"A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing" --Alexander Hamilton
Last Friday's last-minute deal to avert a government shutdown has been dissected by critics of the left and right, and from all other conceivable angles. One thing worth keeping in mind is that the next episode of partisan confrontation is likely to take place over the need to raise the legal debt limit. Yes, the ceiling would have to be raised even if either of the two main Republican proposals--that introduced by Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, and that of the Republican Study Committee and associated with Rep. Scott Garrett of New Jersey--were to be adopted as is. The only difference is whether we want to live with unbalanced budgets until 2040 (Ryan's plan) or 2020 (Garrett's plan).
In today's Post, columnist Robert J. Samuelson argues that this is a sympton indicating that our government is "suicidal." He has a point.
April 14 update: I've seen lots of worthwhile commentary since President Obama's speech yesterday, but I particularly liked Fareed Zakaria's op-ed column in today's Post.
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