Has been updated: 40 minutes ago Release: 41 minutes ago
Confused about the debt ceiling? I was and I did some research. The debt ceiling is a payment issue. Payments of veterans’ benefits, social security, and other critical government funds are at risk. The debt ceiling is the amount of money Congress allows the federal government to borrow. Since 1960, Congress has raised the debt ceiling 78 times. 49 times under a Republican president and 29 times under a Democratic president.
The debt ceiling is money that Congress has already decided the US should spend, often from the last few years. I am unable to use my credit card to bill the item and have decided not to pay later. You may have to borrow money to pay, but you still have to pay. The US doesn’t have enough money to pay its bills, so it has to borrow money or raise money with taxes. Blocking the inflow of money by not raising the debt ceiling so the US can borrow more money, and refusing to raise taxes to bring in more money creates a situation of default. If we default, many government services and requirements will not be met. Global reliance on US economic stability will also decrease. According to financial experts, our debt default will almost immediately plunge our country into economic freefall.
If you think this is a good game and that refusing to raise the debt ceiling instead of actually negotiating future budgets is a smart bargaining move, then you may not understand the problem.
— Penny Goodstein
Anchorage
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