Debt Ceiling Pressure Grows, Little Progress Made

The United States debt ceiling has been hit. The story is not new. This has happened over seventy times in the last half of a century. And every time Congress has agreed to raise the debt limit to accommodate the American standard of living and the way the government works.

However, this time the men and women of Congress are threatening to not raise the debt ceiling again.

That leaves the government in a pinch. There are less than two weeks left for a small group of congressmen to agree on a plan to reduce the national debt. Also, the date of August 2^nd is on the radar of everyone in the United States government. According to the Treasury Department, on that day, there will officially not be enough money to pay off the debts of the United States in full payments.

That marks August 2^nd as the day where either Congress needs to come to terms on a plan that would actually decrease debt and do so quickly, or the day where Congress gives in and agrees to raise the debt ceiling once again.

It is most likely that Congress will agree on a small extension for a few months. As Barry Anderson, who was once the Congressional Budget Office Director, said, “In the next six weeks, there really isn’t the time to technically draft that legislation, take it through the Congress, vote on it, and have it signed.”

There are also few reports coming out from behind the closed doors of meetings involving Vice President Joe Biden and other members of Congress working on a resolution. Whether or not a great deal of progress has been made, the citizens of the United States are highly unaware of what is going on behind those closed doors and are left with the assumption that no progress has been made.

The amount of information coming out of the meetings is so minimal that there are no indicators of what a potential agreement would even consist of. At best, it can be deduced that there will be spending cuts and possibly a spending limit implemented to try to curb the growing debt.

It is fair to say that spending cuts seem to be a no brainer in this situation. As much as Americans would hate to see important programs lose money, it is inevitable. The best way to not lose something is to not use it up. Thus, the best way to save money is to stop spending it.