Vote on Debt Limit increase?

[joeydb]

Originally Posted by Riot

You wanna know what we would have to "slash" for the remainder of this year and next in order to not increase the debt ceiling? $754 billion. That's physically impossible.

Why? If they can borrow and spend $862 billion as part of a "stimulus", why can't we cut an amount less than that?

[lord007]

How About Stop Spending Period??????

[Antitrust32]

Originally Posted by joeydb

Why? If they can borrow and spend $862 billion as part of a "stimulus", why can't we cut an amount less than that?

Thats what I was thinking.

we need to slash everything by 25% across the board. Starting with military.

[joeydb]

Still would vote no, and will call congressman and senators to try to persuade them.

Spend more? The answer is "NO!" Enough.

[Riot]

Originally Posted by joeydb

Still would vote no, and will call congressman and senators to try to persuade them.

Spend more? The answer is "NO!" Enough.

I wish you could understand the basic concept that the debt ceiling being raised has nothing at all to do with increasing our spending.

[joeydb]

Originally Posted by Riot

I wish you could understand the basic concept that the debt ceiling being raised has nothing at all to do with increasing our spending.

Well it SHOULD, should it not? Why are we spending more than we take in, ever, let alone for many, many years?

[Riot]

Originally Posted by joeydb

Well it SHOULD, should it not? Why are we spending more than we take in, ever, let alone for many, many years?

That has nothing to do with our debt ceiling, though. That's budgeting. And budget trouble started back in 2000, Joey. Yes, not from scratch, but we did some very major things to screw ourselves during the 2000's. There is no denying that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt_ceiling#Debt_ceiling

Look: if you are paying compounding interest rates of X on your car, house and credit cards, saying you no longer can afford to pay X, you want to pay X - 3, doesn't make those interest rates drop or go away.

You can say you refuse to pay that accumulating, compounding interest any more, but saying that doesn't make it go away, and defaulting on it is a financial disaster. There is also the component of the debt ceiling that goes to our cash flow.

[joeydb]

Originally Posted by Riot

That has nothing to do with our debt ceiling, though. That's budgeting. And budget trouble started back in 2000, Joey. Yes, not from scratch, but we did some very major things to screw ourselves during the 2000's. There is no denying that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt_ceiling#Debt_ceiling

Look: if you are paying compounding interest rates of X on your car, house and credit cards, saying you no longer can afford to pay X, you want to pay X - 3, doesn't make those interest rates drop or go away.

You can say you refuse to pay that accumulating, compounding interest any more, but saying that doesn't make it go away, and defaulting on it is a financial disaster. There is also the component of the debt ceiling that goes to our cash flow.

The way to pay X-3 in your example is to not take on any more debt, by slashing other spending until you are below what you take in. Then you have extra money not to spend but to pay down that debt with. You might then be in a position to negotiate a lower interest rate over a longer period of time. But at least at that point you have a workable plan with which to retire the debt.

The congress is doing neither. They are not cutting spending, and they always hit a deficit level of spending almost every year.

If you live above your means today, you will have to live below your means in the future to make up for it. That's just math.

So, let's bite bullet and slash the spending with a chainsaw, and pay down the debt. That means no debt ceiling raises. In fact, once we start paying down the debt I want a debt ceiling contraction.