The one thing that would improve the so called debate in this country is mandatory civics class.

That the American people are somehow oblivious of the separation of powers that put Congress in charge of the purse strings infuriates me: "Yes, we are responsible for spending as well as for paying for said spending, but never mind the man behind the curtain. Look over there, it's an obvious distraction."

What most people don't realize is:

A) There is enough money coming in monthly to pay the debt.

B) When POTUS says "Default" He is the one who chooses which bills get paid. "Default" is just a scare word.

What will Never Happen is the Fed needs to Live Within it's means.





edit: Never type before 1st pot of coffee

Default isn't just a matter of paying the interest on outstanding debt. The US has numerous other obligations as well you know. For example, in February, we will take in about 9 billion in tax revenues but have over 50 billion in obligations which much be paid. If ANY of those obligations are not paid, we will be in technical default.

It's just like if you run a business. If you have accounts payable out standing, that's not an interest obligation such as on a note or bond but it is still a contractual obligation. If you fail ti pay that, you are effectively insolvent, even if your loans and credit cards are up to date. I'm not sure what's so hard to understand about that.

As for the fed, the fed can't buy treasury instruments which haven't been issued and it is the debt ceiling that determines whether or not new treasury debt can be issued.

I think people need to read up on this before commenting on the situation here.

Who exactly are you talking about? The federal reserve? Any money they make has to go to balancing their own books. Not only that, they're, at least technically, an independent govt agency. If you're suggesting that the fed loan money to the govt, they already do that by buying US treasuries. Who do you think is financing a good chunk of the national debt? About 50% is held by foreign govt's and citizens but a good chunk of the remainder is on the balance sheet of the federal reserve.

And the fed is very happy to buy even more. The only obstacle is the fact that we can't issue any more because of the debt ceiling and the reason the debt ceiling isn't being raised is because some morons in Congress think this is a "smart" way to advance their agenda.

If you're not talking about the federal reserve, then I don't know what you ARE talking about or where that $180M figure is coming from.

And therein lies the fallacy of their argument. Why don't you see that? The bills we have to pay are the result of laws that these same people have passed - including TAX CUTS that they have pushed through that have had NO ASSOCIATED CUTS in spending!!! If you can't see the hypocrisy there, I don't know what else I can say.

The purpose of the debt ceiling is ONLY, and I repeat, ONLY to allow Congress to allow the Treasury to raise chunks of money rather than having get permission from Congress to raise money for the anticipated cost of each and every bill that Congress passes or for the annual cost of each existing govt program. Before the debt ceiling, that's how things worked. The debt ceiling was instituted to streamline the process. It was NOT instituted to be used as a bargaining chip. And if the pubs and baggers insist on forcing a showdown on this, they WILL lose. They have already shown themselves to be in the minority of public opinion not to mention inept.