U.S. debt ceiling should be junked

Come February, Congress must raise the U.S. debt ceiling or see the nation default on its obligations. Republicans promise to exact a fearful price for being responsible. President Obama says he won’t play that game again.
“I will not have another debate with this Congress over whether or not they should pay the bills that they’ve already racked up through the laws that they passed,” he said last Tuesday night after legislation raising taxes on the wealthy passed.
The matter could not be put more succinctly. Congress passed the Social Security and Medicare laws. Congress is clearly obligated to see that those checks can be cashed. Congress passes defense budgets each year. It is unthinkable that Congress would make it impossible to pay members of the U.S. military each month.
Congress issues U.S. securities to fund the national debt. Will Republicans refuse to pay the interest on those bonds and create havoc throughout the financial world? What faster way to reduce the credit rating of the United States of America to zero in the eyes of the world could be imagined?
The answer to these rhetorical questions is obvious. But Republicans appear willing to shove the nation into financial chaos in order to force the president to agree to spending cuts equal to the amount that the debt ceiling is raised.
That is a miserable way to run our government. The best response to the looming battle would be to do away with the debt ceiling, which may well be unconstitutional. It should not be legal, after all, for Congress to obligate the nation and then refuse to meet the obligations it creates.

AS THE PRESIDENT correctly points out, the debt is rising only because Congress keeps passing spending bills without providing the revenue to pay them. The way to reduce the debt is to restructure Social Security and Medicare, reduce defense spending, cut congressional salaries in half to put the members back in touch with ordinary Americans, trim back agricultural subsidies and increase revenues by getting rid of at least some of the credits, loopholes and deductions which now make our tax laws all but incomprehensible.
Those fundamental and very challenging reforms must be made to reduce deficit spending and put the nation on track to a balanced budget and debt reduction. But they can only be made in a rational way through debate, negotiation and compromise. Nothing worth keeping would come from holding the nation for ransom in a to-the-death battle over a debt ceiling which does nothing but serve as fuel for political bluster.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.