EDITORIAL: Despite all the rhetoric, debt limit isn't the issue.(Editorial)

July 12--Counselors working with couples often listen to their clients list their complaints about each other.

Then the counselor will point out to both parties that there is an underlying situation driving the dispute that neither one of them has brought into the open, though it is obvious to anyone listening to their points of view.

"You do know that this argument isn't the issue," the counselor says, noting that what the parties are fighting over isn't what's keeping them apart.

That is exactly what's going on with the political fight in Washington over raising the federal debt ceiling by Aug. 2 to permit borrowing beyond the current $14.3 trillion limit.

The issue isn't the debt ceiling. If anything is certain, sooner or later it will be raised, either by the deadline or not long after. …