7-19-11
3 Reasons Why The Debt-Ceiling Debate is Full of Malarkey
Uploaded by ReasonTV on Jul 15, 2011
All anybody in Washington can talk about these days is the debt limit or debt ceiling -- the total amount of money the federal government is authorized to borrow at any given time. After a decade in which spending increased by more than 60 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars and the debt limit was raised no fewer than 10 times, the government is about to max out its $14.3 trillion credit line, leading to fears that Washington is going to default on its bonds, stop cutting Social Security checks, and destroy the economy more than it already has.
But the current debate over the debt ceiling is full of malarkey for at least three reasons.
1. August 2 is a phony deadline. ...
2. Reaching the debt limit is not the same as defaulting on our debt -- which would indeed be catastrophic....
3. Legislating-by-Panic is no way to run a country. The reason we're in this mess is because government can't stop spending. ...
It makes far more sense to do something like sell some TARP assets -- the government is sitting on $320 billion in outstanding direct loans and equities investments -- to cover interest payments through the end of the fiscal year then force Congress and the president to come up with a budget that cuts spending -- and borrowing -- for real, next year, not is some distant future.
For more information, check out Nick Gillespie's 5 Uncomfortable Facts About the Wonderful, Horrible Debt-Limit Debate:http://reason.com/archives/2011/07/08/five-uncomfortable-facts-about
And Mercatus Center's Jason J. Fichtner & Veronique de Rugy's The Debt Ceiling: What is at Stake:http://mercatus.org/sites/default/files/publication/Debt%20Ceilling.deRugy.Fi...
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