President Obama says his 2006 vote against raising the debt limit was "political" and that he wasn't thinking about "what was important for the country.

Here's what Obama told ABC News's George Stephanopoulos: "I think that it’s important to understand the vantage point of a senator versus the vantage point of a ... president. When you’re a senator, traditionally what’s happened is, this is always a lousy vote. Nobody likes to be tagged as having increased the debt limit for the United States by a trillion dollars. ... As president, you start realizing: 'You know what? We -- we can’t play around with this stuff. This is the full faith in credit of the United States.' And so that was just a example of a new senator, you know, making what is a political vote as opposed to doing what was important for the country. And I’m the first one to acknowledge it."

So you're bashing Obama for recognizing and actually being honest about prior poor decisions and the fact that he's learned some things since then?

Because the impact of not raising the debt ceiling really would be seriously bad.

Sorry - I don't buy it. But who cares. Lets just keep kicking the can down the road.

In all seriousness, I'm more pissed at Boner (sic) and his ilk than the Dems. I expect the Dems to want to spend us into oblivion. Republicans aren't doing what they were elected to do.

You realize the dollar would be totally worthless like a month after the deadline passes due to every bondholder in the world dumping them as fast as possible as the US stops paying on them, right?

The dollar already is totally worthless, and bondholders are already dumping them as fast as possible. PIMCO dropped 100% of its bonds held in it's Total Return Fund weeks ago. Regardless of wether or not this deadline is extended, we are well past the point of redemption. The Dollar will fail; the world knows it, and savy investors are already abandoning the sinking ship. Stop scape-goating.

Whatever though.

Because the impact of not raising the debt ceiling really would be seriously bad.

or they raise taxes to the point of rebellion.

This is why I can't take you seriously.

Figure out the tax burden required to support over 100,000 billion in debt (ignoring that more will be added to this pile). Tell me if you be willing to be taxed at this rate. You can use figures from http://www.usdebtclock.org/

I assume you've all seen to market plunge on open today. I assume you all also know it was due to Standard & Poor's lowering of US debt outlook to "negative".

I assume you've all seen to market plunge on open today. I assume you all also know it was due to Standard & Poor's lowering of US debt outlook to "negative".

The amusing thing is if it went up, you'd blame it on inflation or a bubble.

Well, to be honest, this is showing that it was right to blame its previous increases on a bubble, as now that reality is setting in, the bubble has (is?) popp(ed/ing).

When things happen rapidly, it's usually a correction robo-trading programs hitting predetermined buy/sell prices and driving the market into a volatile frenzy while the human analysts run around like frightened sheep trying to figure out what the f*ck is going on.