July 11, 2013 10:01 AM UTC

Stock market? Credit rating? They don't come up as Gardner threatens to hijack debt-ceiling extension once again

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• by: Jason Salzman

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

You may recall that when House Republicans blocked the extension of the U.S. debt ceiling a couple years ago, the stock market went into cardiac arrest and America's credit rating was downgraded.

So are you shocked that Rep. Cory Gardner is on the radio talking about doing it again?

Maybe you're not shocked, but, still, if you presided over a talk-radio show, your brain might tell you to ask a follow-up question when Gardner says he wants to leverage the debt-ceiling extension to push his anti-government agenda.

Gardner told KFTM's John Waters Monday that he sees the upcoming extension of the debt ceiling as an "opportunity to reduce the size and scope of government, and how we can require opportunities to look for savings, look for cuts, and what we’re going to do to grow the economy through common sense tax reform. I think there’s great opportunities for us to get back on track." (Listen here.) 

Gardner is obviously free to push his anti-government agenda in Congress, as well has his anti-abortion one, but why not ask him why he doesn't use the budget process for this? That's where debate about these issues is supposed to take place.

Democrats and Republicans have extended the debt ceiling over 100 times since 1940, with little opposition (until 2011). Reagan did it 18 times; G.W. Bush seven.

Do we really want to risk another credit downgrade, as well as a stock market collapse, to debate budget issues that are properly addressed elsewhere? 

It's a question that Waters should have put to Gardner.

Here's the exchange on KFTM:

WATERS: Uh, we also –coming up later on in the year, we might as well touch on it– we’re going to be up against the debt ceiling again and there’s always those budget issues.

GARDNER: It is. And that’s a big part of the discussion too. And so, what the debt ceiling is, of course, is the maximum that the United States can borrow. Now, what’s unique about the debt ceiling is it’s not a debate about how much more you can borrow to spend new money. It’s about how much you can borrow to pay for money that you’ve already spent. And so, it’s money that has already been spent, and the US has to borrow it in order to keep up with it. And so the debt ceiling limit, in that sense, — we’ve got to use this opportunity to reduce the size and scope of government, and how we can require opportunities to look for savings, look for cuts, and what we’re going to do to grow the economy through common sense tax reform. I think there’s great opportunities for us to get back on track.