If you understand what the debt ceiling is, you can see how silly the entire construct really is. In essence, it’s a constraint that the government is guaranteed to hit only because it chooses to appropriate spending that causes us to hit that level. I keep describing it like eating a pizza and then tying your large intestine in a knot while you threaten your stomach not to digest the food. You know the food is going into your large intestine at some point because you already chose to eat it, but here you are like an idiot threatening your stomach not to digest the food. Of course, you inevitably untie the knot in your intestine because you know it would cause big problems if you didn’t. That’s basically what Congress does every time we run into this silly constraint.
Unfortunately, some politicians are choosing to use the threat of default to get what they want. And I think the last few weeks prove how utterly dangerous and unreasonable it is. Using the threat of defaulting on your own country is not a reasonable way to legislate. If politicians don’t want higher debt limits then don’t appropriate the spending. It’s that simple. No one needs the debt ceiling to impose this constraint. It’s dangerous and unnecessary.
