Lying About The Debt Ceiling

Posted on the 18 January 2013 by Jobsanger
Maybe the only way the Republicans can justify their insane position on refusing to raise the debt ceiling is to lie about it, because that is exactly what they are doing.  Raising the debt ceiling will not allow the president to spend one more penny than has already been authorized by Congress. That's because only Congress can authorize spending. The president just spends what Congress authorizes him to spend -- and he can't spend more (or less) than that. If the debt ceiling needs to be raised (and it does), it is because Congress authorized spending that would exceed it -- and the last time I looked, the Republicans had the majority in the House of Representatives. If they didn't want this money spent, why did they authorize it to be spent?
The truth is that this is nothing more than a financial game being played by the GOP so they can cut Social Security and Medicare (which they have never liked, and have to know are not the reasons for the deficit). They are the ones that created this economic mess -- by further bloating the defense budget, started two unnecessary wars, and giving corporations and rich people unneeded tax cuts.