Annals of mindless hyperbole

Glenn Beck claims that raising the debt ceiling would be the beginning of the end of the Republican party. The GOP survived the presidencies of Harding, Hoover, and Nixon, as well as George H.W. Bush’s about face on “new taxes.” I suppose it will survive a vote to prevent the U.S. government from defaulting on its obligations.
Allahpundit has this issue nailed:

From the myopic standpoint of what’s more likely to bring about the end of the GOP, I’m guessing that an economic collapse triggered by a Republican-driven federal default is slightly more likely to cause trouble for conservatives than voting to raise the ceiling in return for, say, a balanced-budget amendment or other heavy debt-reducing concessions.
But beyond that, and I ask this in all sincerity, how exactly is it “fiscally conservative” to willingly default on your obligations? The ceiling is just a ceiling. A Congress committed to solvency could raise the limit now to preserve the stability of global markets and then get cracking on real budget cuts — and entitlement reform — to start moving us away from that ceiling, never to return.

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