"Our $14.3 Trillion National Debt" (with chart)

(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE)

Bruins for Change:

"...if anyone who says "President Obama spent us into our current debt" doesn't know anything about the Obama presidency, or our current debt."

"The U.S. Doesn’t Have a Debt Problem. It Has a Crisis of Values"

Imara Jones (Colorlines.com):

One key reason that markets have showed continued confidence in U.S. debt is that unlike debt problems in, say, Greece and Portugal, U.S. deficits are largely the result of government policy rather than a fundamental structural problem with economy. The majority of U.S. debt since 1980 is the result of tax cuts and wars—first the Reagan tax reductions in the 1980s and his administration’s Cold War build up, then the Bush tax cuts and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The U.S. doesn’t have a debt problem; it has a values problem. MORE...

"Hardball: Bruce Bartlett destroys every Republican fiscal talking point in 5 minutes" (with video)

SharksBreath-Daily Kos, with transcript and video (05:31):

Bruce Bartlett was on Hardball today. If you missed his appearance it was simply amazing.

He destroyed every Republican fiscal talking point in 5 minutes.

He then ended the interview with this when Chris asked him how to end the debt issue.

CM: I feel like sanity has just walked into the door. Bruce, so great, now that I realize you're smart and have the numbers, give me two seconds. Any way to solve this kerfuffle?

BB: I think at this point, there's nothing that can pass the House of Representatives.

CM: Because it's too much of a zoo?

BB: Yeah, i think a good chunk of the Republican caucus is either stupid, crazy, ignorant or craven cowards, who are desperately afraid of the tea party people, and rightly so. MORE...

Howie P.S.: From the transcript:

"Bruce Bartlett is former Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary under the first George Bush and a policy adviser to Ronald Reagan. Bottom line, let's look at the numbers right now. We've got a chart coming up. This shows the Bush tax cuts were responsible for increasing the debts."

H/t to Norman Goldman.

"Infographic: U.S. National Debt"

WhiteHouse.gov

Howie P.S.: Go to the White House link to read the fine print.

David Horsey: "Ultraconservatives see socialists everywhere" (with cartoon)

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David Horsey (SeattlePI.com):

If it were not for their powerful recklessness, I would simply get a good laugh out of the alarmists on the right who see socialism in any tilt toward moderation in our politics. MORE...

Greg Sargent: "Senate Dems game out their strategy"

Greg Sargent, from today's 'Morning Plum:

With Boehner’s proposal seemingly set to pass, Senate Dems are mulling three options: First, don’t vote on Boehner’s bill at all, which would anger GOP senators. Second, vote down Boehner’s bill and try to pass Reid’s proposal, using the failure of the Boehner bill to exert pressure on GOP Senators to support Reid’s. And third, vote down Boehner’s plan and try to pass a compromise version of Reid’s plan negotiated with Mitch McConnell and also with Boehner, so it can hopefully pass the House once it’s kicked back to that chamber.

As best as I can determine, option three is the most likely. The key questions: Whether there is ultimately any kind of compromise proposal that can pass the House; how much Dems are willing to concede to make that happen; and how much spine Dems are willing to display right up to the drop-dead moment in order to force House Republicans to move in their direction. MORE...

Ari Melber: "Media Blows Debt Crisis Coverage With Balance Bias"

Ari Melber (The Nation):

Balance Bias (bal-ance bi-as)
1. The assumption that there is truth and legitimacy to both sides of every dispute.
2. The iron law in political journalism that one side in a debate can never be exclusively right, or have a monopoly on the facts.
 
This increasingly disorderly fight over raising the debt ceiling has not only exposed the petty dysfunctions of the US Congress, it has also revealed a core failure of American political journalism. The press has made the debt fight the top story for the last two weeks [1]—even accounting for half of all stories on radio and cable news—but much of the coverage has failed to tell the very basics of what is happening.

I don’t mean how this deficit was created (by tax cuts, Medicare and recessions [2]), or why the debt ceiling gets raised (in response to past decisions by Congress). That stuff matters, but at bottom, this is a story about politics, not the bond market.

This fight started with a partisan threat to sabotoge the economy in order to extract policy concessions, but then, when Democrats offered most of the concessions, it ricocheted and morphed into something else: a high-stakes lightning round of intramural GOP posturing. MORE...

Booman on the Debt Crisis "The Kabuki Dance"

Booman:

It's not a true debt crisis. It's a crisis in the Republican caucus. This whole dance has been for their benefit. MORE...

George Packer on the debt crisis: "Empty Wallets"

George Packer:

In the midst of the debt crisis in Washington, D.C., Danny Hartzell backed a Budget rental truck up to a no-frills apartment building that is on a strip of motels and pawnshops in Tampa, Florida. He had been laid off by a packaging plant during the financial crisis of 2008, had run through his unemployment benefits, and had then taken a part-time job stocking shelves at Target in the middle of the night, for $8.50 an hour. MORE...

H/t to Ari Melber.