Here we are arguing about raising the federal debt limit (again) as if it’s some obscure thing unrelated to the day to day operation of our government. Congress has raised the debt ceiling 14 times from 2001-2013. The debt ceiling was raised a total of 7 times during President Bush’s eight year term and it has been raised 7 times under President Obama’s term as of 2013.
The argument goes that the debt limit has to be raised because it covers spending that Congress has previously authorized. Ok, that’s true, but that means that the ongoing need to raise the debt ceiling reflects ongoing spending that exceeds the revenue available. If you don’t have to worry about the debt you are creating, why worry about the spending adding to debt?
Is it really all that complicated? Even as these discussion are ongoing the proposed solutions add to the growing debt. Things like repealing the medical device tax and delaying the marketplace reinsurance fee add to the deficit.
If the government went to a financial planner I’m guessing the advice would be no new spending until your income covers exiting spending levels (while paying down the debt).
Don’t worry, this is a work of fiction.
All this talking, rhetoric and blaming one another and in the last five years not one serious thing has been done to address the real problems we face especially related to Social Security, Medicare, the tax code, not to mention a functioning budget. Quite amazing when you think about it and testimony to our stupidity. All this and there are people who say America is headed in the right direction … so are the lemmings.
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
So we are grossly overweight with debt. We are talking morbidly obese in the 17 trillion dollar range. There is nothing like surviving a heart attack (debt default) to get people eating healthy and taking care of themselves. Things are going to be a lot worse if we just keep throwing down those Big Macs and Whoppers.
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Don’t be so confident that we will survive or at least be anyway like the same country after a default. No one knows exactly what would happen but most economists say it would be devastating. A default is preventable and we should demand that our politicians find a way to get our debt under control without defaulting or for that matter, shutting down government. It is irresponsible and we should not accept it. Yes our debt is out of control and our government has yet to show responsibility but that doesn’t mean we should accept an even worse decisions. It can be fixed and we just to demand that they fix it responsibly.
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It is true that our government needs to get its act together and start addressing the real things that you mention. According to those in congress, it is undisputable that they all want to do that but unfortunately they only think about taking care of their personnel agendas like repealing ACA. ACA and many other bills do add allot of potential future debt and those need to be addressed but until those in congress stop whining about loosing election and trying to make sure our President isn’t successful, we will need our debt raised. Some say we need to default to really get something done, but that is foolish. All we need is a responsible government but unfortunately we have one party that feels government is always the answer and another who only thinks government is the problem and ironically they are making government the problem. It’s no longer about small, big, conservative, or liberal government. It has to be a responsible government and that type of government will most likely reflect a little of everything.
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Maybe if we raise the debt limit this one last time, congress will get its act together and stop overspending. HA HA HA ….YUK YUK YUK.
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