What The McConnell Plan Means

Yesterday, the entire course of the ridiculous debt ceiling debate changed radically, and without warning. As Hurley noted yesterday, Mitch McConnell (R-KY) offered a surprising plan to sidestep the entire issue entirely, at least for the next little while. But this offer changes a lot of things, and it sheds some light on the internal workings of both the debate between both parties, and within those parties as well. So it deserves a second look, even if it means I have to talk about the stupid, stupid, stupid debt ceiling again.

Why The Debt Ceiling Is Stupid

First things first: the debt ceiling is stupid.

It seems very obvious that the concept of a debt ceiling is outdated and approximately as useful as a driver's license for a microwave. The ceiling was first established on bonds only via the Second Liberty Bond Act, and was then modified to apply to all debt. Since then, the ceiling has been raised approximately eighty-five thousand times (not intended to be a factual statement) with effectively no controversy whatsoever. This is because of spending is already authorized, un-authorizing it via refusing to raise the debt ceiling is pretty stupid. Furthermore, to not raise the debt ceiling would cause the United States to default on its debt, and anyone above the age of about eight understands that this is probably a bad thing. Observers who say that it would basically destroy the U.S. and global economies are not actually exaggerating.