RMC3: It’s the perfect opportunity for the Republicans to stick it to the Democrats and the President. They need to say they’re not going to increase the debt ceiling and force this issue of massive spending cuts. Let the government shut down. It sure as hell isn’t functioning well as it is. It’s like we’ve got a bunch of dysfunctional derelicts controlling the hardworking American taxpayers’ tax dollars—just spending on anything and everything that comes along. Washington is guilty of financial gluttony. They’re not willing to make any sacrifices because it may not be popular with their constituents or with the voters. And so, they’re spending us into financial oblivion.

This would be a good opportunity to force a balancing of the budget. Of course, the Democrats would just want to increase taxes to plug the hole without offering any spending cuts. Republicans are about the only game in town that want to cut spending, and I’m not sure they have the intestinal fortitude to cut spending as much as it needs to be cut to get to a balanced budget. So, ultimately, they’ll cave an increase the debt ceiling so that Obama and the Democrats can keep spending.
I really hope people realize that the national debt was about $10 trillion when Obama took office and it’s now over $16 trillion dollars. He and his Democratic colleagues in the government have increased the national debt by $6 trillion in four years. We just can’t sustain this. It will bankrupt us. We’re getting to the point where we’re like these European countries that have debt problems. And look at where they are now. I don’t think we need to be taking out nation down that road, but it appears the Democratic party wants to make us more like Europe.
Cartwright: Realistically is anything going to happen when it comes to the debt ceiling debate? No. The Congress will raise the debt ceiling so the President and his friends in the Congress can keep squandering away the taxpayers’ money. I find it the epitome of hubris that the President actually wants the Congress to give him the sole authority over increasing the debt ceiling. That’s a sure recipe for disaster. There wouldn’t be anything stopping him from spending us into bankruptcy. Maybe that’s his goal in the long run. He’s sure doing a fine job of it right now.

But the politicians will take this whole debt ceiling charade right up to the zero hour then agree to increase the limit so that the government doesn’t have to shut down. I don’t understand why everyone in Washington is so afraid to have the government shut down. All we’re talking about is non-essential services shutting down. Social Security checks would still be going out. The military would still be defending us. We’d just be looking at a closure of things like national parks and maybe the folks at the Department of Energy would have to stay at home. Not like they’re doing much good anyway.

Shut down the non-essential stuff. If it is non-essential, they why is the government involved anyway? Use it as an opportunity to downsize the federal government. You know what I’m saying? Sadly, though, that isn’t going to happen.

My prediction is they’ll raise the debt ceiling to $20 trillion, which should be enough to accommodate Obama and the Democrats’ spending until the 2014 mid-term elections. And then, we’ll be debating it all again.

Michigan: The current debt ceiling will hit by 12-31-12. If we are struggling with the idea of cutting $100 billion in spending it will be impossible to cut $1.1 trillion to get to a balanced budget. We cannot default on the debt and my guess would be that under the present administration we will raise the debt ceiling.
Sydney: In 2011 President Obama considered getting around the whole Congressional debate by lifting the debt ceiling using an executive order. This was something that many Democrats encouraged him to do including Bill Clinton, and Harry Reid – the majority leader in the Senate. His reluctance to take this step can be explained by the fact that he was worried about the 2012 Presidential election. Given that he won the election he may be much more inclined to choose this course of action. The debt ceiling debate is one that America is stuck in because spending is so high, and it would take huge cuts to the welfare system to bring this spending into check. Possibly the scariest thing about U.S government debt is that for some years now the government has not even collected enough revenue to meet the welfare budget and service its existing debt (meet the repayments on existing debt). This means that even if the Government cut its ‘discretionary’ (including welfare and military spending) to zero the Government would still remain in deficit.