Republicans are Doing Exactly What Reagan Doesn't Want Them to Do

It's an odd figment of modern America that Republicans claim to adore President Reagan so much. They credit him for many things that he just never did. And for the things he actually did do, they ignore.

For example, as president, Reagan once faced a critical time in America's debt outlook. He tripled the national debt. In order to do that, Congress had to raise the debt ceiling. As Congress always does, they like to show the public just how in charge they are of government when it comes to this stuff. So instead of just allowing President Reagan to run up trillions in debt, they made a mockery out of it and then finally caved and raised the debt ceiling.

Not raising the debt ceiling is serious stuff. It will cause the American government to default, which is something that has never happened. That's not good. And here's what Reagan said about it.

“This country cannot be allowed to default on its financial obligations for the first time in history,” Reagan warned. “This would be unthinkable.”

About $5 trillion of today's debt is from Reagan's presidency, another $5 trillion is from George W. Bush's presidency. Maybe if we told Republicans the debt we would be defaulting on overwhelmingly comes from their prized leaders they would quit playing games with it. Probably not. But I don't know why in the world, in this whole debate about the national debt, we aren't talking about where the debt actually came from. It came from the fiscal conservatives who are now telling us defaulting on it would be okay for a little while.

On what planet are the people responsible for running up trillions of dollars of debt called fiscal conservatives and allowed any sort of credibility when it comes to money?