Tim Geithner Sets Up Doom and Gloom if Republicans Fail to Raise Debt Ceiling

Day three of the new Republican Congress brings the promise of doom and gloom from the Obama administration if the debt ceiling isn't raised. That's funny, Obama said just the opposite in 2006.

“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure,” Obama said on March 16, 2006. “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. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt limit.”

Now, almost five years later, the Obama administration is warning that if we don't raise the debt ceiling, it will be a leadership failure that will be catastrophic for America. Tim Geithner issued the warning:

“Never in our history has Congress failed to increase the debt limit when necessary,” Geithner said in the letter, which was sent to all members of Congress. “Failure to raise the limit would precipitate a default by the United States. Default would effectively impose a significant and long-lasting tax on all Americans and American businesses and could lead to the loss of millions of American jobs.”

So what is it a leadership failure by not increasing it or by increasing it?