Having gone unnoticed is the now silent political contest over the Debt Ceiling. Concurrent with the advent of the Obama Administration and along with it the explosion in Federal Debt, the Debt Limit argument has become a perennial event.
The sudden switch to apathetic political resolve has many reasons & the key elements are:
(1) The Temporary Debt Limit Extension Act (2/2014) that “suspends” the Debt Ceiling.
(2) Sequestration which, in part, has capped certain elements of the Budget.
(3) Political realities have taught the Republicans (and the Democrats) that forcing government shutdowns brings with it a near un-survivable political price.
The problem of course is that this (entire) issue exposes a far more serious problem: The Political Apparatus of Government that has now devolved into a circumstance where Congress has relieved itself of being responsive to managing the Debt Limit responsibility. While at the same time being free to legislate funding demands, including so-called “off book” spending, which in-turn place further upward pressure on the Debt Ceiling with reliance on the fact that the Debt Limit Extension Act, theoretically only temporary, allows for the accumulation of funding demands to roll-over, automatically, with the existing debt.
It is important to note that what was to be “temporary”, until March of 2015, has now come and gone without any action at any level of government on this imposed deadline and with it, at least for now, no commitment or interest to address the grave economic consequence of a government free to spend and accumulate debt with absolutely no budgetary or sound fiscal limitations.
Curtis C. Greco, Founder
