The Two Sentences That Should Be Part of All Discussion of the Debt Ceiling – Atlantic Mobile http://m.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/01/the-two-sentences-that-should-be-part-of-all-discussion-of-the-debt-ceiling/267115/

Here they are: 1) Raising the debt ceiling does not authorize one single penny in additional public spending. 2) For Congress to “decide whether” to raise the debt ceiling, for programs and tax rates it has already voted into law, makes exactly as much sense as it would for a family to “decide whether” to pay a credit-card bill for goods it has already bought. That is all.

If folks understood that the Legislature makes the Laws and the President exececutes them (and that tax rates and spending are set by law), this “debate” would already be over, so it’s safe to assume most people don’t know this basic aspect of how our own governmnent functions.