As I have written previously, default by the United States on its obligations would have a catastrophic economic impact that would be felt by every American. A broad range of government payments would have to be stopped, limited or delayed, including military salaries, Social Security and Medicare payments, interest on debt, unemployment benefits and tax refunds. A default on the Nation’s legal obligations would lead to sharply higher interest rates and borrowing costs, declining home values and reduced retirement savings for Americans. Default would cause a financial crisis potentially more severe than the crisis from which we are only now starting to recover.
-Timothy F. Geithner
It is true that we have a major debt problem in this country, but it isn’t because the government is providing necessary services to the American taxpayer, or even because of public employee unions either. The real problem is the bankstas, who have never ever met a debt they didn’t like.
Hitting the debt ceiling isn’t about spending gone haywire because the Social Security and Medicaid buckets are too small for the people that rely on these programs; it’s about the big-ticket items– like recently, bailouts.
-Nomi Prins
Oh yeah, and government departments that randomly lose several trillion dollars don't help either.
I'm not sure that increasing the debt limit is the main reason why the Osama drama trump card was played, but it is certainly the bigger issue confronting us, especially now that the boogeyman is dead.
So to make sure we're absolutely clear here, we're being asked to take on even more debt by the people who needed to be saved from their own stupid debt in the first place, and obviously, we're going to need to ask them to finance that increased debt for us. That's exactly why they are trying to scare us into raising the debt ceiling. Again.
Make sense?
