Vote on Debt Limit increase?

[joeydb]

Originally Posted by Riot

But the answer is not simply black and white: to eliminate fixing bridges, or completely eliminate Medicare or Social Security in my view.
Is that the answer in your view?

I'm certainly not trying to be black and white - but the decision to spend or not spend, is equally binary in nature. We must get to where the revenue exceeds the expenditures. I think we agree there. But I also agree with many who say that taxes simply cannot go any higher without hurting whatever feeble recovery is going on. Therefore, expenditures must be cut in order to get positive cash flow. Once we have that cash flow, the difference can be thrown against the debt.

The Medicare and Social Security Ponzi schemes are separate in that they should never have been enacted in their current forms in the first place. They also, independent of their systemic unsustainability, do contribute a major drag to our efforts to pay down the debt. If they can be fixed to truly be non-ponzian (not just delaying the inevitable, but making them solvent), fine. Otherwise, we should begin the phase out. We have to.

If the creditors no longer loan to us, the decision has been made for us, and the game is over.