[starkd]

Congresses set budgets. Presidents have little to do with it. The last time the budget came into balance was in the late '90s (Dem president, Republican congress). Due to gridlock and some real spending restraints that were put in place.

It's only a Republican issue, because the only time they can make it an issue is when they have control of the Congress. You basically just admitted that Democrats don't care about the debt. You think it can just keep going up forever? You don't think eventually this thing is going to pop? The sooner we deal with it, the lesser the repercussions.

[deprecative]

The Debt and The Debt Limit are vastly different things. Republicans can bring up the Debt Limit at any time. They only do it when a Democratic Administration is present. They have no problem massively bloating budgets. The Debt Limit is an unconstitutional artificial crisis to approve borrowing of debt already accrued. If you want to solve debt you do it when you set the budget not when the credit card bill is due.