Sarah Palin Has No Concept of American Government

Given that it took her going to 6 different colleges to get a four-year degree, and that she quit as governor of the third least populated state in the country after just two years, it's not startling to realize Sarah Palin has no understanding of American government.

“If I were in Congress, I would not vote to incur more debt,” she asserted. But she also said, “We cannot default.” But then she also said: “We cannot afford to retreat right now.”  Of which she finally added that Republicans have to reload when it comes to the debt debate.  Sounds like she needs to reload her brain cause I'm not sure it's possible to have any less understanding of government and still be considered a top-tier presidential hopeful.  Thank you GOP for making all of America just that much dumber.

First off, we all should be thankful she isn't a Member of Congress.  Secondly, a vote by Congress to raise the debt ceiling is not a vote to "incur more debt."  It's a vote to allow Congress to keep paying the debt.  Here's what the Government Accountability Office tells us about the debt ceiling:

“The debt limit does not control or limit the ability of the federal government to run deficits or incur obligations. Rather, it is a limit on the ability to pay obligations already incurred."

They even use the word incur so maybe Republicans will believe it since their Fearless Patriot Leader Palin did too.  As we've discussed on this blog a million times, not voting to raise the ceiling will cause the debt to rise faster than it would if Congress just raised the ceiling like it has numerous times over the last couple decades.

Not raising the limit means we can't pay our debt.  That means we will have higher interest rates and accumulate more debt much quicker than before.  There's a reason why we have never defaulted on our debt-- it would be insane.  But that's just what Palin is saying Congress should do.  In fact, she's saying that's what she would do. She would cause us to default on our debt and force the federal debt to explode.  She is a fiscal conservative after all.

That's the gist of the debate.  Republicans are purposely skewing the debate to make people think raising the debt limit means we are agreeing to spend more money and raise the debt.  That's dishonest and pathetic.  Raising the debt limit simply allows us to pay our bills. We'll incur debt whether we raise it or not.