Playing Politics with the National Debt

“Austan Goolsbee was seriously, seriously out of line on ABC’s This Week,” David Frum writes:

At best the Obama economic adviser’s words represented a serious error under fire. At worse, they indicate an administration playing dangerous and ominous political games with the nation’s credit.

ON WHAT THE IMMEDIATE ECONOMIC EFFECT WOULD BE IF CONGRESS DOES NOT RAISE THE DEBT CEILING, GOOLSBEE SAID: “This is not…this is not a game. You know, the debt ceiling is not…is not something to toy with. That’s the…the…if we hit the debt ceiling, that’s the…essentially defaulting on our obligations, which is totally unprecedented in American history. The impact on the economy would be catastrophic. I mean, that would be a worse financial economic crisis than anything we saw in 2008.

“As I say, that’s not a game. I don’t see why anybody’s talking about playing chicken with the…with the debt ceiling.

“If…if we get to the point where you’ve damaged the full faith and credit of the United States, that would…that would be the first default in history caused purely by insanity.”

Here’s a suggestion: If you don’t want people to play chicken with the debt ceiling, then DON’T PLAY CHICKEN WITH THE DEBT CEILING.

Here is the correct answer to Jake Tapper’s question:

“Jake, there is no possibility that the Congress of the United States will decline to meet the obligations of the United States. We share with the new majority in the House of Representatives a commitment to move toward a balanced budget in the months ahead. But there is no possibility that the Congress of the United States will decline to meet the obligations of the United States.”

Repeat as needed.

Read the whole thing. The administration is fortunate though, that ABC has created a public-access TV show so that the more inexperienced members of the team can hone their chops and polish their video skills without the pressure of an actual audience watching.

That also holds true for the show’s regular host, as well.