The Debt Ceiling and Being a Mindless Follower of Headlines

Mods, please remove if this isn’t on topic…

…but check out how mainstream news is dumbing down the debt ceiling. Particularly in the last paragraph, where they call it “behind the scenes accounting maneuvers…”

Yes, folks, nothing to see here. Just some boring, behind the scenes accounting maneuvers that you shouldn’t concern yourself about. We’re ok and everything is going to be ok because grandma Janet is going to take care of it for us.

The excerpt:

“CNN) Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen formally put Congress on notice last week that the agency will have to start taking "extraordinary measures" after the US reaches its $31.4 trillion debt limit on Thursday.

But the nation is not yet at the debt ceiling crisis point that could tank the financial markets, suspend Social Security payments to senior citizens, hurt the economy and cause other chaos.

That's what the so-called extraordinary measures are designed to temporarily avoid. And while they might sound dire, they are mainly behind-the-scenes accounting maneuvers that the Treasury Department can take to give Congress time to increase or suspend the limit before the US has to default on its debts.”