Karl Rove, still uremorseful about his administration's eight-year spree of deficit-increasing measures, argues today that the debt ceiling has to be raised only because of the Democrats' big-gummint ways:
A vote to raise the debt ceiling is an acknowledgment of past actions—in this case Mr. Obama's massive spending since coming to office. Republicans are not to be blamed for Mr. Obama's spending.
Heavens no. The debt ceiling is only being raised because of Obama's spending. So I guess we never had to raise the debt ceiling before Obama did we? let's consult another authority on this subject -- the same column by Rove:
Rep. Sander Levin (D., Mich.), like Mr. Obama, voted against raising the debt ceiling in 2006. But the ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee said Monday that the S&P announcement sends a "very clear" signal to Republicans not to "play games with the debt ceiling."
Wait, Obama was president in 2006, too? Or perhaps they were voting in 2006 to raise the debt ceiling in anticipation of Obama's profligacy?
Or maybe the debt ceiling is raised regularly under every administration, regardless of whether the deficit is growing or shrinking, and it's not really an "acknowledgement" of anything at all, but it is a chance for partisan hacks to make a demagogic attack against the president. Nah.