And, yes, we know why “they” are talking credit downgrades. If, that is, they are the NRSROs. They spell it out quite clearly. They need to see some sort of serious attempt to get this out-of-control debt under some sort of control.

So far, far too many people are refusing to acknowledge that spending and the debt it produces are even a serious problem. To that extent, they say, the pathetic wrangling over the debt ceiling highlights the fact that no one is willing to tackle the underlying structural problems.

Hence the dishonesty of people like the “fact checkers” who say the downgrade was due to GOP brinkmanship over the debt ceiling. That’s not what the NRSROs ever said; none of them. It’s the underlying problem that’s the driving factor when assessing the credit worthiness of the US and that underlying problem is the trajectory of US debt.

it is quite obvious and becoming more obvious every day this administration has no intention of ever paying back the debt it is accruing.

Hence the credit rating downgrades.

That would mean it was an issue of willingness to pay, not ability.

But I am not sure anybody knows why they are talking abut downgrades.

Kman, your intellectual dishonesty is the stuff of legends!

I think he knows he lied and I think he did so in order to get a lot of reactions.

“We CAN’T pay the debt unless the ceiling is raised. So not only is refusing to raise the ceiling saying we shouldn’t pay our debt, it is actively preventing the payment of our debt.

A person can make the argument that we need to stop increasing the debt every year (which everyone should agree) without actively trying to destroy the full faith and credit of the United States.”

“Aaaaand once again, raising the debt ceiling does not add to the debt.”

Once again I sense some inconsistencies among the above statement of Kman. He attempts some sleight of hand in his comments between the use of the word debt as it is commonly understood and legal obligations in his comments. He doesn’t seem to understand the self-evident questions that if increasing the DEBT ceiling is not intended to provide from increases in DEBT levels, then why do we need to keep increasing it?

and becoming more obvious every day this administration has no intention of ever paying back the debt it is accruing.

I think Andrew Jackson was the last President who wanted to do that.

Hence the credit rating downgrades.

Nobody expects the debt to be paid back, the credit rating agencies among them. Just the interest to be maintained, and the debt to be rolled over when due..

I don’t know that it can be done. Which is why I didn’t take them off the table.

The ACA should lower future health care costs — costs which are driving a lot of the deficit hysteria. Many deficit projections don’t factor the cost-saving effects of the ACA, so we might be able to get by without having to go through entitlement reform. But whether the ACA is successful remains an open question.

Why do you call concern over a trillion dollar a year deficit “hysteria”?

How is more government involvement and less of a free market in health care going to drive down costs? Can you point to another area where government involvement in a market drove down costs?