Republicans Threatening To Not Lift Debt Ceiling

Republicans are threatening to refuse to lift the debt ceiling for the federal government. It is an empty threat, but nonetheless raises some very interesting issues.

If you are an American, you undoubtedly have credit cards. Let’s assume you just have one. What if you could spend up to the limit…and then raise your own limit? It would be a wonderful benefit, but also one that just might get you into financial trouble in the long run.

Well, this is exactly what the federal government does. By law, there is a cap on the total national debt that can be incurred. Congress, however, can raise this cap as it sees fit. In short, we have a giant credit card that has no cap and, as you know, we are now in trouble as our debt levels grow astronomically.

In a purely political move, Republicans in Congress are now making threats about refusing to lift the debt cap. We should max out our credit card sometime in March or April. If we don’t give ourselves more room to borrow, we will default on all of our debt.

It would be a disaster of epic proportions.

Given this, the current posturing by Republicans is just a show. Remember, most of these politicians have been running up the debt for centuries. The fact there is a Democrat in office doesn’t suddenly turn them into fiscal conservatives. Well, it does for political purposes, but that is it.

What of the Tea Party members voted in? Most were just traditional Republicans repositioning themselves as fiscal conservatives. Still, some clear Tea Partiers like Rand Paul did get voted in. What will he and the other do? Nothing. At most, they will angle for some political leverage, but crashing the economy is a bit extreme of a move in your first months in office.

Ultimately, we will see that the current Republican threat is much ado about nothing. Let’s face it. Time has shown both Republicans and Democrats are incapable of any fiscal restraint. There is little reason to believe they will develop it now.

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