Are the Republicans in Congress INSANE ? ---- Why are THEY proposing to "Temporarily Suspend the Debt Ceiling" ? This Republican proposal is a Constitutional abdication and is a questionable short term political tactic that establishes horrible precedent.

Is it any wonder that the President almost immediately signed onto what was  proposed by the House Republican Leadership ( See "Obama ‘will not oppose’ House GOP plan to suspend debt limit until May" by Lori Montgomery and Rosalind S. Helderman, Washington Post - WPPolitics 1/22/13  [http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/house-republicans-plant-to-keep-debt-limit-but-suspend-it-until-may/2013/01/22/14bc4f3e-64ae-11e2-85f5-a8a9228e55e7_story.html ]) ?

The House Republican Leadership put forward a novel plan to suspend enforcement of the federal debt limit through May 18th.  Supposedly, this  move lifts the threat of a government default and relieves some of  the  crisis atmosphere that has surrounded the Republicans' recent  budget battles with President Obama.

The proposed suspension of the debt ceiling would not resolve the dispute over how to control the national debt; however, after the “fiscal cliff” episode at the end of last year, it would buy congressional Republicans a little more time to continue the debate on the debt and the level of current spending without having another economy-busting deadline looming just around the corner. On May 19th the debt limit would automatically be reset at a higher level that reflects the additional borrowing between now and then. This  measure is set for a vote in the House on  Wednesday.

It's important to note that the  Republican Leadership in the House of Representatives  made an important pivot in their so-called plan to pass a short-term increase in the debt ceiling. Rather than increase the debt ceiling by a specific amount, in the range of few hundred billion dollars, to buy themselves time for further talks on the budget, they have proposed instead to "suspend" the debt ceiling for a fixed period.

Some critics on the right have already argued that what the Republican House Leadership is proposing for political expediency  is a blatant abdication of its congressional authority under the Constitution (See Mike Flynn's "GOP 'Suspends' Constitution in Debt Fight" in Brietbart-Big Government, 1/22/13 [ http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/01/22/GOP-suspends-constitution-in-debt-fight ]). According to that view,  Article 1 of the US Constitution gives Congress the exclusive authority to borrow money to fund the government. Until World War I, Congress  approved each and every  issuance of U.S. Bonds. The borrowing demands of WW I made this impractical, so Congress authorized the government to freely borrow up to a statutory limit, a "debt ceiling," which when reached would require the Treasury to go back to Congress if it needed to do additional borrowing. As a result, the government had more flexibility to manage its affairs while preserving the Constitutional principle that Congress continued to control the purse strings.

The House Republican Leadership's current proposal to suspend the debt ceiling until May 18th completely violates this underlying principle. If enacted, the government's borrowing authority would be unlimited through mid-May. Arguably, the government could borrow trillions while the debt ceiling was suspended, provided either the markets or the Fed could meet the new supply of debt.

In addition, the Republican move would establish a very bad precedent. Many Democrats have been pushing to simply eliminate the idea of the debt ceiling entirely.  The Obama Administration and Congressional Democrats have found the recent hold ups on raising the debt ceiling  annoying and an impediment to expanding government.  Now, however,  the Republican proposal to "suspend" the ceiling gives at least some support to the Democrats'  position. Since they could easily argue, "If we can suspend the debt ceiling  for three months, why not a year, why not permanently ?  If this Congress were to surrender on the constitutional principle behind the concept of  the debt ceiling by this  "temporary suspension"  of that ceiling, regardless of the duration or the nifty political tactic to be served,  where and how could this Congress or even later Congresses  reassert the principle.