Why Any Debt Limit Negotiation?
January 16th, 2013
Headline in WaPo Wonkblog:
Top Bush administration economists: Don’t default. Do use the debt limit negotiations to rein in deficits.
Why should there be any ‘negotiation’ at all? What’s to negotiate? Raising the debt limit is not about spending more money; it’s about paying for what’s been spent, paying the bills. Negotiation is when there’s a question of how much should be spent; but the debt is money we owe. We can negotiate about how much should be spent in the future: that’s called the ‘budget negotiations,’ and that’s sure to be a doozy of a session. We can also argue about how much to restore of the funds in the ‘sequester’. But the debt ceiling? Not open to discussion.
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