THOUGHTS ON THE DEBT CEILING BILL

Now that the debt-ceiling bill has passed the U.S. House it goes on to the Senate for a vote later today. Most of the talking heads seem to think it will pass and go on for the President to sign, thus allowing the Secretary of the Treasury to immediately begin borrowing even more billions of dollars to continue operating our federal government.

While it is a hopeful sign when one examines the overall trend of the decline of the Socialist Left in both Europe and America, I still am not convinced that "the people" are really determined to end the era of big government. Crucially, this plan does not start a real debate about entitlement reform. In fact, when push comes to shove, the bill looks to cutting the Defense Department as a way to make the balance sheets look better.

As I have written many times, the declining, overextended empires of the past always shredded their defense expenditures in a last-ditch effort to remain solvent, since the political pain of tackling domestic bribery programs was too great to keep their leaders comfortable on their thrones or in their parliamentary seats. Until I see evidence that "the people" are willing to withstand real cuts to domestic entitlement programs, I will withhold judgment.