The Debt Ceiling

America has hit its' "debt ceiling". Did you know we had such a thing? Neither did I. That's because it's really not a big deal at all. We've reached this artificial limit bunches of times before and Congress simply increases it, with no muss, no fuss. We raised our debt ceiling 9 or 10 times during the Bush years, virtually automatically. Because if we don't, the government is officially in default. And everyone agrees this would be a very bad thing.

In the near term, we'll "borrow" from the federal pension system, which will forestall default until August. Until then, conservative Republicans, led by Speaker John Boehner, will try like hell to hold us hostage over the whole deal. Boehner says he'll agree to raise the debt ceiling only if the President agrees to massive federal spending cuts, like $400 billion in the next year! There's no connection between one and the other, and no respectable economist endorses this idea. Most think it'd be a disaster for our economic recovery.

Eventually, the grandstanding will stop and we'll raise the limit. But until then, "The Boner" will remain stiff and unbending, so to speak, in his insistence on both spending cuts and tax cuts -- a ridiculous position which nonetheless plays well with the idiot class of rednecks.

Hey, Orange Face! You wanna get serious about increasing income and decreasing expenses? Then repeal the Bush tax cuts and end the two Bush wars! That would do it.