From this Friday's Andrea Mitchell Reports, apparently Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a member of the House Budget Committee, doesn't understand what the debt ceiling is or how it works. Andrea Mitchell explains that to him when he complains that President
November 30, 2012

From this Friday's Andrea Mitchell Reports, apparently Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a member of the House Budget Committee, doesn't understand what the debt ceiling is or how it works. Andrea Mitchell explains that to him when he complains that President Obama somehow wants an "unlimited credit card" for the spending he and his cohorts already voted for.

CHAFFETZ: The President said he was going to help curb back the debt and tackle this deficit. Instead the President has the gall to actually go out and suggest that we should get rid of the debt ceiling votes and take away Congress' ability to help put a lid on that. Essentially he wants a limitless credit card. [...]

MITCHELL: Let's talk about the debt ceiling for a second, because the debt ceiling is not more money. It's raising the level to accommodate what Congress has already appropriated. So it's not an unlimited credit card, and most serious economists think that it is an unnecessary act. Why not review the bidding on just how that debt ceiling should be used? Because it's used as a shotgun to the head of either party, either president.

CHAFFETZ: Look, there's got to be some limit to the debt we're putting forward in this country and I believe that we should have that discussion. In the past,it's driven the debate and the discussion about our out of control debt.

Amazing how that concern for the deficit they've got now wasn't "driving the debate" when they were passing the Bush tax cuts, voting for a couple of wars they didn't want to pay for, or a prescription drug plan what wasn't paid for. Deficits didn't matter back then. They only matter when they want to use them as an excuse to destroy our social safety nets.

h/t Dave

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