Debt ceiling negotiations have become a regular part of business in Congress and are now the tool Republicans are using to defund Obamacare.  That's why Minden Congressman John Fleming likes these negotiations.

"The debt ceiling is one place where even one house in Congress has equal power to the President of the United States and the controlling party," Fleming explained to 710 KEEL.

The Treasury Department has come out and said the government will exhaust its emergency funds on October 17th.

Debt ceiling raises date back to 1980 and have lead to major financial events in our nation's recent history, including the government shutdowns of 1995 and 1996 and the introduction of sequestration idea in 2011.

"The debt ceiling is being used to negotiate and good things have come out of it," said Fleming defending the practice.  "Even the Budget Control Act of 2011, which led to the sequester which I voted against because of what it does to the military, but at least it put us on the pathway to lower spending."

However, the higher the debt ceiling goes, the more debt the nation goes in.

"This sort of battle is going to continue until America gets it in their heads that we can't continue running up our credit cards, that we can't just buy everything for everybody," stated Fleming.

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