Nadler: Eliminate debt ceiling

A Congressman from New York wants to eliminate the debt ceiling and is planning to introduce legislation to do so.

“The debt ceiling is truly arbitrary and has nothing to do with the deficit,” U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said in a statement. “The debt ceiling does not prevent the United States from incurring new debts. That occurs when Congress decides to authorize more spending than revenues. The debt ceiling prevents the President from borrowing money to pay those debts when they come due. While this has never been a problem in the past, the dangerous game of chicken Republican radicals played with the full faith and credit of the United States demonstrates that we can no longer risk allowing this artifact of World War I to threaten our nation’s creditworthiness.

“So, I will soon introduce legislation to take this arbitrary issue off the table altogether,” Nadler added. “Let us abolish the debt ceiling, which has become a serious threat to our economic future and a pawn for Republicans intent on holding the economy hostage to impose their own extreme agenda. Then we must move forward with bold measures to create jobs and economic development, provide aid to states, build infrastructure, instill aggregate demand back into the economy, and get money flowing once again.