Kochs disagree with GOP on debt ceiling

The Koch brothers, two wealthy conservatives who have put their millions behind countless Republican candidates through campaign donations and their Americans for Prosperity Group, are coming out publicly against the GOP stance on the debt ceiling. They worry that the Republicans will be seen as "hostage takers" in the debate. Yikes.

The debt ceiling is the amount of money that Congress has approved for the federal government to borrow to pay its bills, and it's been a sticking point for many debates and legislative battles throughout Obama's presidency. The issue is that the government already has a federal budget set, so the money is already allocated to various programs, but that budget requires more money than the government is authorized to borrow. The result is that the government has approved a budget that spends more money than it has access to. In order to legally get access to borrow the money to pay bills it has already approved, the government needs to raise its debt ceiling.

Republicans relentlessly argue that rather than simply raise the debt ceiling, we should reduce the spending in our budget and live more within our means. It's a decent argument overall, but the idea that we, as a country, should repeatedly come close to defaulting on our payments means that our national credit rating, already downgraded in 2011, is repeatedly at risk. And that credit rating is critical to our place as a global economic power-- something that is even worse for business than a large and growing national debt.

That's what many in the GOP, including Newt Gingrich and the Koch brothers, are becoming more worried about. It seems that the pressure to keep the dollar's value is winning out over the philosophical battle over lowering national spending. As the Huffington post says, "When you've lost the Koch brothers, you've lost the game."

Image courtesy of DonkeyHotey via flickr