leadership failure: then and now

The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. … Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. ~ Senator Obama, 2006

In the past, raising the debt ceiling was routine. Since the 1950s, Congress has always passed it, and every President has signed it. President Reagan did it 18 times. George W. Bush did it 7 times. ~ President Obama 2011

From Hot Air:

Obama voted against the debt-ceiling increase in 2006. He didn’t vote at all on the increases in 2007 and 2008, which combined raised the ceiling by $1.65 trillion, or about two-thirds of the one-time increase he seeks now. Given that Obama was running for President in 2007 and 2008, one can presume that he didn’t want to have that kind of a vote on his record for the campaign, which gives us a real indication of just how routine Obama felt a debt-ceiling hike was then, too.

Obama talks the talk now, but when it came time to cast his own votes when it counted, Obama walked … away.

Read more here, Obamateurism of the Day: Voting present.

From Instapundit:

A reader emails:

In his speech tonight, President Obama made sure to mention that President Reagan raised the debt ceiling 18 times during his presidency. By my math, that’s more than once every six months while he was in office. And yet, now it’s dangerous to only extend the debt ceiling for 6 months. Can someone get President Obama to explain what’s changed?