Can you spare a trillion...
Carney is exactly right; the debt ceiling debate increases public awareness and provides a rare opportunity for Congress to consider fiscal sanity as an option over the accepted Keynesian deficit madness that presently rules Washington and Princeton's economic department, wherein reside Krugman and fellow government spending despots.
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The debt ceiling does not seem to have many friends these days.
John McDermott at FT Alphaville, and Felix Salmon have all issued thrashings. The gist of the complaints is that since the debt ceiling will eventually be raised, all the political debate leading up to the eventual raise is just political posturing at best, and dangerous demagoguery at worst.
Yesterday I tried to provide a corrective to this view. The debt ceiling is a useful political check on government debt accumulation and one of the last vestiges of the constitutional mandate that Congress control the power to borrow on behalf of the United States government.
“One of the ways in which government is able to operate unaccountably—that is, outside of democratic checks and balances—is by facilitating public ignorance about its activities. The debt ceiling vote helps raise public awareness about the costs of government, keeping government accountable and increasing democratic participation."
I think Weisenthal is just plain wrong when it comes to the issue of public awareness. We—journalists, politicians, and just plain ordinary folk—are currently engaged in a public debate about the levels of debt accumulated by our government. This debate simply would not be occurring if it were not for our rapid approach toward the debt ceiling. As we get closer to an actual vote, that debate will become even more ubiquitous. A robust public discussion of the financial state of our government is a welcome development.
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Ron Paul on the debt ceiling...
Excellent clip.
Video - Jan. 8, 2011 - Ron Paul discusses how raising the national debt limit is inevitable due to the culture of spending in Washington...
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Here's another classic...
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