So what's the deal with increasing the debt ceiling anyway?

I think the debt ceiling should be raised, and republicans should compromise with democrats to get it done. Anything other than this will make republicans look like they're holding up progress, and voters will be angry. This can have no worse effect than to bolster Obama's re-election campaign.


Most Americans would like to see major spending cuts, yet no one wants money they receive from the government to be cut. So in this way we're selfish. When my teacher friends learned school funding would be cut, they opted an attempt to impeach Rick Snyder.

Yet while major spending cuts are needed to balance the budged deficit and to keep the American economy from collapsing, republicans should be satisfied to get whatever they can get from a democrat controlled senate and executive office. This will prevent republicans from gaining a bad boy image.

This would be step 1. Step 2 would be to win the executive office, and then we can go for the gusto and slash spending. We need to take baby steps and fix this mess slowly instead of doing it all at once. After all, progressives didn't enslave the American economy with all this spending overnight. It took years and lots of planning.

As far as a crisis is concerned, there is no crisis. If America didnt' raise the debt ceiling bills would still be paid. There is plenty of money to pay the interest payments and to keep the government running. Talks that America will go bankrupt, that our credit will tank, that veterans won't be paid, or that the elderly and sick won't receive their checks is merely scare tactics with the intent on trying to convince Americans that a tax hike is necessary.

Don't fall for that trick. It happened in the late 1960s and early 1970s too. Yet even with that said, right now is not the time to go for everything we want. We need to raise the debt ceiling and then take it one step at a time. We can get America back on track, yet not if we put all our eggs in one basket.

Another thing of note is that Washington never goes through on it's promises to cut spending. Ronald Reagan passed a tax hike in the early 1980s because democrats promised to cut spending. Spending was never cut. So republicans must be aware of this history too.

I'm not saying we should cave to democrats. I don't think we should back down on our pledge to not raise taxes. Yet it's time to get a deal done and get a deal done by the August 1st deadline.