by Tim Bonney » Sun Jan 20, 2013 9:29 am
William,
The debt ceiling issue lies at the feet of congress and congress alone. They passed the bills which required the spending. Then they return and want to argue over if they should the authorize the payment of the bills they have incurred for money they already spent. It is foolish. It is like me running up my credit card and arguing that I'm going to refuse to pay what I owe because I want to blame the debt I've racked up on someone else.
The Republicans never argued with G.W. Bush about the debt ceiling or the tremendous debt that was run up during his Presidency even though it wiped out the previous budget surplus because he was their President. This has nothing to do with debt and everything to do with partisanship.
The President called it right when he said that the full faith and credit of the United States is not a bargaining chip. That is, unless you really don't care about what happens to the country you are supposed to be representing.
Frankly the debt ceiling vote should be eliminated so that when congress votes to spend money they are also voting that after the money is spent that they will pay their bills.