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89
Number of times Congress has raised the U.S. debt ceiling since 1939.
200
Number of elections —including Janice Hahn’s (D) special election victory in California’s 36th congressional district — in which Republicans have failed to pick up a Democratic-held U.S. House seat since 1998, according to Smart Politics.
$86 million
Amount President Obama’s re-election campaign raised Obama for America and the Democratic National Committee between April and June, shattering previous single-quarter fundraising records and far surpassing the campaign’s stated goal of a $60 million haul. The funds were raised from 552,462 donors.
42%
Of those surveyed see greater risk in a potential default stemming from not raising the nation’s debt ceiling, while 47% are more concerned about more government spending if the debt limit is raised, according to a new Washington Post-Pew Research poll. Surprise — results fall along party lines.
74
Number of times the debt ceiling has been raised since 1962 — 10 times [PDF, p. 20] in the last decade, usually with the votes of Republican leaders, including today’s House Speaker John Boehner, House Majority Leader/tea bagger Eric Cantor and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell — all of which is more evidence that the current controversy about raising the debt ceiling is just bogus politicizing of a non-issue by right-wing extremists who want the government to fail.
18%
The low and seemingly entrenched congressional job approval rating that provides a suitable backdrop for negotiations as congressional leaders work to reach a compromise on the federal budget and the U.S. debt ceiling.
50th
Where Massachusetts ranked nationwide in job creation while Mitt Romney was governor. Romney claims to have lowered unemployment by almost 1% but a study by Northeastern University attributes this to 220,000 workers leaving the state. On the campaign trail, Romney says, “The governor before me lost jobs; the governor after me has lost jobs; we actually created jobs.” The first part is technically true (although, as stated, Massachusetts lagged the rest of the country), but the last part is incorrect.
70%
Of 79 of the “savviest political minds in the state,” including 42 Republicans and 32 Democrats, expect Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) to be re-elected, including more than half of the Republicans who answered the St. Petersburg Times’ Florida Insider Poll.
60%
Of Americans say “it is more important to keep Social Security and Medicare benefits as they are; only about half as many (32%) say it is more important to take steps to reduce the budget deficit,” according to a new Pew Research poll.
$1 billion
Cost of each space shuttle launch — 20 times as expensive as originally anticipated when the program was started 35 years ago. Oh, and the shuttle program was supposed to usher in an era of space tourism — memo to Richard Branson ….
