So the debt ceiling is a hard, unpleasant vote that needs to be taken in good times and bad. As such, it’s a hard, unpleasant vote that can go wrong at any time, simply because the politics of the vote are completely out of whack with the necessity of the vote. Republicans are admitting that when they choose to “suspend” the debt ceiling rather than raise it — this way, no one can accuse them of raising it, even though that’s exactly what they’ve done. The only problem with their plan is it doesn’t go far enough. We shouldn’t suspend the debt ceiling for three months. We should suspend it forever, completely eliminating the threat that this hard, unpleasant, confusing vote could go wrong and unleash economic havoc. ...Ezra Klein, WaPo
Altogether. Not just "suspend" but eliminate it altogether. Republicans wouldn't dare do that? Think again. Guess who the greatest debtors have been.
Here's a chart, put together by the House Budget Committee and the Joint Economic Committee in 9/2007 with this warning: "Over the past thirty years, public borrowing has averaged $233 billion per year under Republican administrations compared to $26 billion per year under Democratic ones – nine times as high."
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Kevin Drum extends the analysis of "real government spending" into the Obama era and finds that "it's actually declined during the Obama era." That, presumably, includes all that stimulus spending the Republicans so dislike.
What we have isn't a spending problem. That's under control. What we have is a problem with Republicans not wanting to pay the bills they themselves were largely responsible for running up. ...Kevin Drum, MoJo
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