There they go again, trying to convert an economic emergency into an opportunity to get their political agenda passed into law.  Who?  If you're asking that question, you must be (a) not American or (b) not breathing.  Republicans have been jawing about a balanced budget amendment for as long as I can remember.  The idea has been rejected over and over and over again.  But now, of course, they've got the whole country over a barrel and think that they can get such an amendment if they only hold firm against raising the debt ceiling.  Analogies are never exact, but this is pretty close:  the guy with the gun says, give me your money and I won't shoot you in the head.  That's the Republican position.

Balanced budget amendment, balancing budgets at the expense of the well being of the economy--all those kinds of things are justified on the basis of analogies, usually to family finances.  Those analogies are just so far off the mark that they're not worth thinking about.  A nation is not a family.  A government is not a father.  A national debt is not a credit card balance.

Those who would argue on the basis of such false analogies, and in doing so would endanger the well being of every single solitary citizen of this country, not to mention the rest of the world--such people are traitors.