Thursday, February 1, 2018

The Real Issue in Government Shutdowns

On Dec. 20, Forbes ran "10 Things You Need To Know About The Debt Ceiling And Potential Government Shutdown" by Jeffrey Dorfman, and item #3 on his list is: "Not raising the debt ceiling does not mean a default or not paying our debts."

Default is when you can't meet your "Legal obligations," such as paying the interest on U.S. debt, and paying government contractors and suppliers.

The debt limit is the total amount of money that the United States government is authorized to borrow to meet its existing legal obligations, including Social Security and Medicare benefits, military salaries, interest on the national debt, tax refunds, and other payments.

If there's again wrangling about the Dreamers or any other issue unrelated to the debt limit, then you'll be witnessing government at its most cynical.

Congress could agree to never again use the debt limit to "Take hostages," and agree to raise the debt limit every time they bump up against it.

Michael Mullen said: "The most significant threat to our national security is our debt." It's easy to think that all the brouhaha about government shutdowns is a ruse, a way to divert the public's attention away from the real issue: the fact that every time they hit the debt ceiling, Congress invariably raises it, and gives itself permission to take America ever deeper into debt.

There'd be no need to raise the debt limit if Congress were running a balanced budget.

The latest year for which that revenue would have been enough to cover all federal spending was 2008, when total spending was $2.982T. And in 2009, the year with still the biggest deficit ever, 2016's revenue would have been just $250B short of covering all of 2009's massive spending: $3.517T. Despite that, Congress just can't bring itself to make the spending cuts that would balance the budget and keep us Americans from going further into debt.

What Congress has done each time to end these spats is: raise the "Debt ceiling," also called the "Debt limit."

In past shutdown debates, some have raised the possibility of "Default" if Congress were to not raise the debt limit.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/02/the_real_issue_in_government_shutdowns.html 

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