'What the debt ceiling fight won't fix'

we are being "had"..........from chicago tribune.......

"Whoever wins this battle, the government's sea of red ink will keep expanding. There is no general agreement on numbers, but the publicly held debt now stands at about $11 trillion. Obama's budget would have pushed the total to around $20 trillion by 2021. Under either the Boehner plan or the Reid plan, it would exceed $17 trillion.

All this screaming and squabbling, and for what? A huge increase in the amount of borrowed funds that you and your descendants will have to repay.

Freshman Republicans in the House rallied behind the "cut, cap and balance" plan, but it amounts to yet another stack of alluring promises. The cuts, $111 billion next year, are not itemized. Neither are the programs that would take a hit from the caps.

The "balance" refers to a constitutional amendment to ban deficit spending. But such an amendment — even in the very unlikely event it could be passed — wouldn't balance the budget. It would merely commit Congress and the president to approve cuts in spending or increases in revenue that would eliminate the fiscal gap.

It's not a solution. It's a promise to come up with a solution, somehow, someday"...........READ MORE