Two Bites at the Debt Apple

Negotiations over raising the debt ceiling effectively gives Congress two bites at the apple.  The President does not create debt.  The President has no Constitutional authority to spend monies not specifically appropriated by Congress.  If he did than President Reagan's team would never have resorted to selling weapons to Iran to fund the Contras after Congress cut off funding.

If Congress does not want to increase the national debt, than they should   pass legislation that either increase revenues or decreasing expenditures.  If they haven't the political will or power to do so via specific debated legislation- say by cutting back on entitlements while allowing military spending to grow - than they should not be able to do so by negotiation with the executive branch. 

Previous Congressess have understood that increased indebtedness was caused by their passage of legislation and thus routinely increased the debt ceiling limit.  Only this Congress has tried to have it both ways.  President Obama is correct in taking Congress on: he should have done so before.