Newly minted IMF chief Christine Lagarde pressed officials fighting over the debt to show “political courage” . . . and behave a bit more like Europe.
That is, she said yesterday, members of Congress should follow their continental counterparts, who last week continued their massive bailout of ailing Greece.
But mon dieu, talk about missing the point: Washington needs to face down its debt crisis precisely to avoid becoming like Greece.
And the only way to do that is by reining in spending.
The very terms of the debate have been twisted. Case in point: The president’s supporters say Congress must raise the debt ceiling so the US can pay its bills.
But that’s simply not the case: Raising the debt ceiling just allows the bills to grow even bigger than before.
Imagine calling a credit-card company to which you owe piles of cash — and, instead of making a payment, asking it to just raise your credit limit. You wouldn’t be paying bills, just digging deeper holes.
And while you’d be laughed into bankruptcy, this is now an annual tradition in Washington: The debt ceiling has been raised 39 times since 1980.
So should it be raised again no matter what kind of deal emerges? Lagarde may be right that actual default — which no serious player advocates — would be a “very, very, very serious event . . . for the global economy.”
But kicking the Grecian can down the road isn’t solving the Eurozone’s problem, either.
While avoiding near-term calamity is key, curbing spending averts a far worse disaster. Without that, the United States is no better off than Greece — and with no one left to pay the bills.