Obama ‘Regrets Vote Against Raising Debt Ceiling In 2006, Calls It ‘Mistake’

After averting a government shutdown in an eleventh hour budget deal Friday between the Democratic White House and Senate and Republican House that cut $38.5 billion, the next fiscal battleground will be over whether significant spending cuts will accompany a vote to increase the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling. The debt ceiling is the legal limit on how much the federal government can borrow.

Before casting his vote as a senator, Obama said on March 16, 2006:

 “The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. 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. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America's debt limit.”

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