|
Robbie,
If we don't raise the debt ceiling we default in AUGUST.
Even if we make the most massive spending cuts that anyone has recommended we would still default in AUGUST.
Spending cuts are absolutely necessay. They won't be large enough or take effect fast enough to avoid default unless we also borrow more in August.
The time to cut spending was back when we were initiating two unfunded wars and dumping a trillion dollars in Iraq.
We had a budget SURPLUS under Clinton and not only dud we fail to pay down debt with it, we increased out debt dramatically.
If you believe we must pay our obligations and live within our means (as I do), it will require cutting spending, raising taxes AND borrowing more money for a period of years not months before we are back to where we should be. We will not fix decades of broken fiscal policy with two weeks of fiscal respondibility.
On the other hand, even if you mistakenly believe everything can be fixed with spending cuts, making all the cuts needed to avoid defaulting in AUGUST would leave senior citizens, poor people, veterans and others suddenly without the money they rely on to pay their own bills. The glib answer is 'fuck em' but the reality is when they all fail to pay their bills the people who planned to collect from them now cant pay their bills and the entire economy collapses from the bottom up. Add in much higher rates on any debts and downgraded financials and you quickly have a massive depression with breadlines that will make the potato famine era feel like a walk in the park.
We need a ten year fiscal plan. Not a two week, two month or two year plan that kicks the can down th road to the next election.
|