Editorial: Expensive brawl over debt ceiling
President Barack Obama meets with House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, left, in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington to discuss the debt. Credit: AP, 2011
$1.3 billion -- That's what last summer's ridiculous brawl in Congress over raising the debt ceiling cost taxpayers. The tally reflects the increased cost of borrowing for the U.S. Treasury in 2011, due to uncertainty in the market while Congress slugged it out, according to the Government Accountability Office. The debate over how much debt the federal government takes on is important. But the time to have that fight is when Congress is voting to spend money, not when the bills come due.
