JEFF JACOBY on raising the national debt ceiling: "[R]eaching the federal debt limit will not plunge the federal government into default. 'Hitting the ceiling means that we can spend only what we collect in taxes,' wrote former Assistant Treasury Secretary Emil Henry in The Wall Street Journal..... Federal tax revenue for 2011 is expected to be $2.2 trillion, while net interest on the debt will cost $225 billion. With so much money coming in, the United States will have no trouble paying its creditors."

So tighten the belt. We can live on a mere $2.2 trillion.