[Miss Marple]

It’s probably too late, but next time the GOP needs to consistently use terms people in the general public understand.

debt ceiling = credit limit
debt = amount we owe
deficit = amount we put on credit card each month

Because we are not using terms everyone in the country is familiar with, it is easy for the media and the democrats to confuse people.

[rodguy911]

Brilliant cacth here MM and that’s exactly what happens over and over. The dems are so slick the reinvent every word,lie about it all and then leave it to us to straighten the mess up.

[maica]

debt ceiling = credit limit

So true. Our use of language is pitiful compared to how the statists use it to their advantage.

I hate the word trillion. It should be shunned like other unspeakable "hurtful" and "offensive" words.

Politicians and pundits should be forced to say thousand-billion instead. "Trillion" sounds like just a bit more than a billion to most people. I have heard talk show hosts, not just callers, confuse the two. If they can't wrap their heads around the difference, how can we expect the general public to do so?

Fourteen thousand-billion sounds a lot scarier than fourteen trillion. It really is hard to imagine twelve zeros, but thousand-billion drags it out to make more emphasis.

Part of the reason why people believe that American "millionaires and billionaires" can solve the problem by paying more taxes is a result of this math illiteracy.

[kabar]

I would add the following:

Cut (in Washington parlance) = a reduction in the rate of growth of spending

[norwaypinesavage]

Here's another important one:

Default = Max out your credit card.

This one has been quite irritating to me. The dRats have managed to change the tone of this whole issue by use of the word 'default'. Default comes when you don't pay your credit card bill, NOT when you max it out.