The Atlantic Wire - The Obama administration's proposed regulations for for-profit colleges include this interesting idea: denying federal funding to programs that, in the words of The New York Times editorial board, "repeatedly saddled students with debt that is defined as unaffordable under a new formula that takes earnings into account." In English? Unless the college provides a valuable degree, i.e. one that pays off in future earnings, the federal government won't subsidize it.

The Truth-o-Meter says: Half-True | Bill Clinton says his administration paid down the debt

UPDATE: This version corrects the percentage by which Clinton overestimated the amount his administration paid down the public debt. On the Sept. 19, 2010, edition of Meet the Press, former President Bill Clinton drew a contrast between his record on fiscal policy and those of the Republican presidents who preceded and succeeded him. Asked about the fiscally conservative tea party movement, Clinton said, "Well, first of all, I think that a lot of the voters who are voting for the tea party candidates have really good impulses. That is, they believe that for years ...

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AP - Ireland sold euro1.5 billion ($2 billion) in government bonds Tuesday in a closely watched test of whether international investors would keep buying Irish treasuries despite the country's runaway deficit.

Reuters - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Monday he would appeal to U.S. President Barack Obama to cancel a "dirty debt" of more than $300 million he said helped fuel civil conflict three decades ago.

CQPolitics.com - Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell predicted big Republican gains in the midterm elections and expressed hope that President Barack Obama would respond to a voter rebuke by shifting his agenda and compromising with the GOP on policies to reduce government spending and shrink the national debt.

Sen. Jim DeMint, Washington Post
Christine O'Donnell's win on Tuesday may have shocked establishment politicians and the media, but it was no surprise for everyday Americans who have been struggling to get Washington's attention.On Sept. 12, 2009, millions of citizens rallied across the country. They gathered in the nation's capital and other cities to convey a clear message: You work for us; we don't work for you. Stop the bailouts, the takeovers, the debt and dependence.

Sewell Chan, New York Times
WASHINGTON — Say there was a way to create a half-million American jobs over the next two years without adding a dime to the debt or deficit. And say it would also revive moribund Rust Belt factories, reduce the country’s gaping trade deficit and help stabilize the international economic system.All of this would occur, some economists say, if only China would stop manipulating its currency, keeping it artificially undervalued as a means of boosting its exports and fueling its tremendous economic growth.

Ezra Klein, Washington Post
Remember the good old days, when Washington cared about deficits? I do. President Obama signed an executive order forming a commission to consider spending cuts, tax increases and other reforms that would balance the budget. Sen. Mitch McConnell opposed that commission, but he seemed equally concerned: "Most Americans would say the real emergency here is a $13 trillion debt," he thundered.

Jonathan Cohn, The New Republic
It will force a lot of people to pay higher premiums. It will lavish subsidies on the private insurance industry. It will put life-and-death decisions in the hands of bureaucrats. And it will add hundreds of billions of dollars to the federal debt.No, I am not talking about the health care reform law. I'm talking about the Republican proposals to repeal it.Since even before the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act became law, Republicans have been vowing to get rid of it and to pass their own reforms instead. It makes a lot of sense politically.

YOU ASKED: Your television ad says the debt is $13 trillion, but I know I just heard that the deficit is ‘only’ $1.3 trillion? Is your information wrong? How did you come up with that number?

We wish the nation’s debt was one-tenth of what it actually is. Sadly, the nation really is $13 trillion in debt.

Bankrupting America’s new television ad — which shows a man digging a ditch to represent how the federal government is spending us into an inescapable pit — points out that we are $13 trillion in debt.

Many of you wrote in to question the number, noting that you’d recently heard the nation had a deficit of $1.3 trillion.

The confusion is about the difference between “deficit” and “debt.”

Deficit. The federal government’s deficit represents the amount by which it has overspent in a single year. (Note: the government uses a “fiscal year” which runs from October 1 through September 30.

Debt. The federal government’s debt represents the amount by which it has overspent in all prior years  (i.e. all of the past years’ deficits are added together. Debt is simply cumulative deficits).

A good analogy for this would be a person with a credit card. Let’s say this person earns $100 a month but spend $110 a month. The $10 shortfall each month would be the person’s monthly deficit, but after 6 months, they would have accumulated a debt of $60. Likewise, years of deficits have left the federal government with a gross debt of over $13 trillion.

Click here to see a supporting fact sheet for the ad.

Through the Bankrupting America effort we strive to present the public with only the facts and no spin. For this reason, all of our numbers come from official government sources:

Here is a link to the Treasury Department’s “Debt to the Penny” website, which updates the national debt every day.

Here is a link to the Congressional Budget Office’s latest estimate of this year’s deficit.

