The Debt Ceiling Battle

While the fiscal cliff itself may have been temporarily averted, Americans still have another issue that will soon be at the forefront of our politics and news: The debt ceiling.

The United States has hit the debt ceiling as of 12/31/12 - source

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says we have about 2 months of emergency funds left in order for the government to pay their bills. - source

To me, this seems like deja vu. Obama says he won't debate with congress and the republicans say that the only way the debt ceiling will be raised is if there are spending cuts.

Whoever thought that the bill that was passed last night to avoid the fiscal cliff put the country back on the right track is insane.

How much longer can the government be given an unlimited amount of spending power and leave the tab for future generations?

How much more debt can we accumulate?

USA $14.6 trillion
China $5.7 trillion
Japan $5.4 trillion
Germany $3.3 trillion
France $2.6 trillion
UK $2.3 trillion
Italy $2.0 trillion
Brazil $2.0 trillion
Canada $1.6 trillion
Russia $1.5 trillion

source

Will congress allow the debt ceiling to be raised in order to push the problem down the road or will something drastic take place? Thoughts please.

reply to post by johngalt722


They'll continue to get deeper in debt if we let them. America needs to stand up to these politicians and start demanding some sort of responsibility from our elected officials. They keep spending our tax dollars like there is no tomorrow and there wont be a tomorrow for us.

reply to post by JarheadFidelis


That is probably true. This has repercussions beyond the US though. I can't help but wonder what other countries are thinking or doing when they hear about this.

This debt ceiling fiasco is ridiculous. Of course the US needs to decrease its debt (and cutting back our ridiculous bloated blowing up brown people program would probably be a good start), but refusing to raise the debt ceiling would do absolutely nothing to help the current debt problem. Raising the debt ceiling is to pay for money that congress has already spent, and there really isn't any way that defaulting on that debt would help us in any way. This is just another example of republicans trying to hold the country hostage in order to gain leverage.