provided insurance plans that have been dropped because of the Affordable Care Act and its mandates. That’s a pretty steep death spiral.

◼ The Tea Party’s coming vindication - Jeffrey T. Kuhner/Washington Times

The conventional wisdom is wrong. The mainstream media — and their parrots in the Republican establishment — are claiming that President Obama decisively won the government shutdown battle. In fact, the narrative being peddled is that the GOP brand has been badly damaged, paving the way for a possible Democratic Party takeover of the House of Representatives in the 2014 elections. This is puerile nonsense. Tea Party Republicans, led by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, may have lost the battle, but they are poised for a major victory in the larger Obamacare war.

◼ Meltdown Now In Plain Sight - Investor's Business Daily Editorial

RECORD: DEBT JUMPS $328 BILLION IN ONE DAY

◼ U.S. debt jumps a record $328 billion — tops $17 trillion for first time - Stephen Dinan/Washington Times

The $328 billion increase shattered the previous high of $238 billion set two years ago.

The giant jump comes because the government was replenishing its stock of “extraordinary measures” — the federal funds it borrowed from over the last five months as it tried to avoid bumping into the debt ceiling.

...Usually Congress sets a borrowing limit, or debt ceiling, that caps the total amount the government can be in the red.

But under the terms of this week’s deal, Congress set a deadline instead of a dollar cap. That means debt will rise by as much as the government spends between now and the Feb. 7 deadline.

Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Mike Lee React to Senate Deal

Morici: Obama Victory Based on 'Deception and Demagoguery'

◼ To end the government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling without accepting any meaningful GOP conditions, President Barack Obama has resorted to falsehoods, wounded American democracy, and damaged U.S. global leadership. - Peter Morici/Newsmax @pmorici1

The president has accused the House GOP majority of refusing to pay bills Congress has already racked up, not doing its job, and defying the outcome of the 2012 election.

The $17 trillion outstanding national debt funded past spending, and raising the debt ceiling is all about the government spending more than it taxes going forward. The Constitution requires that revenue bills originate in the House, not the president's desk. If Obama wants to spend more than the country can afford, it requires him to negotiate with the House — that's where the framers put the money....

The president's victory will be accomplished through deception and demagoguery, by violating the will of voters expressed in the 2012 congressional elections and the Constitution, and damaging U.S. global standing. Those are mighty high prices to pay for a president's refusal to negotiate changes to a healthcare law voters clearly want changed and reducing budget deficits voters want slashed.

"The fundamental situation that the debt growth rate significantly outpaces that of fiscal income and gross domestic product remains unchanged," Dagong said in the statement, adding Washington's solvency was vulnerable as old debts were still repaid through raising new debts.

◼ Chinese agency downgrades US credit rating - France24

The announcement came after the US Congress passed and President Barack Obama signed a bill that extends the nation's borrowing authority and ends a two-week government shutdown....

Dagong made headlines in August 2011 when it lowered its main rating for US sovereign debt after Congress passed an earlier bill to raise Washington's debt ceiling.

◼ Stocks open lower as euphoria fizzles... - CNBC

CRUZ CAN'T STOP THE TIDE

◼ Mr. Cruz said he would cast a "no" vote against a Senate proposal to reopen the government and avert default, but he had no intention of trying to block what he viewed as an inevitable result. - Wall St. Journal

"Unfortunately, once again, it appears the Washington establishment is refusing to listen to the American people," he said.

◼ Says Republicans self-sabotaging... - The Right Scoop

Where this went off track is when it came to the Senate and Senate Republicans didn’t stand united alongside House Republicans. Senate Republicans, instead, divided in half and began going on television, going on radio, going everywhere and blasting the House Republicans saying ‘we cannot win’, ‘this will fail’, ‘theres no way to win’ and when you’ve got half the Senate Republican caucus firing their cannons at the House Republicans, it sabotages the effort.
__________
Senate votes 81-18 to pass bill to end government shutdown thru Jan 15 and suspend Debt Limit till Feb 7. Measure now goes to House.