An important vote in these next few months will be the vote on increasing the debt ceiling. Sooner or later, Congress will have to vote on this issue. And if past history is any predictor, the vote will not take place sooner. It will be later, probably at the 11 th hour.

On one side you have President Obama saying that congressional Republicans will tip the economy into recession it they fail to pass a clean debt-ceiling extension. He argues that it would be “irresponsible” and “absurd” because “the full faith and credit of the United States of America is not a bargaining chip.”

On the other side are members of Congress who believe that the debt-ceiling vote may be the perfect opportunity to slow federal spending. They even point out that in 2006, Senator Barack Obama voted against raising the debt ceiling because “America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally.” While concerned citizens might appreciate the attempt to address federal spending, the last few battles attempting to tie spending cuts to the debt-ceiling vote have not been successful.

Those past failures are the reason some are suggesting that it would be better to offer to increase the debt ceiling if the U.S. Senate would pass a budget. In case you are wondering, it has been more than 1,360 days since the Senate has passed a budget. Fortunately, a few in the Senate are talking about writing and passing a budget by the March deadline for the next budget.

Members of Congress don’t like to vote on the debt ceiling. If they vote for it, they look like big government spenders to their constituents. If they vote against it, they look reckless and are criticized for being irresponsible.

More than thirty years ago, Representative Dick Gephardt found a way to avoid the problem when he devised a plan where the debt ceiling would be increased at the same time a budget was passed. Now that the Gephardt Rule is gone, the Senate hasn’t passed a budget in nearly four years. Tying the debt-ceiling vote to their actions would be a small, but important, step toward fiscal sanity and an orderly budget process. I’m Kerby Anderson, and that’s my point of view.