Raise the roof, not the ceiling

I'll get right to the point: Congress should not raise the debt ceiling. All opposing arguments are grounded in short-sighted self-interest.

Our inability to live within our means is sabotaging our nation's future. The consequences of failing to raise the debt ceiling, according to credible economists with no ideological axe to grind, would be catastrophic. No Congress and no President wants to be remembered for initiating a catastrophe, so our elected officials are dithering around the edges of the matter.

The only thing they're accomplishing is postponing the inevitable. Increasing the federal government's borrowing limit beyond the currently unfathomable $14.3 trillion only prevents a problem from becoming a crisis -- and to save our country, we need a crisis.

In other words, bring on the catastrophe.

I don't say that lightly. If the debt ceiling isn't raised within the next few weeks, American commerce will spasm and change quickly and, to be blunt about it, things will absolutely suck for the foreseeable future. Life, as this generation has known it, will end.

That, of course, would be a good thing.

This country is worth saving but its government is broken -- we must tear it down to build it up again. We'll decide what We, the People, truly need from a smaller government and what we're willing to pay for it. We'll learn what we can (and should) do for ourselves.

But for now, right now, we must contact our elected officials and demand that they vote against raising the debt ceiling.