Sarah Palin: 'Don't Retreat, Reload' on Debt Ceiling

Analysis

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin returned to her controversial gunplay rhetoric Wednesday, saying on The Sean Hannity Show, now is not the time to retreat, it's the time to reload in reference to conservatives' stance to not raise the debt ceiling.

Further, Palin accused U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., of waving a white flag with his last-resort plan aimed at granting President Barack Obama, D-Ill., the authority to raise the debt ceiling.

Palin also said she isn't convinced that a U.S. Government default would be as much of a calamity as the Obama administration, business groups, and economists have suggested.

I'm still not one to buy into this notion that we must incur more debt, we must increase the debt ceiling by Aug. 2, otherwise there will be catastrophe, Palin said, Fox News reported Wednesday. I still don't believe that that's necessarily the case.

However, objective evidence from both the Obama administration, and the nation's highest ranking monetary official, indicate Palin has not reaching a valid conclusion.

On Aug. 4, the U.S. Treasury Department is due to pay off $30 billion in maturing short-term debt. In theory, the United States could prioritize debt payments, but U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has also warned lawmakers in Congress that the prioritization tactic would still cause investors to shun U.S. Treasury securities, commonly known as Treasuries.

Geithner has also repeatedly underscored that failing to raise the debt ceiling will have no constructive outcomes for the nation's fiscal condition, the task of deficit reduction, and U.S. and global stock and bond markets.

Further, on Wednesday, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, in his regular, semi-annual testimony on the U.S. economy on Capitol Hill, underscored that a default would trigger a huge financial calamity adding that it would send a financial shockwave throughout the global financial system.

President Obama also has said that, in the event the U.S. Government defaults on its debt and Congress does not authorize it to borrow funds, he could not guarantee that August Social Security payments on August 3.

Must Read: Obama on Social Security payments.

In other words, Obama said, senior citizens may go without their monthly payment, and payments to the disabled, the sick - as well as the U.S. Armed Forces stationed at home and abroad -- may not be issued.

Political/Public Policy Analysis: Former Gov. Palin is not budging from her conservative ideological stance. Palin still views conformity to conservative ideology -- not raising the debt ceiling -- as more important that the heath of the U.S. economy, the nation's credit rating, the health of U.S./global credit markets, and the livelihoods of tens of millions of senior citizens and others who have earned their federal payments, including the U.S. Armed Forces.

Further, Palin's stance on the debt ceiling is incoherent: Palin wants the budget deficit to decline, but if the debt ceiling is not raised, and the U.S. defaults, the interest rate investors' charge the U.S. Government will rise, substantially increasing the U.S.'s interest payment costs, and by extension, it's budget deficit.