"The simple fact remains, as long as we have the most technologically superior and most capable military on the face of the earth, the dollar will remain the reserve currency. Only a complete idiot would postulate otherwise."

Lets see do I beleive an obviously very angry and hostile person on a fishing chat board or do I go with some of the worlds brightest economist on this one, decisions such difficult decisions.

Must be why David Stockman is call for cutting the military spending so drastically, he wants to see the Yuan become the reserve.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/ameri...irector-warns/#

So, it seems we have no choice but to raise it AGAIN, but really at some point doesn't it seem prudent to try to only spend what we collect? I'd love to see some "balanced budget" language attached to it.

None of us here can just keep bumping up our debt limits without facing some consequences down the road. How is this different?

Hankster,

Do you really believe our military can't stand some significnat cuts? Why do we need to spend 8 times as much as any other nation on our military?

I can assure you we will never reach a balanced budget without a significnat tax increase - maybe back to where it was when Bush took office, or major cuts to many programs, including the military.

In all fairness, right or wrong, we defend/police more of the world than any other country, so of course we will spend more. This should stop too.

So, if you support raising the debt limit again this time around, how many more times do you support it?

Do you see dire consequences if we continue this way, or not so much? Do you see dire consequences if we quit raising the debt ceiling or not so much?

I support raising it this time, because we need to in order to meet our obligation, but then I support learning to live within our means as a country - balanced budget style.

I just don't see how continuing to roll up the debt can b a good thing..... but I also know that choking off the spending to quickly could hurt the economy as well. tough choice.