Stephen Moore: The debt ceiling is a federal budget fire alarm -- ...

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

56% : Trump has an ambitious agenda he's promised to fulfill; the last thing he wants to spend his first 100 days on is some legislative squabble over a budget rule most voters don't understand or care about.
56% : For example, the budget deal could specify that if borrowing goes over the allowable amount, an automatic spending-reduction meat cleaver will chop all programs (except for Social Security, Medicare and veterans benefits) by a set percentage, to force spending down below the permitted target.
46% : Trump and his GOP-majority Congress must team up to set a credible path to a balanced budget over the next 12 years -- with some serious consequences for overspending.
45% : No, if Trump is serious about shrinking government and cutting spending, he should embrace the debt ceiling as an important tool.
36% : Newt Gingrich used the debt ceiling deadline to get a budget deal with President Bill Clinton -- and the only balanced federal budgets in the last 50 years.

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