The US Debt Ceiling: The Illusion of Default...

I have listened to our politicians from both parties, our president, administration officials, and all the "experts" all talk about how catastrophic it would be if we don't raise our debt ceiling and pay our debts. I truly believe it is nothing more than scare tactics to get America to accept raising the credit limit on our government credit card. And, as most of America is sadly under-informed, it seems to work time and again. But let's cut through the scare talk and look at the facts...

Our government brings in $250 billion dollars of revenue each month. We pay out in interest about $23 billion in interest payments- the remainder is what we use to run our government, pay social security, Medicare, Medicade, our soldiers, et al. That's two hundred and twenty seven billion dollars per month. To put it into perspective, that is two hundred and twenty seven thousand million dollars each month. And our politicians can't seem to create a budget that balances. On an annual basis that's $3 trillion dollars to budget, or three million millions! Most of us can visualize the enormity of a million dollars- now multiply that by three million more and you start to realize the enormity of our government waste...

One ex-treasury official spoke out yesterday, concerning the debit ceiling and the threat of America's default. Interestingly enough he wasn't playing Chicken Little like all other "insiders", claiming the sky is falling with our default. Instead he proposed an interesting solution. It seems that a part of our $17 trillion dollar debt is money our government actually borrowed from itself- some $2 trillion dollars worth of debt. He proposed that we forgive the money we owe ourselves- that $2 trillion dollars. The only debt we would default on then would be debt we owe ourselves. Our government would instantly be $2 trillion dollars under its ceiling and we wouldn't face another debt ceiling crisis for about two years- if we cannot curb in Obama and the Senate Democrats spending. If we do manage to curb it we may never reach that ceiling again...

 Personally, I'd like to see a budget that accounts for the $2.724 trillion dollars we have left after our interest payments. Constitutionally our Congress is required to pass one. Constitutionally the President is required to present one. Why have we gone the entire Obama presidency without a budget being passed? The Republican House of Representatives have presented several budgets, only to be shot down in the Democratic-held Senate, who then chose not to offer one of their own. The President has done nothing to offer a budget- why? Because if there are no budget restraints Obama and the Democrats feel they can spend whatever they want on whatever they want! They have nothing to hold them in check, and, consequently, they have run up more debt than every other president and administration combined! It's time we stand up, as Americans (forget Democrat or Republican, Libertarian or Independent) and DEMAND an accounting of all the revenues our politicians spend, demand a budget, and demand to cut wasteful spending.

I'd like to see a constitutional amendment that ties a politician's term to the performance of his duties. If they fail to do their constitutionally mandated job, like passing an annual budget, we should be able to remove them through a special election and install someone willing to do the job. And that means it starts with the president and flows down. If these political "lifers" knew they could be replaced every year they don't perform I'd be willing to bet they'd put aside all this partisan rhetoric and get the job done!
Food for thought...