[dragonwriter]

> This isn't a dem/repub issue.

Then why has every single debt ceiling crisis, starting with the 1995 abandonment of the Gephardt Rule raising the ceiling with the budget. been instigated by a Republican Congress during a Democratic Administration?

It would be hard to find a more definitively Republican/Democratic issue.

[starkd]

Maybe because that's the only way we end up talking about it? Would you prefer they keep the Gephardt Rule and keep lifting it and go on to start planning another massive infrastructure package?

People are sick of the finger pointing. No one cares. Something has to be done about the debt or its going to end up biting us even harder than it already is.

[deprecative]

The Debt Ceiling is likely unconstitutional and irrelevant. Republicans use it to cut benefits to the poor or middle classes. Getting a hand on debt is what Democrats do. Year after year we get more evidence of this through reductions in our deficits under Democratic administrations. You know what we get under Republican administrations? Massive debt and growing deficits.

This is a Republican issue full stop. The debt ceiling isn't about debt. It never was and it never will be.

[starkd]

Congresses set budgets. Presidents have little to do with it. The last time the budget came into balance was in the late '90s (Dem president, Republican congress). Due to gridlock and some real spending restraints that were put in place.

It's only a Republican issue, because the only time they can make it an issue is when they have control of the Congress. You basically just admitted that Democrats don't care about the debt. You think it can just keep going up forever? You don't think eventually this thing is going to pop? The sooner we deal with it, the lesser the repercussions.

[deprecative]

The Debt and The Debt Limit are vastly different things. Republicans can bring up the Debt Limit at any time. They only do it when a Democratic Administration is present. They have no problem massively bloating budgets. The Debt Limit is an unconstitutional artificial crisis to approve borrowing of debt already accrued. If you want to solve debt you do it when you set the budget not when the credit card bill is due.