Why do we have the debt ceiling? Why would Congress have an option of not paying the bills it racks up? Many bright people agree, it is something that should never be imposed on Congress' ability to honor previous financial obligations.
The blabbermouths on Fox 'News' Bulls and Bears discuss our $18.1 trillion debt. No mention was given to the primary parties who amassed that extraordinary amount since Reagan took office, because that would be holding Republicans accountable for their irresponsible fiscal policies.
Host Brenda Buttner began by repeating the advice of former wrestler, John Layfield: enough with the spending and more with the cutting. Layfield said the usual: 'we have a failure of leadership; America deserves better; under Obama, spending has gone on, unabated...and blah, blah, blah. Buttner then mentioned the scapegoat for all our problems, 'entitlements.' You know, because Fox must perpetuate the myth that those lousy poor people caused our massive debt, not corporate tax loopholes, wars and tax cuts for rich people.
Inserting a modicum of sanity, Jonas Max Ferris concurred with many experts that the debt ceiling is a ridiculous idea and it needs to be done away with. Because of the debt ceiling, we have to borrow at higher interest rates. Ferris says that we should do a little cutting when the economy is strong and enough with the debt ceilings.
Then the irate Gary B. Smith went on an anti-Greece rampage, promising that we are going down that same road. This fearmongering tactic is not new, Lindsey Graham used it four years ago. Everybody's share of the debt, Buttner proclaims, is $50,000 per U.S. person.
She asks the only other voice of sanity on the panel, Chuck Rocha, what are his thoughts on that staggering figure. He said, irrespective of that, the debts incurred must be paid. Brenda turns to the token millennial, Ashley Pratte, who always says that Social Security won't be around for her generation because we have to pay the debt down. We also need to shrink the size of government.
People of 'her' generation don't even understand the grandiosity of the size of the debt because we have always grown up with debt. She's part of the Young America Foundation, a conservative indoctrination program. Their mission statement:
Young America's Foundation is committed to ensuring that increasing numbers of young Americans understand and are inspired by the ideas of individual freedom, a strong national defense, free enterprise, and traditional values.
Not one real suggestion was uttered about real solutions, like trimming the fat off the military and taxing wealthy people and corporations at their former rates. A measly return to the tax rates under the savior, Ronald Reagan, would help substantially. No one suggests solutions other than to make the poor people pay for the irresponsibility of the wealthy, corporate oligarchy.
