Do You Pay Your Credit Cards: Economics of the Federal Debt Ceiling

This is pretty simple.  Debt come from past ceiling.  If you want to lower future debt and debt ceilings, then stop spending growth now.   The core problem is constraining Medicare spending, certain out of control subsidies tax cuts for the wealth, military spending and, to a lesser extent, social security spending.

If you spend your income on things you want, and the charges then show up the following month on your credit card bill, would you pay those charges? Yes, of course you would. You’ve made purchases and the bill has come due.

That’s the whole question about raising the debt limit—whether Congress should allow the government to pay for spending that has already been approved by Congress.

via Raising the Federal Government’s Debt Ceiling – Brookings Institution.