Debt Ceiling Proceedings

This weekend preceeds a critical week in the financial situation of the United States. It provides time to think about how the country has accumulated such massive debt and the options we have to curtail further accumulation and direct a course toward a balanced budget--all without impairing the fragile economic recovery we are experiencing following the worst recession since the Great Depression. There are a number of facts, regardless of party affiliation within the body politic, that we can agree upon.
We can all agree that the accumulation of debt has been going on for a long time. In fact, except for 1956 and 1957 during the Eisenhower years, there has not been a federal budget surplus except for the last year of the Clinton administration. We can all agree that the responsibility rests with the Congress and members of all political parties through the years. Congress adopted the debt ceiling in 1917 as a way of insuring presidential accountability. The only other country in the world that has a debt ceiling is Denmark. The debt ceiling has been raised 79 times since the first statuatory limit was raised by Congress with the passage of the Second Liberty Bond Act in 1919 to finance the US entry into WWI. The progression has been for $43 billion that year to 14.294 Trillion in February of 2010.
We can further agree that the the federal debt has been accelerating during the past 12 to 15 years and that the relationship to GDP [gross national product] is a ratio that economists deem the trend to true crisis. We can also note that there is a reason to raise the debt limit. The reason is that it must be raised to pay for spending Congress has already authorized. The President must have the limit raised in order for him to legally spend what has been authorized or face limiting the funding of the federal government, part of which is funding of treasury bond obligations. That is, if the President spend the money without raising the debt ceiling [limit], he will be violating the law.
Finally we can agree that the impending vote on raising the ceiling has brought out the worst example of dysfunctionality in government in our history and in a matter of days this coming week may demonstrate all the flaws of what could become a failed democracy. The solution if there is one? Ah yes, as usual. Follow the money! The great pirate ship of Wall Street will not allow default of the United States. There will be a vote to raise the ceiling and some nonsense language to pledge efforts toward a balanced budget.
What we need and hope we can get, is a 10 to 15 year plan to move in the direction of balance without a serious nick in our fragile economy and while we are at it a 20 year plan to rebuild our country, end our foreign wars and occupation of countries dating back to WWII. Do we have the leadership for all that?