Incoming House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) publicly urged the other members of his House Republican caucus to vote to raise the debt ceiling, saying: “We're going to have to deal with it as adults. Whether we like it or not, the federal government has obligations and we have obligations on our part.”
Leading personalities at Fox Business apparently feel differently. Today on Fox News' Your World, host Neil Cavuto -- also the managing editor of Fox Business -- suggested that raising the debt ceiling would demonstrate that “we're prisoners of the system.”
CAVUTO: You know, Gretchen, I talk to a number of them, Democrat and Republican, who are like, “Neil, it's not that simple, it's not that easy to come in and make these broad, sweeping cuts.” And in the case of-- I had a former Georgia congressman on at the top of the show who says, you know-- talking about, you know, not extending the debt, or raising the debt ceiling, still sort of a couple of months away, it's suicidal. I hear a lot of “can't,” “don't” warnings. Can't be done, not the way things are done here. And I often think that's why we're prisoners of the system.
Later this evening, on Fox Business's Freedom Watch, host Andrew Napolitano also spoke out against raising the debt ceiling:
NAPOLITANO: Alright, White House economic adviser Austan Goolsbee claims that if the nation hits the debt ceiling and the government defaults, that will cause an economic collapse far greater than what we saw in 2008, and Stuart Varney agrees. What Goolsbee really means is that big government cannot govern without borrowing money, without spending more than it takes in. America, the government's current fiscal policy of spending for the sake of spending and borrowing more money to cover the cost of borrowing has been described as one of the greatest thefts in American history.
Politicians today are borrowing money for personal pet projects that will be paid for by your children long after those who spent the money have retired or died. The truth is that if we cap the debt ceiling, the government will be forced into fiscal responsibility. We will either default on our debts, in which case no one will lend the government any more money, or we'll cut the budget. Either way, spending will go down. This country needs to live within its means. Reigning in spending is the only way to bring back credibility to our government and its currency. If we cap our debt, in the long run our economy will grow and our society will be prosperous. The sad reality is that when it comes to money, our legislators in Washington act as recklessly as a drug addict, looking for just one more fix. It's time to end their access to limitless cash.
It still remains to be seen whether or not Republican lawmakers will behave like adults, as Boehner urges. But at least now we've been reminded how Fox Business would rather behave.