Debt Ceiling

[KeithE]

Economists are nearly in complete agreement that the debt ceiling "creates unneeded uncertainty and can potentially lead to worse fiscal outcomes.” Guess that is what the Republicans wants.

[William Thornton]

[KeithE]

[Tim Bonney]

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.

[KeithE]

[Sandy]

[William Thornton]

[William Thornton]

[Tim Bonney]

[KeithE]

[William Thornton]

Come on Rocket Scientist, how much of a trillion dollar deficit is $14.4 billion? Use your calculator if necessary. The big money is...where?

[ET]

[KeithE]

[William Thornton]

Hmmmm....you may have missed a rather large class of expenditures.

[Sandy]

[Tim Bonney]

Notice that the topic has drifted away from the debt ceiling?

The President has refused to allow the full faith and credit of the US to be used as a football for Republican brinksmanship so they are going to back off for at least three months. Why? Because now everyone knows that the debt ceiling isn't about new expenditures, it is about congress paying for what congress already voted to spend and in many cases is already spending or has spent. It is a ludicrous lie of tremendous proportion to claim it is anything other than what it is. How can anyone defend congress not paying its bills? How can anyone defend the notion that after you vote to spend the money you then have to come back again and vote to pay the bill?

The debt ceiling vote needs to be eliminated. It makes the US and congress look like one big joke.

[KeithE]

[KeithE]

[KeithE]

[Tim Bonney]

[ET]

[KeithE]

[ET]

[Dave Roberts]

[Ed Pettibone]