The republicans are destroying the decency and survival of all americans except the very rich. As a senior, I will be happy to use a voucher when you do. jeanne shaeffer

The Republicans will be the DEATH of the these great United State. Look beyond the color and start being Americans.

The very rich? They would be mostly the democrats in Washington who are leading the country off of a cliff. But don't let facts get in the way.

This is why we have a Constitution.

Its not a race thing, it is a Socialist thing. What will you people do when you run out of other people's money? I mean, after you line Conservatives up and shoot them... with all of the "tolerance" of Pol Pot and Chairman Mao.

Isn't it ironic. During the Bush administration (when the budget surplus was squandered and debt piled up), the Republican leaders in Congress voted to raise the national debt ceiling 19 times, accounting for nearly $4 trillion.

How sad to see people like Tim Scott just looking for anything to use as criticism. Our country was built on compromise and respect. Tim - give it break and do something worthwhile.

You all do know that Tim Scott is a black conservative republican!

Only the left is using the race card in this and every other election since the 50's.

I would like to point out that the idea of citing the 14th Amendment as justification for making an end run around Congress was first raised by liberal constitutional professor George Epps
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/06/the-constitutions-latest-blaze-of-notoriety-bad-for-the-republic/241308/
His theory has been denounced by some on the left, as well as praised by some.
The argument against using the 14th amendment as justification was eloquently stated yesterday by Tom Cavanaugh of the Reason Foundation http://reason.com/blog#article_150698

Nice to see all the lefties out and invoking the race card - their tactics never change. Like Rep Scott, I don't hate the president, I hate his policies. @Tim, I don't defend the Republicans spending like drunks any more than I do the Democrats. Stop living in the past, this is today's discussion. @trashlady, the character Tom as written by Harriet Beecher Stowe was a hero. It's been bastardized over time, particularly by the black power movement.

I am a voting conservative republican. I proudly voted for president Bush twice and never once heard an argument about debt or this debt ceiling until this president requeste we raise the debt ceiling which is needed to pay our already inccured dept. I find it a shame that my party is holding the entire country's economic stability hostage over this issue of debt. You know what would cure the debt "JOBS", not more tax cuts for the rich. If we have to spend more in the short term to get jobs and the economy going again then that's what we should do. Plain and simple. I'm no longer a republican, I am an independent now. This entire debate is a shame.

funny how Scott's using the 14th amendment as basis of his argument, claiming it's the argument for impeachment. It's that same amendment that gives the president the authority in this case w/o needing congressional approval to address debt.

What this president isn't telling you is that we have the money to service our debt. We will not be defaulting on our debt if we don't raise the debt ceiling. It's time to stop the bandaid stuff and get to the heart of the problem - we need to cut entitlements and stop spending beyond our means. Raising the debt ceiling will not create jobs, it will just mean we are printing even more money.

We were warned, and nobody has listened. From the guy who is credited with authoring the Declaration of Independence comes this little gem: "To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude." -- Thomas Jefferson

I just want to know how borrowing more will pay off the debt. The last time Mr. Obama borrowed, he gave it to Wall Street and bought GM, forcing at least some of the people who owned stock to sell for pennies on the dollar. He took a debt (granted, already much too high) of $8.9 trillion and has turned it into a $14.4 trillion national debt. Now he wants to raise corporate taxes, thinking that will somehow increase government revenue. It will chase business out of the country. When Boeing decides enough is enough, they will move ALL their jobs overseas. The American automotive industry is not the powerhouse it once was. Foreign car makers are making cars cheaper and have at least as good a warranty. Why should Americans try to compete? There's no motivation. There's no reward. There's only more regulations, with the Oval Office wanting even more. Yeah...great idea.

"The way to wealth is as plain as the way to market. It depends chiefly on two words, industry and frugality: that is, waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of both. Without industry and frugality nothing will do, and with them everything." -- Ben Franklin

This article did not even mention race. why is anyone even bringing it up?

