Hey, they’ve got a survey of 38 academic economists backing them up!
With the White House and Congress engaged in their second major battle in 18 months over the debt limit, some lawmakers, economists and analysts are offering a simple solution: Just get rid of it.
The U.S. is one of the few nations with such a borrowing mechanism. And as political fights over raising the limit have escalated in recent years, chilling financial markets and triggering the first-ever U.S. credit rating downgrade, critics said the time has come to make a change in Washington.
“Congress has gone from grandstanding on the debt ceiling to actual use of it as an economic weapon of mass destruction,” Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said. “It’s extremely dangerous.”
They sure do love their violent rhetoric whenever a discussion of the debt ceiling comes up, don’t they? At least calling it a WMD is a departure from the tired “holding a gun to the head” nonsense.
The article does give one paragraph to the real importance of the debt ceiling: it forces a public conversation about spending. True, Republican leadership hasn’t handled it well, getting run over by the administration’s hyperbole last time and appearing to be getting ready to do so again. The forced conversation will be much more fruitful when the GOP learns how make its case clearly and forcefully.
And beware of any politicians who seek ways to operate more stealthily.
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