The US should raise it's Debt Ceiling, with or without concessions

Thanks to Bluesteel for accepting.I will start off by making sure the resolution is clear by pointing out that I am referring to the debt ceiling vote as it is currently being discussed in congress. According to Tim Geithner, as it stands we have till Aug 2nd before the US will default. Effects of not raising the debt ceiling: The exact consequences are impossible to predict so there are no specific answers to this question. However here some statements that overwhelmingly support the general coconscious: “For one, the government would grind to a halt -- cutting off military salaries and retirement benefits, along with Social Security and Medicare payments. Worse still, default would also plunge the U.S. back into recession. Interest rates and borrowing costs would surge, while the dollar would plummet. In a worst case scenario, the markets would go into a death spiral as investors distanced themselves from the U.S” Salon.com (1) "…causing catastrophic damage to the economy, potentially more harmful that the effects of the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009," Tim Geithner (2) “If Congress fails to increase the debt limit… That would precipitate a self-inflicted financial crisis potentially more severe that the one from which we are now recovering.” Dept of Treasury (3) Since Con did not refute this general concept I will leave it at that and move on to rebuttal his points: C1) The absurdity of having a debt ceiling that you can raise This is completely irrelevant to the discussion but since I have space… “How absurd is it that the US has the debt ceiling, which we are in the process or raising for the third time in 4 years?" I agree. However I believe the issue is that budgets that violate the debt limit are passed before discussion of the debt ceiling comes into play. The issue is in our budgeting process. “I would then negate by saying we should at least be honest with the American people and remove the ceiling altogether, since it is effectively useless in curtailing government spending.” When certain measures to protect against something are found useless I prefer to strengthening them rather then to disregard them entirely. C2) Contingency “This should take as long as it needs to.” Taking longer then the 2 months we have left will result in my point above. Contrary to my opponent’s statement, there is a vital reason to move quickly. “I'll take a hit in the stock market now so I'm not taxed 90% of my income 30 years from now to pay off the debt.” An obvious exaggeration. I’d like to know where this 90% number comes from. I will point out that what we are not talking about is more then just “a hit on the stock market”. C3) No debt ceiling raise “I'm implicitly refuting my opponent's case here as well, where he says that if we DIDN'T raise the debt ceiling, we can't pay off the debt. First, think of how ridiculous this sounds.” Strawman arguments often sound ridiculous. I never said we needed to raise it to pay our debt, I said we needed to raise it to avoid defaulting on our debt, which is what will happen if we stop paying our financial obligations. To pay those obligations we will have to barrow. To barrow we will have to raise the debt ceiling. “Second, defaulting on our debt would only happen if the government keeps spending more and more money and doesn't cut anything.” The United States has ALREADY incurred more expenses then our debt limit allows. Default will happen if we do not raise the debt ceiling “Cutting the Pentagon budget by $200 billion would effectively solve this debt ceiling problem.” False. I would like to know the source of this claim. The US will need to cut $738 billion to avoid the debt ceiling.(1) Cutting our entire national defense would still not avoid default. “Raising the debt ceiling just procrastinates the inevitable spending cuts that our government needs to make” Raising the debt ceiling avoid will avoid the US and world economies going back into the recession we just came out of and ruining the US good standing credit rating which keeps our current interest rates low. Loosing our low interest rates will cause interest payments to go up increasing our deficit which will not be of much help to our debt. Neither will the loss of tax revenues that will result in the economic effects of defaulting. “They'll just keep raising the debt forever, until our debt collapses upon itself,” The point when our debt “collapses upon itself” is the point when we can no longer pay it. Con is suggesting that we vote to make this date Aug 2nd 2011. “Congress would have to finally decrease the defense budget, reform the home mortgage deduction tax break… Point being, it's time to do what the Deficit Reduction Commission says,” Con seems to be making the point that not raising the debt ceiling would force congress to make the cuts it needs to balance the budget. However our deficit is currently $1.5 trillion. It does not matter weather you raise taxes or cut spending, taking money out of the economy will hurt the economy. Balancing the budget in one year would mean taking $1.5 trillion out of our economy. I don’t think I need to point out that this would have devastating consequences and is not the best course of action. I am not a budget expert but these cuts can not be taken in one shot, it will need to be done over time which will require more barrowing. Thus we will need to raise the debt ceiling. Summary: Con’s case simple in its basic message: The US needs to control its spending. I absolutely agree. Over past decades we as a nation have mostly ignored this problem. But my contention as stated in my opening case is that this is a separate discussion. I have no issue with politicians taking advantage of this to make their political point, but to vote against the debt ceiling will be highly irresponsible and have serious consequences. I stand by my resolution. (1) http://www.salon.com...(2) http://latimesblogs.latimes.com...(3) www.treasury.gov/.../Debt%20Limit%20Myth%20v%20Fact%20FINAL.pdf