For the left, it is always about race or gender. Divisiveness is the name, identity politics is the game.

@FreeChoice LMFAO! Do you ever watch Fox "News"? LMFAO!

Where exactly is race mentioned in this article? The debt ceiling is more complex than raising your credit card limit. Unless you have studied the facts in depth, you should not comment. This is how political propaganda BS starts and spreads like a disease.

@Independent Try reading the Economist, Financial Times or even WSJ and when you know anything at all about fiscal and monetary policy and its history in the US and globally over the past 100 years then and only then will you be qualified to have a civil and adult discussion with me on the matter sir. Turn off the Fox "News" and open your eyes.

We have lowest income taxes on wealth worldwide; only country that taxes poverty; 3rd lowest corporate tax after deductions and loopholes; we allow liars to whine about "death tax," which is actually a tax on unearned income that remained uncollected from an estate, is only applicable to multimillionaires, and is actually very very low itself. (You make $68K in profit from a stock sale, you pay no taxes - a two income family with two children as tax deductions that grosses that same $68,000 amount, after all standard deductions, has to pay $5,390). Want to correct the problem? CORRECT THE TAX SYSTEM.
Have we increased in debt in the last two years - sure did. Difference between this $3 billion and Bush's $6 billion? The recent debt $$ was spent in the US, not overseas as handouts to campaign donors who put the money in their foreign accounts that can't be taxes. Not to foreign companies devoid of any tax, either. And that $$ spent in the US can (...can...) come back, since it was most on employment.
Tim Scott is only saying what the Club for Growth pays him to say.

Carter left $1T. Reagan and Bush I added $4T. Clinton cut the debt. Bush II doubled it to $10T and left the country in the worse recession since the Great Depression. POTUS Obama's deficits at $1.3T annually are actually LOWER than Bush's. Just the facts folks.

@Alieen Your "facts" seem to be contradicted by the Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2009/03/21/GR2009032100104.html

Could you please provide us with your "facts" that back up your claim?

Billy - your source lists takes on annual budget nets, not actual national debt.

Try this one: http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt_histo5.htm for last 10 years; this one for previous 50: http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt_histo4.htm

reg, I was addressing the claim "POTUS Obama's deficits at $1.3T annually are actually LOWER than Bush's. Just the facts folks".

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_United_States_federal_budget

I admit deficit calculations are subject to abuse. For example Bush left both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars off balance sheet as well as his Medicare prescription drug giveaway. The most important point is that Republicans ran up the vast majority of this debt yet the ignorant Repulican base has been brainwashed by Fox "News" to believe otherwise. And now the Republicans want to balance the budget on the backs of the poor, middle class and public sector workers? I don't think so. We will have another Civil War first.

Biggest abuse of budget? Bush raiding social security funds to cover budgetary shortfalls resulting from his tax cuts on upper income. Now THAT was budget abuse. Stealing from Grandma to pay off Richie Rich.

The problem with you, Alieen, is that once you invoke the tedious leftist meme that Republicans are all ignorant and brainwashed by Fox News, you've already lost your argument. Right now, we're in a heckuva mess. All the looking back and playing the blame game is nothing more than a time wasting exercise. We need a budget - something the Democratic controlled House couldn't be bothered with for two years, we need to cut entitlement programs and we do not need to raise taxes. We need a foreign policy - cleary we don't have one. When we begin to have a sane fiscal policy, we'll see business expansion again.

I have to suppose then Mr. Rational FreeChoice that you also believe that a sovereign debt default would be a price worth paying in the long term.

It is irresponsible to raise taxes when the very reason we got into trouble qas spending money we didn't have. I can live with a raise in the debt ceiling as long as taxes are not raised - indeed Republicans will raise it as long as a tax hike isn't part of the deal. As I stated earlier, we have the ability to service our debt for now so we won't be defaulting in the short term - that's the Democrats' bluff.

