during the time of a father and son both becoming president. I suspect Abigail Adams would be proud of the work they both did. It was an even greater honor to have served in the military under Ronald Reagan.

Mt. Rushmore would not be enough. He needs a seperate tribute.

It is just a curious observation that the two worst presidents also served during my lifetime and no democrat president has been worth a damn.

No other serious country in the world has a debt ceiling, it’s an absurd thing to have in the first place. A near century old relic that’s never ever had any practical effects. Governments aren’t like corporations and they certainly aren’t like households. Politicians try to appeal to people with simple examples to illustrate economic points, but the debt ceiling business is a clear example of when that becomes destructive.

If we fail to pass the debt ceiling hike we would absolutely, undoubtedly fall back into a recession, likely a deep one, and our currency and credit rating would collapse. And it would all be blamed on Republicans. 2012 would be a bloodbath. Pass the debt ceiling hike in exchange for substantial and meaningful cuts and if possible some credible first steps to dealing with the long-term deficit. Because THAT’S what really matters. A plan that phases in deep and meaningful cuts over a decade+ (Ryan and Simpson-Bowles are both examples of that) is much much better than failing to raise the debt ceiling and either defaulting or instituting massive, massive, massive cuts over a very very short time period.

Though I do suppose there needs to be a significant contingent of folks like you for the “We’re not raising the debt ceiling unless you give us some damned cuts” threat to be credible.

It’s fine and honorable to admit that you don’t understand something enough to have a position on it. But to instead say that you’re basing your position on your gut feeling undermines credibility.

This is a very unserious post about a very serious topic. We would be blamed for the economic collapse that came with this.

I think it’s just because it’s always an ‘emergency’ or the ‘world will collapse’ argument out of DC! And if it’s too complicated to understand, I would say let’s give it a try anyway.

After seeing the townhalls where the supposed Representative was unaware of a current event or issue with the bills, I believe that we know best.

“The government has two choices in front of them: Raise the debt ceiling and continue to borrow while making minimal effort to control spending; or, cut the allowance and force them to end this madness.”

Sorry, but the right answer is neither. The only way to avoid raising the debt ceiling (eventually) would be to balance the budget IMMEDIATELY. Not just cutting discretionary spending, but also Defense (in the middle of 3 wars), Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc. Each of these are complicated and will take time – especially with a Dem President and Senate.

It is also irresponsible (and in the not-too-distant future disasterous) to raise the debt with “minimal effort” to control spending. We’re rapidly getting to the point where our bond rating and ability to borrow will suffer, which will make the deficit reductions even harder to effect.

Therefore, there MUST be tied together – REAL spending cuts coupled with the agreement to raise the debt ceiling.

“Former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill compared lawmakers trying to block raising the debt ceiling to ‘al Qaeda terrorists.’” See here. Good work, Ben. You must be right.

Indeed, this seems to fit with a principle noted in the Washington Examiner:

“blockquote”…the suspicion is forming that being singled out by Obama as a target and foil may not be a very bad thing.

A month into his term, Obama (approval rating then in the high 60s) squared off with Dick Cheney (approval rating 19 percent) over “torture” and the detention of prisoners. Cheney won that one, and began his slow climb out of the cellar; (and Obama ultimately was forced to embrace the Bush-Cheney protocols).

That done, Obama tried to marginalize Fox News and Rush Limbaugh. They are still here.

Next, Obama and friends tried to make the Tea Party toxic: It dominated the months up to the 2010 midterms, put an end to Obama’s transformative visions, and showed Madam Speaker the door.

In the last days of the campaign for that election, Obama made then-House Minority Leader John Boehner a target and foil; he is now Mister Speaker.

And no one was more of a foil than George W. Bush, blamed by Obama for all of his problems (including the debt, which he himself tripled). Bush ended 2010 with a major best-seller, and sometime before the year ended his ratings and Obama’s converged.”/blockquote”

I agree with you.
P.S. Please pardon my first attempt at a blockquote if it doesn’t turn out.

From a blurb he wrote up for an NRO survey of economists:

A parent gives his irresponsible child a credit card. That child maxes out the card by paying only the first month’s installment of an incredibly expensive annual subscription.

The parent confiscates the credit card to prevent new irresponsible spending. He must still, however, pay the existing credit-card debt. He must also honor the remainder of the contract his child has signed, even if doing so means he must incur more credit-card debt and ask for an increase in his credit-card limit. Unless he is willing to risk bankruptcy or a lawsuit, he must honor the financial obligations his family member incurred.

The parent has control only over new spending commitments, and he must now severely cut back on those. He places his child on a strict allowance and cuts spending throughout the family budget.

Congress must raise the debt limit. Not doing so would eventually lead to defaulting on Treasury bonds, a potentially catastrophic event. Along with that debt limit, Congress should impose a statutory cap on all non-interest spending.

The president and his allies will demand a clean bill or weaker reforms. Republicans should allow them to try to pass such a bill. They should vote no but not filibuster. When it becomes clear that such a bill lacks even the simple majority needed to pass the House and the Senate, Republicans will have a stronger hand in negotiations.

and was able to reverse the Carter damage to our economy. I love President Reagan the problem today though is tht the Progressive Liberals have an unending source of money and it isn’t from Taxes. China will loan the USA any amount it ask for. we can cut taxes but China will fill the void with cash. At this time the only way we have of stopping the runaway spending is to stop raising the debt ceiling. i would rather go through another recession than to continue to borrow money just to feed the insatiable appetite of the Democrats spending machine. My vote is to not raise the debt ceiling. then let’s work on the spending monster. Tying spending to the debt ceiling will just waste time. we need to deal with each measure separately other wise it will turn int an even bigger circus. Cutting taxes is still a great idea though on top of the above measures.

When you have people like Marco Rubio making comments along the lines of “I’ll only vote to raise the debt ceiling if it’s the last time” then the party’s over and the Democrats have won. This is about as useful as saying “I’ll only vote to raise taxes if they’re matched X to 1 with spending cuts.” Don’t worry Charlie Brown, Lucy can’t possibly yank that football away this time, and Wimpy will repay you for that hamburger next Tuesday. Sigh….

The only way to have a ‘last’ debt ceiling increase is to make the previous one the last one by voting against this attempt and any future ones.

When your budget is out of control the first line of “attack” is to rein in spending. The reason is simple: if you do not restrain spending, then however much new revenue you take in you will always find yourself spending it. The same with credit: increase your ability to borrow and you will inevitably borrow more. This is as true for governments as it is for individuals.

Put another way, you proceed by limiting or reducing spending and then rationalize generation and allocation of revenue. You do not proceed by raising revenue in order to support existing spending. That is impossible for the individual and unworkable for governments. Obama cannot articulate a rationale for pegging revenue to whatever he wants to spend that is at all consistent with reducing the deficit and debt; it is simply a matter that he cannot satisfy his special interest constituencies otherwise. Just as hard cases make for bad law, pandering to special interests makes for bad economics.

Freeze the debt ceiling to force DC to figure out how to make choices that will keep it within its means. Prioritize payment of government debt obligations and salary/benefits for military personnel and let the rest of the chips fall where they may.