To Raise or Not to Raise...The Debt Ceiling and "Reaganomics"

Yesterday (May 16, 2011) U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner gave a rough deadline of August 2nd for the nation's debt ceiling to be raised by about $2,000,000,000,000.00. That is about 14% of the current debt limit. It would take an additional two trillion dollars to keep America from defaulting on debts....WOW!!!

I find it amazing how the political arguments have shifted from one party to another on the major issues that our country is faced with...Universal Healthcare was supported by both sides at different times for the purpose of winning the popularity battle with voters. It was also fought against by both sides; with both drastically overstating and understating the ramifications, respectively.

Now we have the debt ceiling, which our current president voted against when proposed by his predecessor. Of course, the consequences [no risk of default] weren't as great then...but are as significantly great as in 1983 when President Reagan (pictured above) requested that the ceiling be raised. In a letter to then Senate Majority Leader Howard, President Reagan warned that without a higher debt ceiling the country would be forced to default for the first time in its history:

Reagan wrote: “The full consequences of a default – or even the serious prospect of default – by the United States are impossible to predict and awesome to contemplate. Denigration of the full faith and credit of the United States would have substantial effects on the domestic financial markets and the value of the dollar.”

Those that oppose raising the debt ceiling make accusations that "defaulting" is only a scare tactic used by President Obama and Treasury Secretary Geithner. Freshman Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) says that "breaching the limit would cause only a partial government shutdown." Too bad it isn't the part that pays his salary.

All of the citizens of this country that oppose raising the debt ceiling please take a look at Iceland. Do you want to go to the bank one day only to be told that everything that you worked hard for is gone? FDIC insured you say? If we are willing to allow our decision-makers (and I use the term loosely) to play a game of chicken with the national debt, then the money that’s in the bank is as good as worthless. The tick for tack politics of wanting to rewrite Universal Healthcare (some know it as Obamacare) for approval on raising the debt ceiling is unacceptable. The time for political posturing is not now. There is a looming crisis with a solution staring it right in the face. Call your political representative, whether they are Democrat, Republican, Independent or a Tea Party affiliate, and demand that they do what is necessary to keep the bills paid. Hold their re-election ransom. Far too many people have already lost everything; not enough people have recovered- let’s not let it get worse.