When exactly does “Recovery Summer” begin? The administration is telling us things are getting better but they’re not

WASHINGTON, DC—“Recovery Summer” seems to be out of synch with the calendar. According to long held belief, summer is wedged between spring and fall, occurring from June through August. But August is here and the last two months haven’t shown us recovery.

The latest figures out aren’t encouraging or supportive of the administration’s schedule. The Washington Times puts those numbers in perspective:

“From a peak annual growth rate of 5 percent last autumn, the measure of gross domestic product slid to 3.7 percent in the first quarter of 2010 and was down to 2.4 percent by the end of June.”

2.4 percent? That’s anemic at best with a growth rate of 5+ percent needed over at least two to several quarters to pull the United States out of recession. So the administration is doing what it can to fix the problem—the problem of taking responsibility for the recovery summer non-start.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told Good Morning America’s audience to go back to sleep and wait for the worst to be over, when you wake up in a few months (or years) the economy will be roaring again. Meanwhile his boss blamed the failed policies of the past administration and lambasted republicans for not having any new ideas—that should get the economy back on track.

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Raising the federal debt limit amidst spending induced economic turmoil

Shadows of 1995’s government shutdown loom, but are likely to be dispersed by year’s end. The Obama administration had asked Congress to approve a debt ceiling increase by at least $1 trillion dollars or up to $1.5 trillion.

Record high budget deficits caused in-part by two ineffective stimulus spending packages, are driving the national debt closer to its $12.1 trillion statutory limit. The administration’s proposed expansion has already passed in the House of Representatives and would get the government through the November 2010 midterm congressional elections without requiring another raise.

Preceding a 2006 Senate vote to extend the debt limit, then Senator Obama said in a floor speech, “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.”

And now that Senator Obama is President Obama, those critiques no longer apply. Having already spent $787 billion on a stimulus package that has yet to produce any marked results, the President continues to champion a $1 trillion health care reform plan and has talked about passing another stimulus. In August, United States Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner sent a letter to congressional leaders asking them to promptly raise the existing $12.1 trillion debt limit, cautioning then the debt could have hit its ceiling as early as October.

The national debt ceiling already has been hiked three times in the past two years (Congress last upped the debt limit in February when it passed the $787 billion stimulus package) and passage in the House thereafter will raise the ceiling to $13 trillion. The fiscal year deficit for 2009 came in at a record $1.42 trillion, which is more than three times the record set just last year.

With polls consistently showing Congressional approval ratings in the tank and the Senate’s Majority Leader in jeopardy of losing his reelection bid and unemployment over 10%, the American people aren’t likely to react favorably, so Hill democrats are trying to add the ceiling increase to a Defense Authorization Bill.

Candidate Obama decried the reckless spending of his predecessor, and promised a new era of fiscal responsibility, President Obama now finds himself partnered with a democrat controlled Congress on the biggest spending spree in American history. Just as with most of Candidate Obama’s criticisms, President Obama has found it much harder to quarterback from the Oval Office than from the campaign trail.

-- Killswitch Politick

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