We shouldn’t just raise the debt ceiling — we should abolish it.
It serves absolutely no purpose.
The only thing the debt ceiling actually does is give members of Congress a "trigger global financial crisis" button.
@rbreich Wait a minute: Abolish the #DebtCeiling just because it serves no purpose other than American ass-showing?
@LFpete @rbreich is absolutely incorrect in this, and it's really sad that he'd be promoting such ideas that are ignorant of pretty basic elements of US civics education.
The structure of the US government gives our representatives in Congress say over how much the country borrows, and it's pretty reasonable to say that the government shouldn't be obligating future generations into paying debts without strong buy-in from the population. So representatives have to approve that debt.
The debt ceiling is merely what we call the amount that we've decided, through the democratic process, to allow to be borrowed under our names.
Robert Reich is once again out to lunch on this one. Charitably, I'm imagining he knows better and is putting politics ahead of education.
@StOnSoftware @LFpete @rbreich
Representatives decide how much the executive branch may borrow, and that amount is the debt ceiling.
To say the debt ceiling does not exist is just flat out ignoring how the federal government works.
@StOnSoftware @LFpete @rbreich
That is not at all what is going on here in US politics.
The government bondholders are going to be paid, one way or another, since the president has the money to pay them.
The president is threatening not to pay them, but that is not his option. Joe Biden cannot legally refuse to pay bondholders when he has the money in the treasury to pay them, but he is bluffing about that very thing.
This is all ridiculous rhetoric, and Biden needs to be called out, and he needs to knock it off.
@StOnSoftware @LFpete @rbreich
The debt ceiling is just what we call the amount of money that Congress has authorized the president to borrow.
You say the ceiling needs to go away, but really it can't go away because it is simply the power that one branch of government gives to another.
@StOnSoftware @LFpete @rbreich
It's not, though, and that's the whole issue here.
The federal government never knows exactly how much tax revenue it will bring in every year. If nothing else, the unpredictability of the economy means it might bring in a lot more this year or a lot less this year.
So deficit spending is linked to unpredictable levels of taxation, so borrowing levels cannot be derived from other decisions Congress makes.
That's why the power to borrow has to be separate from anything else.
@StOnSoftware @LFpete @rbreich
That there can't be a debt ceiling is going to be news to all of us who are talking about the debt ceiling that exists 🙂
@StOnSoftware @LFpete @rbreich
It IS decision making.
The debt ceiling exists because there should be a democratic process to empower a president to obligate future generations to indebtedness.
The debt ceiling exists because our elected representatives should think hard about whether to authorize such generational action.
@volkris @LFpete @rbreich that is nonsense of course. Representatives make decisions, and they impact the debt. There is no such thing as a debt ceiling