Stop Lying: The Idiot's Guide to the Debt Ceiling

This guide is a handy “Stop Lying” guide for the morally depraved, and so we must start with the fact that the debt ceiling is not a BUDGET PROCESS.

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Raising the debt ceiling is not the budget process

This guide is meant as a handy “STOP LYING” guide for the morally depraved, and so we must start with the fact that the debt ceiling is not a BUDGET PROCESS.

The budget process is when the two sides “debate” the budget. The debt ceiling process is when they raise the debt ceiling to pay for the things they already negotiated and charged on our credit card. The debt ceiling funds spending that Congress, that is, these same people, already approved in a negotiation process.

Republicans did not win everything they wanted in that negotiation process. That doesn’t mean they don’t have to pay their bills or live up to their agreements. Most reasonab…