Not buying it. The debt ceiling crisis was engineered soley by
the Republican leadership. The ceiling had been raised innumerable
times without incidence and should have been again back early this
year without roiling credit markets with partisan brinksmanship.

It was a self-inflicted fiasco which hurt our standing in the
eyes of our existing and future creditors and that was inexcusable
real damage for no reason except to try to score some political
points in a futile and stupid display.

It reflected most poorly on the Republicans and it likely cost
their stupid buttocks the election. All their own doing. Never should
have happened and now we all have to live with it. Dingdongs.

Both sides wanted it for their little projects both sides caused the deficit and both sides need to clean it up.....it didn't just start with Obama Bush Clinton Bush Reagan its been there all along and built with more entitlements which is what u r standing behind and the republicans as well for worrying about who contributes to their campaigns rather than doing what is right and as it should be done......that money helps get u into office those government leaders and it is all connected.......and they need to compromise do what's right and clean the crap up rather than adding to it.......will it be painful to to yeah....but people will just have to deal with it to get this country on track.

Every time the Fed prints more, the value of the item they are printing becomes less...

100 cents becomes worth only 40 cents... then 20 cents... eventually your dollar can but buy you a piece of worthless candy.

The road from one trillion to fourteen trillion is paved by Democrats and Republicans. There reaches a point where debt is so high that it cannot be paid back and the interest payments become a lions share of the overall budget. It is now 44%. Someone has to put the brakes on because we are breaking new ground with debt and insufficient economy to fund it.

I think the owner(s) of FOX news are criminals.

The debt belongs to everybody of course. But the "debt crisis" where
the Republicans waved the spectre of default in front of our now and
future creditors was the Republicans crisis alone. They caused it
in an immensely STUPID and FUTILE gesture threatening to default on
debt which had been accumulating for years and threatening those
who lend to us with non-payment. This is unforgivable and only hurts
ourselves when we need the good faith and economic cooperation of
others confidence in our commitments to honor our debts.

Those who played politics with our economy will not be forgotten
on election day. For nonsense they irreparably damaged our credit.
Now the possibility of default will be in the minds of any and all
of those we ask for credit. What a bunch of ignorant DOOFUSSES!



All those who threatened default should have to pay all my future
interest payments as they go up!!

Just about all the politicians are criminals Dragoness, Obama is not immune to that. I know you'll disagree with that, but he's just as much a part of the system as all the rest of them.

Really.......is there enough money gold diamonds precious metals in the world to pay back a debt like that.......and credit do we really need it? I believe we could cut our deficit by closing our border to imports manufactring and harvesting our own energy and resources. For once being responsible for our own and not others.....we r in debt to them but we take care of the world like we are its parents.........I blame them both for creating the situation of an unpayable debt and it has never been forgotten just hoped by the people that government would come to its senses and do what is necessary to fix the damn mess the government placed us in.

Not raising the debt ceiling and defaulting on the debt are two completely different things. The cuts required would have had to come out of other programs and the interest payments would have been paid. The whole "default" claim is false. We would have just had to cut back in other areas, like congressional pensions.

When Bush was president the Democratics voted against raising the debt ceiling. Blaming the Republicans now is a straw argument.

This myth has become so popular that it just gets worse and worse. The national debt is $14 trillion. That just isn't out of line with historical trends. It 's just a really impressive number. People just haven't figured out what to do with the "t" word. America is not broke. America's net national worth is 54 trillion dollars with a budget deficit of about 1.3 trillion dollars. (That's total national assets minus total national liabilities). That is not a country that is broke. That's just a country that doesn't want to pay. that's a cheap-skate dead-beat country.

This manufactured, so-called deficit crisis is directly out of the Jude Winniski play-book. Winniski was a Republican strategist in the '70s. He coined the term "supply-side". As the strategy goes, when the Republicans are in power, they spend like drunken sailors. The people love them because they get lots of stuff they want. Big tax breaks for rich people, lots of gifts for corporations and shiny trinkets for the common folk. Debt goes up dramatically, but nobody notices or cares. Then, when Democrats are in power the Republicans kick and scream and pound their little fists about this huuuuge deficit, not acknowledging that they created most of it.

The mythology will endure, because people are basically lazy. They will accept any analysis that is quick and easy to digest and doesn't require independent thinking. Sound bites. Even President Obama has found that he has to buy in to some of the tenets of republican ideology because it has been so effectively sold for the last 30 years. That is why we heard him pandering to those who call for "minor adjustments" in Social Security and Medicare and making tax cuts a major feature of his plan.

Unfortunately, the 33 percenters have managed to distract the politically active into believing that the election is all about the deficit, when the number one issue for the other 66% is jobs, but there is not strong voice to speak for measures that would remedy the jobs situation. Obama's plan will have some impact on jobs, but nothing compared to what could be accomplished by raising lifestyle taxes on the spoiled uber-wealthy. (BTW, weren't the "job creators" supposed to create millions of jobs if we gave them enough money? They are swimming in more money than they know what to do with. Yes, Mr's Boner. Where are the jobs?)

And liberal entitlements don't cause the debt ratio figures to raise.......I have no illusions to the fact that social security and medicare will be bankrupt and unavailable by the time I reach an age of collection...but you are fooling yourself if you think Republicans are the only ones responsible here

Of course liberal spending causes debt to go up. Just as "conservative entilements" cause the debt ratio to rise, such as tax breaks for Corporations that have record profits and pay little or no taxes and those $70 screwdrivers and $200 toilet seats and cost-plus contracts that characterize the military.
I am afraid that you have lots of illusions about Social Security. Medicare will be just fine if it is expanded to cover everybody.
Unfortunately, Republicans and Democrats have to share the American Government with each other. Of course both kinds of spending contribute to the debt. Who said otherwise? It's just a matter of how much you like the stuff you get for your party's spending. However, It is only Republican obstructionism that prevents the financing of the debt. Unfortunately, that obstructionism also prevents action that would solve the jobs problem, which is what most people are thinking about.

That's what's wrong with quantitative easing. It can only be used sparingly for economic stimulus. That's the way the Fed has used it. It has negative side-effects, but it is warranted in emergencies..

It would be wrong to assume that "just printing money" is a routine strategy. It was never even used before the Japanese did it in 2001. Money creation in the America economy has never been accomplished by "just printing money", and it is not even necessarily inflationary. New money is ordinarily created through normal economic activity, when somebody (business, especially) borrows money from the bank. If productivity increases keep up with the growth of the money supply, there is no inflation. That's why Clinton was able to help create an economic boom with no inflation.

I am really curious how social security and medicare will be fine. I mean with the devalue of the dollar and how much longer people are living than people take out way more than they put in. People are also starting to have fewer number of children. While more and more are reaching retirement age and living long after that with very high medical costs. Anyway I am gonna be smart and plan on not having it.

There are hundreds of articles out there by non-partisan and governmental sources that explain all this. I've cited them dozens of times. Anybody can Google them and read them.

Smart guy!

Good plan. That means more security for everybody else.