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Republicans Threaten To Stifle Business "...while corporate America wants to head off market turmoil and the economic uncertainty that debt-limit drama might bring, Republicans want to use the threat of a debt-limit standoff to extract the biggest spending cuts possible."
Get Rid Of The Debt Ceiling - Business Insider
Joe Weisenthal | Nov. 11, 2012
Get Rid Of The Debt Ceiling - Business Insider
Joe Weisenthal | Nov. 11, 2012
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...there is one change that could be made without hurting anyone: Getting rid of the debt ceiling.
The debt ceiling is a stupid, arbitrary rule that says Congress has to authorize going into more debt, beyond just the vote on the budget itself. It's the #1 source of vulnerability for the U.S. government. Because the U.S. can create its own money, there's zero chance of default, unless a committed opposition uses the debt ceiling as leverage to go too far. When S&P downgraded the U.S. credit rating after the last debt ceiling debacle (a downgrade, by the way, which had zero effect on anything) it identified that the biggest threat to the U.S. was politics, not actual debt loads. Eliminating the debt ceiling would defuse this one political vulnerability.
<snip>
This argument might still hold some water if not for the fact that the sequester (the future spending cuts agreed to in debt ceiling fight) is loathed by both parties. Everybody now hates what the Boehner Rule hath wrought.
In the best of times the Debt Ceiling is a pointless technical vote. In the worst of times, it's an opportunity for one side to hold the nation's economy hostage. At no time, is it a useful mechanism for constraining spending, or having a debate on anything.
With the government set to debate a whole range of fiscal issues in the coming weeks (or months) no move would be more conducive to stability than getting rid of the debt ceiling. And nobody would be hurt either, which can't be said for any other change in our fiscal system.