There's only one side holding the debt ceiling hostage, it's just a conservative problem.

It's also a democrat problem in that when dems get power they haven't just decided to eliminate the debt ceiling all together.

But then, that's because moderate/conservative democrats have decided it's to scary to eliminate the debt ceiling (there's not enough votes for that). So maybe still a conservative problem but not entirely a republican problem.

Agreed. Although progressive politicians, or as I like to call them, the right-light, do contribute their fair share of problems.

Ironic, considering they literally had the power to raise the debt ceiling for two years while they were in Congress. But it's too much to ask that they have less than a year of foresight.

https://www.axios.com/2023/05/23/democrats-debt-ceiling-regr...

The would have needed Manchin's support, and without periodic debt ceiling emergencies he wouldn't get as much airtime to advocate for cuts.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/07/joe-manch...

Raising the debt ceiling isn't righteous. The dollar is almost exclusively backed by two things: the petrodollar and the subsequent ability to open the gates of hell in order to defend it.

We are right to consider why we are a primarily export-based economy with a dollar tied so tenuously to oil. Blaming Republicans, when in fact it's a problem of crony-capitalism, is somewhat shortsighted. Some of the richest, filthiest, congresspeople are Democrats. To assert it's one-sided is very sound-bite politics of you. I would go to open secrets and see just how equal congresspeople are in exploiting the national debt for political and financial gain.

The debt ceiling needs increasing when the budget that was already approved needs money. If the contentious part is not spending so much then those Republicans shouldn't have approved the fucking budget at first.

This line of reasoning makes no sense... Holding the debt ceiling hostage is just posturing, and from your comment and some others it really seems to work even in seemingly intelligent people, imagine with the rest of the voters?