Flashback: Previous Debt Limit Votes Have Not Been Good Ones

Obama indicted himself in 2006.

http://rpc.senate.gov/public/_files/alternativestothedebtlimitincreasev20.pdf

This was the last stand-alone debt limit vote on which then-Senator Obama voted. He was one of 48 members to vote against the increase, which passed with 52 votes.i He said: “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 Barack Obama, May 20, 2006

"Failure by Congress to raise the U.S. debt limit "could plunge the world economy back into recession," - President Barack Obama, April, 2011