“Cult Fringe” Holding Up Debt Ceiling Increase

Real Clear Politics:

“Democrats are willing to do whatever is necessary to raise the debt ceiling, not for future borrowing but to pay the debts that we racked up in the past. Which, mostly was racked up by a Republican House, a Republican Senate and a Republican President in the last 8 years. Yet, they’re not willing to pay the bills,” Harkin said.

Well Harkin, you got the first part right. It seems the Democrats are willing to do whatever is necessary to raise the debt ceiling. That second part is patently false, and you should be ashamed. It costs us about $29 billion a month to service the debt.¹ We take in about $172 billion a month in revenue. We do not need to borrow money to pay for the debts of the past. However we do currently spend $307 billion a month, so any borrowing would in fact be paying for our current (unbalanced) budget.

The republicans are totally willing to pay the $29 billion a month in debt service bills. They’re just not willing to spend the country into oblivion.