They absurdly equated not raising the debt ceiling with default, though nobody has yet explained to me how being unable to pay off loans is solved by taking out more loans. Isn't that just more debt that the government is unable to pay?
Finally, Democrats said that if we didn't raise the debt limit, the entire economy would collapse, stocks would plunge, and according to Pelosi-- "life on this planet as we know it" would come to an end. Seriously.
Well they raised the debt ceiling and guess what happened? Mere days-- you could even reasonably measure it in hours-- after the debt ceiling was raised, world markets took a jarring plunge:
"Stocks plunged sharply Thursday, with the Dow down more than 500 points, in its worst one-day drop since December 2008.
All three major averages tumbled into negative territory for the year as investors were rattled over an intensifying global economic slowdown and ahead of the widely-followed monthly unemployment report."
Now proponents of raising the debt ceiling want to tell you that this has nothing to do with the debt ceiling deal. They're already saying that this nosedive is the result of global uncertainty, commodity prices, and even earthquakes in Asia. They're wrong.
To begin with, you think rising commodity prices might be a form of inflation that has something to do with all the money the Fed is adding to the U.S. Treasury's bank accounts out of thin air in exchange for an IOU from U.S. taxpayers?
With the dollar as the world's reserve currency, you think the half trillion the Fed just created out of nowhere and loaned to the U.S. Treasury to spend might have something to do with rising commodity prices?
As for uncertainty and fear, you can bet your ass it has something to do with uncertainty. It is not a coincidence that markets crashed immediately after the world's most powerful and prestigious government started signing up for new credit cards to pay the balance on their other credit cards.
When an individual does that, we all know they're pretty much a word that starts with F. When the government of the United States of America does it, and anyone who points out how insane this all is gets called a terrorist hostage-taker, we're all pretty much a word that starts with F.
But wait-- there's more! Would you believe it if I told you the government has already blown through 60% of its new credit card? That in just the first day after Congress raised the debt ceiling, the Treasury borrowed $239 billion of the $400 billion increase to the debt ceiling? It's true:
"U.S. debt shot up $239 billion on Tuesday — the largest one-day bump in history — as the government flexed the new borrowing room it earned in this week’s debt-limit increase deal.
The debt subject to the statutory limit shot way past the old cap of $14.294 trillion to hit $14.532 trillion on Tuesday, according to the latest the Treasury Department figures, which are released on the next business day.
That increase puts the government already remarkably close to the new debt limit of $14.694, which means one day’s new borrowing ate up 60 percent of the $400 billion in space Congress granted the president this week."
So get ready for another round of debt ceiling debate any day now. And if you're one of the hysterics pushing for more and more loans to the Treasury, take solace in the fact that there is functionally no such thing as a debt ceiling any more.
The government will continue to borrow as much as it wants and anytime anyone opposes raising the ceiling, they'll be branded a terrorist and accused of trying to destroy the economy.
If there's no amount of new borrowing that Democrats are willing to concede is insane, then there's no reason to even have a debt ceiling anymore in the first place.
Wes Messamore,
Editor in Chief, THL
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