Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Does the US Debt Ceiling Have a Purpose?

People like this want to remove the US Debt Ceiling:

Kill the debt ceiling once and for all! - Salon.com
http://www.salon.com/2012/12/04/kill_the_debt_ceiling_once_and_for_all/

People like this see some dangers in removing the US debt ceiling:

Geithner: Raise U.S. debt limit to infinity
http://www.infowars.com/geithner-raise-u-s-debt-limit-to-infinity/

My take on it:

       If the democrats do not want the republicans to use the debt ceiling as a political weapon, then they should spend less and decrease the national debt. I see the debt ceiling like a limit on my credit card. It may not directly control income, budgets, or how money is spent (as the first article asserts), but it still limits how much I can spent when I ignore my budget and spend recklessly. To say it has no purpose at all is to ignore the whole reason for its existence.
           There may be other checks and balances within the government (as the first article asserts), but that doesn't mean we should get rid of this one. We need all the checks and balances we can get when the government is this corrupt and dysfunctional. The republicans should not use the debt ceiling to push an agenda that is unrelated to the debt ceiling. However, it seems reasonable to me for them to use the debt ceiling to remind government officials (both republican and democrat) that US spending and debt are not suppose to be infinite!

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