Famous last words on raising the debt ceiling:

[dixiegrrrrl]

Geithner is calling for an increase..AGAIN...on the debt ceiling.
(for the sixth time in less than four years. Lawmakers last increased the debt ceiling almost a year ago.)
edited to add link:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704415104576065691721913276.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

President Obama:
March 20, 2006: This was the last stand-alone debt limit vote on which then-Senator Obama voted.
He was one of 48 members to vote against the increase, which passed with 52 votes.

He said:

“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can't pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government's reckless fiscal policies. … Increasing America's debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.”
*************

24 hours before they were installed into their Congressional offices, Rand Paul and Mile Lee said:

"I can't imagine voting for the debt ceiling." - Rand Paul

"We've got to stop this" - Mike Lee

Yesterday Rand Paul said:
"“I’ll vote to raise the debt ceiling if we attach a balanced budget rule to it. If they say no more debt will be added and from here on out we’ll balance the budget, I’ll vote one time to raise the debt ceiling.”
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/ron-and-rand-paul-disagee-over-how-to-fight-debt-ceiling-battle/

and lastly:

At her final press conference as House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said,
"Deficit reduction has been a high priority for us. It is our mantra, pay-as-you-go."

but this picture does not lie, Nancy:

[jtown1123]

1. Umm we have to raise the debt ceiling. Otherwise we are in serious default. These people are morons

incredibly dangerous ones at that.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. and every time we raise the debt ceiling, what happens?

Think it thru.

[Po_d Mainiac]

4. But gee, there aren't any parts of the budget

that could possibly be cut (cough/gag/wars), or ways to increase revenues left (cough/gag/top 1%/choke/bailout bonuses)!....just so someone won't fail to get my point
:sarcasm:

[Statistical]

5. Well technically we don't.

If they balance the budget we wouldn't need to raise debt ceiling.

Not saying they will or even we should (deficits are useful in a recession) but it isn't auto default if the debt ceiling isn't raised.


We have a $1.3 trillion deficit. Cut spending $700 mil, raise taxes $700 mil and you will never exceed the debt ceiling.

[Recursion]

6. 700 billion

You're off by about 10^3...

[Ozymanithrax]

3. Refuse to raise the debt ceiling and crash the Economy...

or raise the debt ceiling and give a another couple of years to pull things together.

What to do?
What to do?

Of course, Republians will probably crash the economy anyway.

[angryfirelord]

7. Should be a longer-term plan

I don't think capping the debt ceiling is a good idea by itself. If we just put a cap on it without doing anything else, then yes, we will have some serious issues. It'll be worse than the 1995 shutdown because now critical services will be affected.

What we should do is put in place a series of cuts to non-essential services and areas that are being wasteful. The Pentagon admitted on Sept. 10, 2001 that it could not account for $2.3 trillion of spending. There's obviously money being shuffled around that isn't seen.

As the economy recovers, we can look at budget freezes and decide what taxes won't impact the economy when they are raised. One easy thing is to lift the social security cap on earners above $100,000 or so. There's no cap on the Medicare tax and the world didn't end, so I think lifting the cap will ensure solvency for years.