ANY BODY ELSE THINK CONGRESS SHOULD HOLD THEIR GROUND ON SPENDING?

yes they should hold spending. put it back to the clinton era levels. if democrats think tax rates should be at that level why not spending?

What they need to do to keep the credit rating from getting down graded again is to both raise the debt ceiling while making major cuts to spending.

No one that follows the business sector thinks that we can only raise the debt ceiling. Also, from the way the rating agencies are leaning, if we don't make serious changes to our spending we will see our credit rating drop just like most of Europe.

Obama is asking for the debt ceiling to be raised in order to pay for the spending congress has already authorized.

Obama cannot spend a nickel without congress - you are blaming entirely the wrong person here.

Yes Susan - keep up the old Obama spending lie. You mentioned 2008 so lets look at that.

In 2008 discretionary non-defense spending was 643.2bn. In 2012 it was 700.3bn. That is an 8.9% increase in 4 years.

In that time cpi increased by 6.6% and the population has increased by 3.5%.

In other words "Obama's spending" even though it still needs to be authorized by Congress is actually less per head of population in real terms than it was in 2008.

Still why should perfectly valid facts get in the way of a continued irrational hatred for our President?

I would like to see the drastic cuts in the original fiscal cliff go into effect, then budget up from there. However, those cuts affect the future, not present debts. The debt ceiling would still need to be raised to cover present bills.

Congress should cut spending but not by over 30% which it would take to balance the budget so the debt limit should be raised so the government can pay its bills.

You do understand, spending, wasn't an issue... Until Obama, added the war debt, to the deficit, don't you ? I'm thinking, there's the strong possibility, you don't... Hiding all that debt, from the public, simply was not, a Democrat plan...

considering Congress passes funding bills to begin with, I doubt they'll hold their ground very well. they don't actually need Obama's consent to simply cut spending. but not financing the bills they've already run up is a great way to destroy our credit.

Spending is the number one problem an few will admit it.

I think Congress should do their job. Enough with the brinkmanship.

Period.

Hold the spending. Put it back to 2008 levels for a start, pre-TARP and auto bailout.