Defaulting on the Debt

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/as-debt-ceiling-vote-nears-the-pressures-on-house-republican-freshmen/2011/04/15/AFzluIwD_story.html

Here's the next fiscal crisis. The U.S. is deep in debt. The U.S. has been in debt for a pretty long time. Once in a while, the U.S. has to raise its debt ceiling, so that it can borrow more money to pay off debt. This is obviously not good, and a balanced budget could have stopped this trend long ago. Nonetheless, the U.S. has a large deficit, so this trend continues. In the near future, the U.S. will have to raise its debt ceiling again, otherwise it will not be able to pay off its debts, thereby defaulting on the debt.

Many Republicans ran on the concept of fiscal conservatism, or small government spending, and promised to lower or eliminate the deficit, which would reduce the acceleration of the increase of our debt. Many of these Republicans are new, and have not had much experience in office. Ostensibly, it would seem to them that raising the debt ceiling would go against their agenda. Indeed, it might. However, the consequences of not raising the debt ceiling (i.e., defaulting on our debt) include a sharp blow to our economy and the possibility of being unable to fund several government programs. This while we're trying to recover from a recession. It might take some convincing, but I sure hope they vote to raise the debt ceiling. That and balance the budget...