donheff
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
I recently read a poll indicating that over 80% of the American public believe we should not raise the debt limit. I am curious about how people here feel on the topic. Most countries have no debt ceiling. They borrow what they need to borrow and default if they can't handle their debt. In the US we have a ceiling which means we can't borrow what we need unless explicitly authorized. Failure to authorize means we default whether we could handle the debt or not. In the opinion of some, this generates false crises that could precipitate a financial catastrophe. In the opinion of others this offers a circuit breaker that encourages action on the deficit. So, do you think we should eliminate the debt ceiling so that going forward we would deal strictly with the budget without the constraints of artificial debt ceiling crises? Leave the existing requirements in place so that we periodically have to authorize our lending? Eliminate the ceiling with some sort of provision (triggers) for mandatory actions to deal with debt (e.g. funding freezes, or whatever when the debt to GDP ration reaches some predetermined point)?
Edit: question 3 has a typo ("as some level..." should be "at some level...)
Edit: question 3 has a typo ("as some level..." should be "at some level...)