To restate the title of the page - The Debt Ceiling Doesn't Matter.
It doesn't. Not one bit. Why? Because the 14th Amendment, Section 4, already takes care of the problem. And the US Supreme Court has affirmed it.
In a nutshell, Congress does not have the right to NOT pay our country's bill. Not at all.
The 14th Amendment states:
"Section 4.
The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void."
According to the US Supreme Court, Congress has no right to change, amend or not pay bills that any Congress has approved. Period.
What that means is that this little dance that the White House and Congress are doing has no meaning. In respect to raising the debt ceiling. It will be raised because Congress cannot, legally, refuse to do so.
The GOP, since Obama was sworn into office, have been as obstructionist as possible. After the HCR bills were passed (with all of the GOP saying no, even those who added items to the bills), McCain publicly stated that the GOP would not work with the Democrat's for the rest of the year. Publicly. And I didn't hear anyone call him, or the GOP, on what he said. What I took that to mean was that the GOP was going to get a salary for the rest of the year that they had no right to. IMO, If they refuse to do the work, why should they be paid? But they didn't, and they were.
Then, when the 2010 elections happened, the GOP was voted back into power in the House of Representatives. Not the Senate, just the House. They acted like they had just been handed a mandate by the whole country to overturn everything the previous Congress, and Obama, had done. But there is more!
Two days after the GOP regained power in the House, Senator Mitch McConnell stated, publicly and nationally, that the main purpose of the GOP, until the next elections in 2012, was to make sure that Obama was not re-elected. Not to provide jobs for our country, as they ran on. Not to help the economy. To make sure that our majority elected President was not re-elected.
The GOP then proceeded writing, and introducing, bills to overturn, or remove funding, from the bills that the prior Congress had approved, and had been signed into law by our President, Barack Obama.
They knew, and said they knew, that the bills were not going to get passed the Senate, or be signed by the President. But they took the time, and resources, to do so anyway. They said that it was "symbolic".
There was a showdown, between the GOP and the Democrats this last winter. Part of the bill was to fund unemployment insurance. They were refusing to vote to renew it unless the tax cuts for the wealthy, which were due to expire, were kept. The Democrats, finally, said they would vote for it, in order to help our unemployed. Plus, the Social Security taxes, that come out of a paycheck, would be lowered by 2 percentage points for a year. That means less money going to the Social Security Trust Fund, which sends a check to Senior's and the Disabled once a month.
Representative Paul Ryan submitted a budget with major cuts in all of our social safety net programs, and the Department of Defense. He called it "A Roadmap For The Future". One important part of this budget would replace Medicare with insurance policies similar to those of Congress (all Federal Employee's, BTW). According to the budget submitted, for those who
