Just Say NO!

PowerLine: it's really quite simple.

There’s another way to achieve the goal of a balanced budget amendment right away: don’t pass an increase in the debt ceiling. Government will have to live within its means right now. In other words, the debt ceiling is a balanced budget tool–a powerful one. The constant talk of a default is rank demagoguery of the first order: there will be plenty of tax revenue arriving to service our debt obligations. Obama’s claim that Social Security checks might not go out is very interesting, no? If that were to happen (and there is considerable doubt about whether the Social Security Administration’s doomsday check-writing computers could even be stopped from sending checks and automatic deposits—where, oh where, is a Y2K bug when you need it?), it would expose the fiction that Social Security has a “trust find,” and would make it clear that Social Security funds have been fully raided for other spending. Does Obama really want to go there? Or cut off pay for our troops overseas, rather than cut back the welfare state? Or advocate raising taxes sufficiently to pay for the gap? I know this is Obama’s preferred method, but there isn’t even a majority among Democrats for this option; this is why Obama is trying to force Republicans into their old mode as tax collectors for the welfare state. Time to say No once and for all.

And as I mention below, a great deal will be done WITHOUT the Feds' help.