Am I right that the USA is the only country with something as stupid as a "debt ceiling"?

[andrewducker]

Or is there another country where the politicians have to argue over what they're going to do and then argue again over how to pay for the things they just agreed they were going to do?

So far as I'm aware in every other country you argue over how you're going to pay for it _at the same time_ - and either pass it, or don't.

Or am I missing something?

Comments

[ironjeff]

No, you're not missing anything... Our government system really is that stupid!

Talk keeps springing up in our politico-class regarding avoiding the issue by either:

1) Exploiting a loophole that would allow our mint to produce platinum coins in any denomination the Treasurey Secretary authorizes in order to strike a 1 < Doctor_Evil > TRILLION DOLLAR < /Doctor_Evil > coin to deposit in the US Treasury, or
2) Using the "Constitutional Option", where Obama invokes the 4th clause of our 14th amendment - "The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law,...shall not be questioned..." to state, in effect, that Congress authorized the budget, so no one can stop him from borrowing to pay the bills.

The "Smart People" seem to discount the idea of simply revoking the law establishing a debt ceiling, or of including the sale of the needed debt in the Budget Act in the first place...