New York Times (May 30)
“No one walked away satisfied by the agreement reached late Saturday to raise the debt ceiling…. Yet with the risk of ruinous economic default less than a week away, Congress should pass this agreement as quickly as possible.”
Tags: Agreement, ASAP, Congress, Debt ceiling, Economic default, Pass, Risk, Ruinous, Satisfied
Reuters (April 25)
The U.S. “standoff over the debt ceiling is a white swan, or an entirely predictable, very frequent event that has the potential to be as catastrophic as its darker sibling.” Arriving at the “deadline without a congressional fix would lead to a calamitous default,” which could “exacerbate the very risks that sparked last month’s bank failures.”
Tags: Bank failures, Calamitous, Catastrophic, Congressional fix, Deadline, Debt ceiling, Default, Exacerbate, Predictable, Risks, Standoff, U.S., White swan
Chicago Tribune (October 16)
“Raising the debt limit neither authorizes new spending nor increases our national debt by a single dime…. It simply allows us to pay the bills Congress has already racked up.” As such, the debt ceiling should be repealed. “All it does is make the markets jittery and provide an opportunity for contemptible, hypocritical grandstanding that distracts from serious negotiations about taxes and spending. At worst it crashes the economy. No president, Democrat or Republican, should ever again have to negotiate with Congress with such a threat over his or her head.”
Tags: Congress, Debt ceiling, Democrat, Economy, Markets, National debt, Negotiations, President, Republican, Spending, Taxes, U.S.
Forbes (January 20)
In the U.S., the debt-ceiling has become a dangerous bargaining chip, which should be eliminated. “A nation cannot simply spend and spend. Yet the conversation about growing more pennywise must be divorced from the one about the debt limit. By the time talk turns to the ceiling (currently more than $16 trillion), the bills already exist—and pols are basically advocating for dine-and-dash en masse. Better to accrue fewer to start than use a devastating event to pressure the spending conversation.”
Tags: Bills, Debt ceiling, Spending, U.S.
Washington Post (July 30)
It’s high time for Congress to grow up and reach agreement on the debt ceiling. They are holding a “gun to the head of the nation’s economy. That makes for a dangerous atmosphere in which to conduct negotiations but one in which, we continue to hope, enough clear-thinking lawmakers will conclude that the time for compromise is now.”
Tags: Compromise, Congress, Debt ceiling, Economy, U.S.
New York Times (July 7)
The U.S. risks default unless the debt ceiling is raised by early August. Negotiations leave the Times feeling “profoundly uneasy” because “vast changes are being discussed behind closed doors…and on a very tight deadline.” The vast changes include spending cuts for Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, as well as overhauling the tax code.
Tags: Debt ceiling, Medicaid, Medicare, Social security, Spending, Taxes, U.S.