The Times They Are A-Changin'

Today at his press conference President Obama stated that the debt ceiling will be raised without any corresponding spending cuts.  He then said the following about the Republican plan to finally do something about the mounting U.S. debt (it now stands at approximately 16.4 trillion dollars) in the form of another debt ceiling deal:

In the final news conference of his first term, Obama said Republicans were threatening to hold “a gun at the head of the American people” and that he would not trade spending cuts, as Republicans demand, for an agreement to raise the federal debt ceiling.

What happened to the lessons learned from the time when Sarah Palin supposedly caused the shootings in Arizona that killed six people and injured now former-Rep. Gabby Giffords?  Wasn't rhetoric and images like this the cause of much of the violence throughout the United States?

It's interesting to note how quickly those lessons are forgotten by the exact same people who voiced such odious claims only last summer.

Moving on.

In 2006, then-Senator Obama voted against raising the debt ceiling and stated the following reasons why in a speech on the floor of the Senate:

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.

Wait, so now with the debt astronomically higher than it was in 2006, Obama now says that voting for the debt ceiling without spending cuts of any kind is the right thing to do.  Funny how times change.