The Debt Ceiling and the Conservative Bubble

[opebo]

Again, why all this chat of default when a failure to raise the debt ceiling will cut spending by "only" 17%, with debt service being paid first, along with other mandatory expenditures, as required by law? Sure the failure to raise the debt ceiling will be economically disruptive, but there will be no debt default. Period.

You're just making all sorts of unfounded assumptions there, Torie.  There's very little likelihood they'll be able to manage the minute amount of money coming in to avoid default while still keeping control of the nukes, keeping the army from being disbanded, etc, not to mention literally letting the old and sick die.   Keep in mind that receipts are not at all easy to predict.

[opebo]

There is a sufficient pad to deal with that opebo. The debt service is 6% of the budget. So 83% minus 6% leaves a 77% of the budget pad. Don't over stress yourself here.

You realize there is no fat at all there, don't you Torie?  To put it into the Republican 'household budget' fantasy - the federal government is like a poor man whose rent, food, and debt payments are just barely covered by his income.  Reduce your income by 6%, and I understand you would never notice it (which is a great argument for increasing your freeloading class's taxes, but I digress), but reduce a poor man's income by 6% and he starts missing payments, meals, and finally defaults/goes homeless.  The Federal budget is at this level of tightness due to your class's robbery of the tax revenue.

[opebo]

You don't understand my point opebo. This discussion has nothing to do with what the budget should be.  Rather it is about whether it is likely a financial crisis will ensue if the debt ceiling is not raised. The answer is no. Sure there will be pain, financial disruption, and waste, and I oppose the whole Pub agenda on this (fight it out in the next election, and the one after that, dump the filibuster, and come up with something better when you win the trifecta if you do, and ram it down the Dem's throats to return the Obamacare favor if the parties are simply unable to work effectively together on anything anymore these days, that is what elections are for).

I hope I have made myself clear.

No, I understand you very well, Torie, my point was as others have made that there is no practical way for the federal government to pick and choose between things at the level of complexity and the incredible tightness of the remaining money involved.  They'll default.