Three reasons why the debt debate is nonsense

**Posted by Phineas

From Reason.TV, those reasons are:

The August 2nd deadline is fake.
Reaching the debt ceiling does not mean default.
And “legislation by crisis creates lousy policy.”

I think that about covers it. Can we cut the crap and get down to business, now?

via Big Government

(Crossposted at Public Secrets)

8 Responses to "Three reasons why the debt debate is nonsense"

Carlos says:

July 16, 2011 at 10:06 pm

The “debt debate” is about political advantage, pure and simple.

And since the Democraps are past masters of deception, lying and thievery, guess who’s gonna come out on top of this little fiasco? (Hint: It won’t be the Republicans.)
Lori says:

July 16, 2011 at 11:24 pm

I think Obama will delay sending out SS checks and blame it on the Republicans.
Carlos says:

July 17, 2011 at 12:29 am

Sheila Jackson-Lee has weighed in on the debate now, and not surprisingly there is a debate because the Republicans are RAAACIIIIIST!

Gosh, no one ever saw that one coming.

Sometimes I wonder which is the bigger idiot, and which is the least intelligent: Chucky Cheesy Schumer, Patty Murray or Jackson-Lee? (Obhammud is not part of this because he at least had the sense to play the system for a college education, albeit as a barely-eligible affirmative action student.)
Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup » Pirate's Cove says:

July 17, 2011 at 9:02 am

[…] Phineas offers 3 reason why the debt debate is nonsense […]
captaingrumpy says:

July 17, 2011 at 10:58 am

I have said for a very long time that if the debt ceiling needs to be lifted to pay for Americas loans then it would be better to default because Obama is going to borrow more. America can pay its way without borowing more,it is only doing it to but votes for the next election.It is NOT NEEDED to pay its way in the world.
STOP SPENDING NOW,don’t borrow anymore.
justfred says:

July 17, 2011 at 12:28 pm

Is August 2nd the dropdead date for the US to go into default? Probably. We all know it will happen eventually, right? Shouldn’t we deal with this now?

The interest on the debt is a “small” fraction of total outlays? Really? It is the single largest line item in the budget, coming in at over $430 billion and accounting for 13% of total outlays. Geez…I would hate to see what this guy calls a ‘large’ fraction! The interest on the debt is a full 26% of the deficit.

The government has other tools like…

‘Using cash on hand’? If we had cash on hand we wouldn’t have to be going farther in debt.

‘selling assets’? How long do you think it would take to sell a government asset? Should Geithner just put an ad on Craigslist? If we had a firesale to cash in on our $320 billion it would drive prices down. What could we get, maybe $50 billion? That would pay the interest owed for a month and a half if no other outlays were made.

‘scrimping on non-essential payments’? Define the term. Isn’t the Republican dream doing away with Medicare and Social Security? Are these ‘non-essential payments’? Tell that to those seniors or doctors who are counting that their checks won’t bounce.

Currently the President is proposing the plan which will have the greatest net reduction of the deficit but because he is asking millionaires and billionaires to pay a little more in taxes, the Republicans won’t budge?

The millionaires and billionaires are fine with it, so who, exactly, are the Republicans in Congress protecting? Maybe the better question is who are they attacking?
Neo says:

July 17, 2011 at 5:11 pm

Hey, but Dick Durbin told us today that Obama spent 12 hours of his time in meetings to avert a national default.
Gee whiz, that must have cut into his golf time.
Carlos says:

July 17, 2011 at 9:13 pm

Here’s a couple more for you, justfred: How ’bout eliminating the EPA? Seems to me that fits right up there in the “nonessential” category. Not only would we save the outlays dumped into that useless piece of government welfare pork, think of all the billions in relief businesses would be able to put into new jobs, updated factories, etc.!

Or the USDA? With as many food recalls after the fact that have taken place recently, seems to me maybe they could fire a lot of paper pushers (most of their employees, in fact) and hire some real inspectors whose job it would be to really inspect the food taken to market instead of dreaming up more useless (and often conflicting) rules.

Or Dept. of Ed? Seems to me, again, that the function of the DoE is to cushion and enhance the jobs of the union leaders, and to make sure the little ones are properly indoctrinated with the current P.C. standards. Very little (if any) effort is put into preparing children for the real world where bosses expect results, where “close enough” is not good enough, and where there are real performance expectations for every worker. And that doesn’t even address the question of whether the feds should be involved with education to begin with, a constitutional question if ever there was one.

No, from my perspective we don’t have an “income” problem as far as government spending goes, we have an “expenses” problem because the Congress, both the Republicans and Democraps, can’t let go of its addiction to my cash, and (like any addict with any addiction) until they admit they have that addiction they will always have a “cash flow” problem.

And, oh, BTW, the president’s “greatest net reduction of the deficit” is coming on the heels of the greatest net tax increase in human history, his beloved ObamaCare package that has nothing to do with lowering health care costs and everything to do with making sure he keeps significant portions of his voting base and limiting access to health care.

Other than those things and a few others (like he’s an inveterate liar), he’s doing as fine a job as one could expect from an affirmative action student with absolutely no experience.

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