[Leaning Right]

The article uses the word "shocking". But there is really nothing shocking about this article. It's just business as usual.

[thesharkboy]

The elephant in the room. Not much else matters for the survival of this republic.

[jpl]

I refuse to call it a “ceiling”, because most ceilings are actually fixed and don’t continue rising indefinitely. Even the clouds have a limit to how high they can go!

[Yo-Yo]

By definition, every time the debt ceiling is raised, it is set to a record high.

[Brilliant]

Hopefully the split Congress will mean Congress can’t pass a funding bill.

[antidemoncrat]

I’m sure the Democrats will be howling about this but the fact the Obiewan Obama ran up $1.25 trillion a year for 8 years is “old news”.

[Carriage Hill]

“The shocking number, however, is only slightly higher than the current actual debt of some $21 trillion.”

$21 trillion?

More like $150-200 trillion, with many other things not intentionally omitted.

https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/the-federal-debt-is-worse-than-you-think/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnmauldin/2017/10/10/your-pension-is-a-lie-theres-210-trillion-of-liabilities-our-government-cant-fulfill/#6b79739765b1

[SpaceBar]

$22 trillion translates to ~2.13 billion miles of dollar bills placed end-to-end.

[PGR88]

We have a phony, fiat central bank and huge printing press - and we aren’t afraid to use it!

[DoughtyOne]

Not shocking:

Natonal debt...

2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016

Shocking

2017
2018

Hmmm, do I sense a pattern here?

Mitch and Paul did their best to make sure Trump was hobbled for two years.

I’ll never forget it.

With the Dems in charge of the budget process, guess whose going to get blamed for even larger deficits.

Trump will have to use his veto pen frequently.

[Paladin2]

PRyno is not going to run the House in Regular Order?

[babble-on]

Better cut taxes some more. That always helps.

[Sirius Lee]

We should learn from the example of the new congress critter, Occasional-Cortex, that the money is just there - it just is - and the government will just pay for it.

[ctdonath2]

Federal spending is at $4.4T/yr.
Federal revenue is at $3.4T/yr.
Federal debt will soon be $22T.

Rough calculations...

Cut spending by $1T/yr just to break even.
Cut spending another $1T/yr to pay off debt in a mortgage-like 30 years.

Ergo, we have to cut _all_ spending in HALF, RIGHT NOW, to end the debt in a generation.

Yes debt may be “good” under some circumstances, but if you never actually pay it off you’re just hemorrhaging debt service costs forever.