It is irresponsible and amoral to suggest that we can or should attempt to pay down the $9T added to the deficit by Reagan, Bush I and Bush II by cutting spending on the poor, middle class and public sector workers in the middle of Bush's housing bubble recession. US tax rates are lower than they have been in decades. Furthermore, Bush's tax cuts for the rich were supposed to return Clinton's surplus to taxpayers but actually left the government unfunded to pay for his WMD Easter Egg Hunt in Iraq, his Medicare prescription drug benefit or any of the other $5T in spending that Republicans voted for from 2000 to 2008. What the Republicans are posturing at the moment will NEVER be enacted and would only result in a bloody CIVIL WAR in any event.

I'll give you this, you've got the DNC talking points down pat. A deficit is created when we spend more than we bring in. If I spend more than I make, I can't demand more funds from someone else. I can earn them or I can cut my budget. The well is dry, our money has been spent on useless entitlements. It's time to cut the spending. Actually, it's beyond time and the blame belongs to both parties.

The War on Poverty begun by LBJ with his vision of "The Great Society" has been an abysmal failure. For decades, women have had babies and the daddies are nowhere to be found - better money from the government that way. Many families were destroyed by welfare, rather than given a leg up which is how it was sold to us. You want to talk about amoral? I'll go further and say that it is immoral to strip people of their dignity, teach them to be victimes and sentence them to a life on the public dole. It's abuse of the worst kind.

@FreeChoice As I said before I am more than happy to means test Social Security and Medicare and cut welfare payments to rich seniors. No problem. But we must also cut our reckless military spending and eliminate sweet heart tax welfare for corporations and the rich as well as market distorting farm subsidies, oil subsidies, green subsidies, etc. Why? Because that's where the spending really is. Sorry sunshine but America is no longer buying the appalling lie that we spent $13T on welfare for the poor and minorities. Believe me, if we really start cutting, we're gonna start at your house.

As I've stated before, your attempt to demean me because I disagree with you, only serves to diminish your message. That aside, the only thing appalling about welfare spending is that it didn't work and, in fact, has hurt the very minorities it allegedly was designed to help. I'm all for cutting subsidies - I loathe a manipulated market. So while you're at it, let's also cut all those subsidies designed to level all of the playing fields. After all, we were created equal, but what we do with it is our own business. As for cutting - I'm not sure how you cut someone who takes nothing from the government. Yes, you can raise my taxes and take more from me, but I'll just continue to cut back on the goods and services I consume. And to your earlier post where you promised civil war, surely you jest. The vast majority of Americans believe in personal responsibility and are tired of subsidizing those who choose not to take care of themselves.

You are indicative of that bizarre phenomena where people delude themselves into believing that they "take nothing from the system". Surely you jest. I have worked very hard all of my life for everything I have. Though I was forced to move to Canada do to all the homophobia and anti-gay discrimination during the last administration (I.e. I can't sponsor my Korean partner of 13 years for a Green Card) I still own a very nice house and have a small business employing young people. I think if you were fair you would like at the stats and admit that the vast majority of the spending of the last 25 years have enriched the Baby Boomers at the expense of everyone else. But in any event let's chat again after this current round of Kibuki theater is over.

Happy to reconnect on another discussion. I'll cop to hyperbole with regard to what I have taken from the government, but I have paid my fair share of taxes and taken very little over the years. Do I benefit from infrastructure? Yes, of course, I drive on roads maintained by the government and I went to public school. I have, however, paid for public schools although I have no children which is okay with me. I benefit from things paid for with tax dollars from first responders to the US military, but I have self funded my retirement, never collected any public assistance and studiously avoided, to the best of my ability, any "help" from the government. I sleep quite well knowing I have paid more than my fair share. I don't mind helping those who truly cannot help themselves, but I want no part of the discriminatory and abusive practices that have put millions on the public dole and kept them there. Like you, I have worked hard all my life for everything I have. Denying people the chance to strive, fail, succeed is to quell their dreams and callously limit their possibilities.

I agree with you 100%.

God should be the one leading goverment . We all should be putting God first. Pray for America