If the government already has unlimited spending ability, why is there a debt limit?
Wow. Just…wow.
Wow what. If the government already has unlimited spending ability why do we have a debt limit that needs to be increased? Why can’t it just be ignored?
And yet they’ve shown they’re collectively unwilling to cut spending, raise revenues, or raise the debt limit in a timely manner to avoid just this sort of clusterfarg.
Yay, democracy?
None, apart from the political farce we’re enduring now. If you amended the law to trigger certain painful-unpopular-but-necessary actions when the debt limit is hit to balance the books - e.g., raising taxes or forcing spending freezes - maybe it would have some teeth (though it sounds like a slim “maybe” to me).
Do you have to ask yourself “how is babby formed” as well?
Well if what others have said is true, that the government has an unlimited spending ability, then why worry about the debt limit at all. Why not just spend whatever and only worry about making the payments on the debt?
No.
Are you the one I ask for a burger and fries or is it the other dude over in the corner?
No one has said that, you complete and utter fraud.
Edit: Read too fast. Jason loses!
Its an historical outgrowth of how debt used to be issued. Before WW1 all debt issued by the US government was directly legislated by Congress. Need to borrow money to shoe horses for the DC fire department? Congress would pass a glorious bill like the Patriotic Horse Bond Act of 1857,
WW1 occurred, and they were inundated with the need to issue new debt to pay for it. Rather than spend every day issuing bond act after bond act, Congress, being Congress - gave over their constitutional control of issuing debt to the Executive Branch with the Liberty Bond act.
They told the Treasury department to just go out and issue the debt, and stop bothering Congress about every little thing. To keep a fig leaf of Congressional control over the borrowing, they set a limit to how much of these bonds could be sold before reverting back to the usual mechanism of Congress directly legislating the bond sale.
After getting a taste for not having to bother directly legislating borrowing, they continued increasing the amount of money that could be borrowed to cover government expenses under the Liberty Bond Act - even after the war was over. Whats more, the paltry surpluses of the 20’s couldn’t cover the existing bonds - they had to keep borrowing just to keep paying off the older Liberty bonds. So it just kept going after that.
tl;dr version - why? to keep paying for WW1. Damn European wars.
Really? Did I mis-read Jason’s post? You tell me.
“The government already has unlimited spending ability;”
Yes someone did say that, and it was a person he was responding to, try and keep up now.
You are absolutely right, my apologies. However, Jason is not “others.” Try to not put words into the mouths of everyone you’re arguing with. Moreover, plenty of people have explained to you what that really means, and you have continued to ignore it.
Then why isn’t anyone in the media or government pointing this out? If it’s just a useless dog and pony show that doesn’t have to be followed then why is everyone making such a big deal about it?
Because the media is all about useless dog and pony shows. The debt limit is now just a political tool to play chicken with to pass your favorite unsupported legislative acts, and to produce campaign commercials in the Fall.
Neither party wants to get rid of it because they like the fig leaf of congressional oversight, and because they’re both convinced that they can use it to ram stuff down the other parties throat (or make 'em look bad trying).
The reason I’m asking is that the question you are asking (specifically, the one I quoted) is so idiotic that I wonder how often you have to change the drool cup you’ve got mounted on your chin. Despite what you may think, it’s neither deep enough nor leading enough to be verging on the socratic and lacks the barest insight and/or knowlege needed to even participate in this argument. It’s almost forcing me to ask if you are German or just willfully retarded.
Look I honestly did not know that the debt ceiling limit was basically irrelevant.
As far as explaining it, no not many people have tried to explain it but some have made an attempt to explain things civilly and I appreciate their efforts. More often than not I’m asked if I know how baby’s are formed or told my questions were insane or told me why it wasn’t a good idea to mess around with it.
Dude, I think the ketchup container needs refilling. Hop to it son or you’ll never get to be fry cook.
Don’t act the martyr. You know very well why you get treated the way you do. You jump into every single P&R thread and pick a fight with everyone. People are sick of it, and treat you accordingly. You made your own bed, if you don’t like it, leave.
He gets treated the same way as every conservative here does, for the simple fact they are not a liberal, you dont need to go any deeper then that.
No, actually. Off the top of my head rhinohelix, Linoleum, and wahoo are all conservatives that manage to have reasonable civil conversations without getting piled on. You’re just a whiny crybaby.