PETER SUDERMAN: Yes, we’ve raised the debt limit many times before. That’s the problem. “The White House argues that a clean hike is the only way to avoid a potential downgrade of the nation’s creditworthiness. If the GOP resists authorizing a hike in the limit, political instability will make creditors wary of further lending, raising the nation’s borrowing costs and destabilizing the global economic system. Perhaps they should pay a little more attention to what the big credit rating agencies are actually saying.”

Nothing says good credit risk like a commitment to unlimited increases in debt!