Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for July 23, 2023

Maybe it’s time we stopped allowing Congress to take debt ceiling hostage (14th Amendment).

I’m not sure I understand why the Congress started requiring a debt ceiling during World War I, but we’ve been living with the legacy of the blankety-blank thing ever since – which makes the federal government look a whole lot dumber than “Empty” Greene.

The fact of the matter is simple: when Congress passes legislation that funds something (no matter what that something is) and the President then signs that appropriation bill into law, this country has obligated itself to pay the bill when it comes due. For anyone to argue that it’s OK to pass appropriation bills and then have them signed into law only to later decide that maybe we won’t pay the piper when payment comes due is the height of arrogant stupidity (or worse, but the nanny-bot would blow several fuses were I to use that language).

@Be This Guy (above) makes a good point about the 14th Amendment. Section 4 of the Amendment says “The validity of the public debt of the United states, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.”

While there can perhaps be all kinds of linguistic quibbles in parsing the language of Section 4, it would seem that having a debt ceiling is a violation of that language (though the issue has never really been resolved). I’d love it if Janet Yellen simply told the Congress to pound sand because she was going to abide by the clear intent of Section 4 and those in Congress who disagree with her can take a flying leap. Unfortunately, the issue is most likely off everyone’s radar now so we’ll get to experience the glorious days of debt-ceiling discussions all over again in the fall of 2024 (the current approval expires January 1, 2025).

Everything Trump touches, dies.

Biden makes his own chaos. Seriously; just put him within 15 feet of a five year old girl and his nostrils will expand to three times their normal size.

And when we were actually paying down the debt (Bill Clinton) along came W to say it was the duty of Congress to give the money to the wealthy and start increasing debt again.

Trump never had a republican congress.

Hey, Donnie never believed in paying his debts BEFORE he was President, why would he start now?

Why do we the people continue to allow bickering, obstructive, non-collaborative, Congress members to make our government dysfunctional? No successful organization would keep “loss leaders” like that on their staff, so why do we? Are we the people masochists who willfully choose to elect the well-off … who have no incentive to work for us instead of themselves and their close friends? Why do we not have a vote of confidence mechanism — so that we the people can eject the non-collaborative obstructors?

Trump’s first wife trusted him. Trump’s second wife trusted him. Trump’s third wife may still trust him but probably not. They all made a big mistake. So, come 2024, don’t trust Trump.

The U.S. is one of few nations with such a system in place. Most nations allow their government to freely borrow as needed to keep functioning.

how about we spend within and be bounded by our means. what a novel concept

Retirement time for Gary. He’s long ago lost his edge.

I looked at a graph of the US National Debt since President Carter. I notice it’s concave up (the budget deficits increase over time) under Republican presidents and concave down (the budget deficits decrease over time) under Democratic presidents.

Republicans have decided that an America that is not solely ruled by them, solely for them, is evil, and that any act which would destroy that evil America is not only necessary, but just and good.

.

Remove every Republican from office, and let no Republican hold any position of power in this country for one hundred years.

Much like everyone else our former President has previously embraced and then turned against. With him, loyalty is a one-way street.

Yes, she was an idiot, like everyone else who has ever trusted Donald Trump.

Maybe it’s time we realized what entity controls the debt ceiling (Hint: it’s not the president)?

Government shutdown is next up on the hostage list.

Anyone who trusts Trump is an idiot.

There is a need for fiscal responsibility in government. The debt ceiling, for whatever reason, is supposed to remind us of that. Instead pretty much every politician in WashDC is spending us into ruin. (Adam Smith “There is a lot of ruin in a nation”, answer to why Britain wasn’t ruined yet.)

Yup.

Remember, IOKIYAR.

hmm… how high did it go with the Obama administration and Obamacare?