If you're going to move to private accounts, which I approve of, I think you have to do it in a cautious, gradual way.

If you're going to move to private accounts, which I approve of, (you) have to do it in a cautious, gradual way,

Crony capitalism is essentially a condition in which... public officials are giving favours to people in the private sector in payment of political favours.

Foreign investors, both private and official, may become less willing to absorb ever-growing claims on U.S. residents,

It's the type of step you would want to take when you've had a decade-long fixed structure, ... I think they've been cautious and admirably so.

I think the whole issue of a debt ceiling makes no sense to me whatsoever. Anybody who is remotely adroit at arithmetic doesn't need a debt ceiling to tell you where you are.