Warren Buffet: Eliminate The Debt Ceiling

by Stuart Shapiro

This makes too much sense to actually happen.  If there is one thing that this debt ceiling debacle has taught us, it is that Congress can waste an impressive amount of time on an issue.  Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha, plays the Oracle of Common Sense here:

The debt limit has “change[d] almost 100 times over the years” and “I think seven times in the Bush administration,” Buffett said.

“The way to limit debt is by taking in revenues that are appropriate in relation to your expenditures,” he said. “And to have the artificial limit which gets raised in the end disrupt the activities in an important way of Congress periodically, I think it’s a waste of Congress’ time.”

One could argue that the debt limit has allowed for a serious discussion on the country’s future.  Even if one accepts that this argument has been serious (a dubious claim), there is no reason that this same discussion couldn’t occur with the passage of the annual budget.

By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.