Vote on Debt Limit increase?

[Danzig]

please, read this article. i'm for lowered spending, but not cutting ones nose off to spite ones face. the debt ceiling must be raised.

http://www.slate.com/id/2294209/


some excerpts:


The ceiling relates only to the total amount of debt the Treasury is allowed to issue. In and of itself, it does nothing to constrain spending, raise taxes, or otherwise improve the country's fiscal situation.



The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office may have explained the dangerous pointlessness of the debt ceiling best: "By itself, setting a limit on the debt is an ineffective means of controlling deficits because the decisions that necessitate borrowing are made through other legislative actions," it writes. "By the time an increase in the debt ceiling comes up for approval, it is too late to avoid paying the government's pending bills without incurring serious negative consequences."

Yet, in the past decade or two, the ceiling has transformed from useless political relic to handy political football: Whenever the country comes close to hitting the limit, the opposition party—whether Republican or Democratic—seizes the opportunity to thwack the other side and refuses to vote to lift it.

At some point, Congress needs to raise the debt ceiling. Until it does, Treasury is moving money around to continue meeting the country's obligations. But it can only do so until Aug. 2. Then, the country will start to default. That might mean not sending out Social Security checks. Eventually, it might even mean failing to make scheduled coupon payments on bonds—raising the possibility of throwing the world markets into turmoil and causing a worse economic crisis than the recession itself.