Debt Ceiling Mini Essay

Nathan Foster

1/23/14

BUSI-1301-16272

Debt Ceiling Mini Essay

“If you ask the question of Americans, should we pay our bills? One hundred percent would say yes. There's a significant misunderstanding on the debt ceiling. People think it's authorizing new spending. The debt ceiling doesn't authorize new spending; it allows us to pay obligations already incurred.” Peter Welch. I believe this quote is an excellent platform to begin my argument on the grounds that raising the debt ceiling isn’t necessary taking part of our nation’s ever-inflating national debt. Instead it allows us to make payments to the individuals and government programs in our country we already owe money to, which is more important to our credit rating than not raising and possibly hurt our citizens financially who need it most. Our troops, senior citizens, and families who depend on government assistance programs would be the ones directly affected. Also, before the Tea Party became a relevant group, their opinion didn’t really matter. Now there voices are head at a national level, it has turned a prior quiet and familiar occurrence, into a national debate. That’s why I believe they should raise the debt ceiling, that being said, I think it’s important to that process that somebody’s making noise so that the government doesn’t depend on raising the debt ceiling to pay its bills, but instead be forced to make cuts where needed and better control spending for the future.

In the event the debt ceiling wasn’t raised and obligatory spending is reduced, I would ensure the bondholders could be paid. Clearly that would be unpopular with the general public, but it would be necessary to keep the stock market in check and allow normal buying and selling. Which would benefit the majority, including other countries, of individuals by allowing the market to maintain its levels of spending, helping ease the potential for a slight recession in a time where we are slowly rebuilding and the markets have...