govt shutdown looms

[Danzig]

and this, on what happens if the ceiling isn't raised:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/..._mean_you.html

'Looking around the Web today, most grassroots conservatives and a frightening number of Republican members of Congress seem to be under the misapprehension that raising the debt ceiling increases government spending or that failing to raise it decreases government spending. Neither is true. I don't think anyone really knows what will happen if the debt ceiling isn't raised, but a reduction in government spending is not one of the possible consequences.

There are two kinds of government spending—mandatory and discretionary—and neither of them will be cut by a single penny by a refusal to hike the debt ceiling.'


and at the end:

'Spending is determined by the laws that have already been passed, and if you want to spend less money you need to change those laws.'