Quantum Windbag
Gold Member
- May 9, 2010
- 58,308
- 5,101
I know, the apocalypse will be on July 8th, (excuse me, Aug 2nd,) but who cares? Other than whoever is in the White House.
Our Imaginary Debt Ceiling - Reason MagazineIt is reprehensible how politicians waste our time with whimsical notions about "debt ceilings" and "budgets." A federal debt limit is much like other government guidelines—e.g., "speed limits" and "filing taxes"—that exist only theoretically. In the past decade, Congress has raised the debt limit -- instituted in 1917 to restrain spending—10 times, and the U.S. has reached its ceiling 74 times since President Barack Obama's birth. So in other words, technically speaking, there is no ceiling. We might as well eliminate it.
It is likely that we will now witness another ridiculous debate on the topic, followed by another Republican surrender, because a measly $14.3 trillion cap won't do for a great nation. By now, you've also probably seen the quote from a once-chaste future president, arguing that even a debate about raising America's debt limit was a sign of failed leadership (Bush!). A signal, he claimed, that the U.S. government could not pay its own bills, that we were dependent on the assistance of foreigners to fund our "reckless" fiscal policies.
Obama was just kidding. Those were impetuous days in 2006 when Democrats railed against increasing the debt ceiling and Republicans—not yet having discovered The Road to Serfdom—were doing what they could to power it through. Today, via the magic of partisanship, the role reversal is complete.
But Americans, not yet properly tenderized by media and administration scaremongering, are still under the impression that a debt limit exists. And they like it. The majority of them, according to a CBS News/New York Times poll, oppose raising it. Just 27 percent of Americans think it should be increased, while 63 percent oppose doing so—a number encompassing 64 percent of independents and 48 percent of Democrats, all of whom, no doubt, are members of a nascent rightist militia movement.
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