MIKE CRAPO
Member

Sen. Mike Crapo, a Republican from Idaho, was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1998. Prior to that he served six years in the U.S. House, and eight years in the Idaho state senate. Sen. Crapo sits on five Senate committees: Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; Budget; Environment and Public Works; Finance; and Indian Affairs.

Last month Sen. Crapo told The Idaho Statesman that he’s increasingly optimistic the fiscal commission will come up with a robust plan for tackling the deficit and growing national debt. Crapo said, “I’m much more heartened today than I was at the beginning of the process.” Crapo said the commission doesn’t plan to vote on any of its recommendations until after the November elections, but before the end of the year.

In his conversation with The Statesman, the senator highlighted the importance of reforming the current tax code: “The United States today has a very dysfunctional tax code … It isn’t fair, efficient or globally competitive. If the committee succeeds in addressing that issue, I believe we’ll have a larger, more dynamic economy and be able to generate additional revenue without raises to taxes as much.”

Sen. Crapo also suggested Congress needs to reform the system by which some spending is deemed “emergency.” The senator called Congress’ use of the ‘emergency’ designation “probably the biggest loophole we have today” and explained, “If we call it an emergency, it doesn’t need to fit in the budget, so you wouldn’t believe the things we designate as emergencies.”

Sen. Crapo has stuck pretty much to the party line when it comes to the most historic tax and spending votes. He voted against President Bill Clinton’s 1993 budget reconciliation, which cut some spending but also raised taxes. He voted for the 1997 Balanced Budget Agreement between President Clinton and congressional Republicans, which the Congressional Budget Office at the time estimated would cut the deficit by $127 billion over five years (we actually got to short-term budget balance much sooner).

AP - Prime Minister Brian Cowen is resisting calls for an early election in Ireland amid fears about the nation's debt troubles — and his own ability to steer the country through the crisis.

Jeff Zeleny, New York Times
WASHINGTON — Representative Mark Schauer of Michigan does not dwell on the legislation he has voted for during his first term in Congress, which includes the Democratic stimulus plan and health insurance overhaul. But he reminds his constituents what he has fought against, declaring, “I must ask myself 10 times a day, what is Washington thinking?”Representative Glenn Nye of Virginia does not mention in his television advertisements that he is a Democrat. But he expresses a deep worry about the national debt, saying, “I stood up to my party leaders and...

Reuters - President Barack Obama said on Monday Washington faces tough decisions on containing its spiraling debt and he hopes Democrats and Republicans will declare a post-election ceasefire to work together on it.

George Will, Washington Post
Looking back with pride, the British are commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, when Churchill said of the pilots fighting the Luftwaffe: Never "was so much owed by so many to so few." Looking ahead with trepidation, Americans are thinking: Never have so many of us owed so much.Actually, they owed slightly more when the recession began, when household consumer debt was $2.6 trillion. The painful but necessary process of deleveraging is proceeding slowly: Such debt has been reduced only to $2.4 trillion.

Jay Ambrose, Boston Herald

According to the Congressional Budget Office, extending all the Bush tax cuts would add $2.3 trillion to the total 2018 debt. The single biggest step our government could take this year to address the structural deficit would be to let the tax cuts expire. Such a credible commitment to long-term fiscal sustainability should reduce interest rates today, helping to stimulate the economy.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Daily Telegraph
The US economy has slowed to stall speed: successive quarters of 5pc growth, 2.7pc, and 1.6pc (to be revised down), the worst recovery of the post-war era. Such is the crush of debt.While last week's data was less bad than feared, it was still awful. Manufacturing orders fell to the lowest in 15 months. Some 54,000 jobs were lost in August and the broad U6 gauge of unemployment rose from 16.5pc to 16.7pc. The US needs to create 150,000 a month just to stay even. The social depression is getting worse, not better.

BEIRUT: The Finance Ministry rejected allegations that the open government borrowing from the market has contributed to the rise of Lebanon’s public debt.

Senator Bernie Sanders, Politico
The White House deficit commission is reportedly considering deep benefit cuts for Social Security, including a steep rise in the retirement age. We cannot let that happen.The deficit and our $13 trillion national debt are serious problems that must be addressed. But we can — and must — address them without punishing America’s workers, senior citizens, the disabled, widows and orphans.

Government borrowed 100 million euro more than it had planned by the end of July, although it no longer paid subsidies on water, electricity and gas and no longer subsidised the Drydocks, said Labour finance spokesman Charles Mangion.

The government had borrowed €100 million more than it had targeted to borrow this year up to the end of July , PL finance spokesman Charles Mangion said in a statement.

A Tea Party-funded billboard on Interstate 75 in Warren County vastly overstates the federal debt, according to U.S. Treasury and census data.The sign shows a picture of a baby and the words “I Owe the Government $240,000!”, which is more than five times the correct number.