I have a question

[Monique1]

especially to those on the right and yes we have them here. The right wingers say just pay the intetest on our debt, okay so if I call my credit company or any place where I owe a debt and tell them I am only going to pay the interest and not pay my debt what do you think what would happen? I bet they would ruin my credit and charge me extra for unpaid amount. This could happen with the US debt.

[rurallib]

1. you think a winger would think beyond the talking point

to the consequences?

[Monique1]

2. No, we all should think beyond the right wingers

When a right winger says something I do stgep back and think and do not try react immediately.

[patrice]

3. I can't imagine a Reich-wing answer to that question. The RW-ers I know

personally seem to be kind of obsessed with how "corrupt" we have become, maybe some of them, in their typically punitive way, think the suffering and destruction they cause will "cleanse" America.

[gateley]

4. I think it was on Lawrence O'Donnell that was addressed today -

of course I don't remember the specifics, but basically it's bullshit.

I'm sure you're surprised. :7

[Monique1]

6. Imissed that part of O'Donnell

Dang! because I was thinking of that today.

[gateley]

7. Not SURE it was his show, though -- I've been in front of

MSNBC all day (except when I watched my recording of White Collar :7).

Did you catch his opening segment? It was fascinating and it WAS about the debt ceiling.

[NYC_SKP]

5. At 21.6% interest, some creditors would be tickled if you never pay off the principal.

Even at lower rates.

Minimum monthly payments on a charge card are designed to keep us forever in debt.

Not sure I'm making the connection you're trying to lay out.

[badtoworse]

8. They would likely not accept such an arrangement...

but would require at least a token payment towards principal. At the same time, they would not continue lending you more and more money indefinitely, especially if your income (read that GDP) did not reflect an increasing ability to service the debt.

The only reason we are able to get away with that is because the dollar is the world's de facto reserve currency and we can print as many of them as we want (and we've been doing just that). If that were to change, say the rest of the world were to demand payment in another currency or were to tie the value of the dollar to a commodity such as gold, we would be unable to monetize our debt. That is the problem that the Greeks and other European countries have - they have to pay in Euro's and don't control the printing presses. Their GDP's and tax revenues are insufficient to pay the debt and still provide the level of public employment and social services that people have come to expect. They are forced to impose austerity measures to come up with money to service the debt and/or convince lenders to bail them out (as in the case of Greece).

There is no question that the world will not allow us to continue increasing our debt and printing more dollars. At some point, they will stop using the dollar and when that happens, the price of virtually everything we use will skyrocket. IMO, that would be a far worse outcome than any of the cuts I've heard so far - we really do have to do something about the debt.

[OwnedByFerrets]

9. Well, in reality, when you buy a home you pay the INTEREST for

a long long time before you ever pay any principle. I know that is too simplistic, but the basic premise is true.

[badtoworse]

10. That is really not true. There is always a component of principal in the monthly payment.

In the beginning, it is very small, but it is still there