Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky) is introducing a bill that will force the U.S. government to pay the debt interest, entitlements and the military before using remaining funds in the event that the debt ceiling is not raised. WFPL Louisville in Rand Paul's home state of Kentucky has the story Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013.
Senator Paul explains that the government takes in enough to pay the interest on its debt so that default would not be necessary. He also does not approve of the threat of default being used to scare the country into a bigger increase in the debt ceiling than is necessary. WFPL reports:
“Why would we ever try to scare the markets by saying, 'Oh, if you don’t raise the debt ceiling we’ll default,'" he said. "We bring in over $200 billion every month and the interest payment is $30 billion."
The nation will hit its debt ceiling in the next few months. And the senator says the president is asking for too high a ceiling.
“Incurred about $16 trillion, plus or minus, they need a little incrementally more. He wants $2 trillion more, what’s that a blank check, a credit card,” he says.
Senator Paul tells WHAS11 that he does not plan to vote to increase the debt ceiling in hopes of forcing President Barack Obama into making budget cuts.
“I'm not in favor of raising the debt ceiling unless we have significant budgetary reform which shows we have changed our ways and we're going to begin to balance the budget,” Paul said.
WHAS11 also reported that Senator Rand Paul wants President Barack Obama to take default off the table in the debt ceiling talks. WHAS observes that people are unnerved by the discussions, "But this high stakes capitol tight wire act has some Americans nervous."
This may be true, but the point can be made that a large part of the population doesn't care or even listen to any discussions, assuming that the government will just continue to meet their needs regardless of what happens. Those who are listening are already sick of hearing about the debt ceiling. (By the end of December, people were equally tired of hearing the phrase, "fiscal cliff," and it was mentioned repeatedly as a worn-out phrase people wanted to "ban" for the New Year!)
So, with just weeks until the government reaches its limit on debt and all of the frightening talk of the U.S. government going the way of Greece, people are tuning out the debt ceiling. They are tuning in Monte Te'o, Lance Armstrong, and Honey Boo Boo.
Senator Rand Paul's pending legislation will attempt to force the government to get real with the American people and quit using scare tactics to mount ever-increasing debt with no end in sight.
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