Tuesday’s sharply upgraded forecasts for growth in US national debt over the ext decade could hardly have come at a worse time for Barack Obama. Shortly after he was elected last November, the president let it be known he preferred the “big bang” approach to domestic reforms.

As Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff put it, you should “never allow a crisis to go to waste”. In other words, the financial meltdown was seen as an opportunity for Mr Obama to enact as many of his key reforms, including healthcare, within the first year of taking office.

But fears of the Great Depression have receded only to be replaced by mounting concern over the country’s long-term creditworthiness. Rather than shoring up the appetite for domestic reform, the rising tide of fiscal panic could threaten large chunks of Mr Obama’s agenda.

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Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • The U.S. Government • The National Deficit • Politics in General • Office of the President • President George Bush • President Barack Obama

1. Jeffersonian wrote: T-bills are only as good as buyers say they are, and they’re now telling us they stink.  Not to mention that eye-popping $9 trillion in additional debt is almost surely a rosy scenario, with $14 trillion a more likely scenario. The idea that we’re going to save a dime by Stalinizing health care is madness. August 26, 11:21 am | [comment link]

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