How to Prevent Another Debt Ceiling Crisis

Replacing a debt limit with a debt-burden limit makes both economic and political sense for the GOP. It would help keep spending in check and promote economic growth. A civil war is ravaging the GOP, and the root cause is the debt ceiling — an economic doomsday device mentioned nowhere in the Constitution, but nonetheless used periodically by one group of politicians or another to score political points. If Republicans were to think outside the debt-limit box, they could avoid this unnecessary civil war. The debt limit, as currently defined, sets up what would be an abrupt shock to the system, a granite wall that limits total federal debt to a fixed dollar number. When the debt reaches that number, government is prohibited by its own law from paying all of its own bills.  Presumably, the lower-priority bills would be the ones left unpaid, but that begs the question: which bills are "lower-priority"? (Government contractors? Housing subsidies? Military pensions? Social Security obligations? Congress hasn't debated and defined such priorities yet.) As wise as it might be to prioritize government spending programs, the proper time for Congress to do that is during budget deliberations — not during the short-run, smoking aftermath of an abrupt crash into the debt-limit wall. Besides, haven't we already experienced a sufficient number of abrupt financial crises for at least a generation or two? Via: The American Continue Reading.....