Shikha Dalmia on Why Fiscal Hawks Should Fight for the Debt Ceiling

Whenever the establishment left and right agrees on something, writes Shikha Dalmia, expect a big assault on our democracy. That is the case with the emerging consensus that the debt ceiling should be dumped—for two years at least—in any deal that replaces House Speaker John Boehner's ill-fated fiscal cliff Plan B so that spending hawks can't later hold the economy hostage to extract cuts. But there are few external market checks on America's profligacy. Without strong internal political checks, it might well spend itself into oblivion.