contributor, ezra klein. thank you for joining me tonight, ezra. >> good evening. >> this report gives lie to this crazy republican notion that has been going around, michele bachmann and the others saying they would be fine, they just wouldn't pay the stuff we don't need, they could pay the social security, the military, be able to pay for the interest on the debt, the bonds, all that stuff, be able to pay for everything that matters. this is a completely untenable position with this study. >> the danger of the debt ceiling is not theory. it's arithmetic. you mentioned it earlier. it's $134 billion. that is 10% of the august gdp for that month. if you do that for any period of time, you cut out 10% of america's gdp for that month. if you do that over any period of time, if it's an instant recession, you shave off 10% of the nation's economy. that doesn't even get into the uncertainty, the fact that every other or almost every other debt instrument, credit cards, mortgages, corporate debt, would jump up because they are all based on treasury debt. the damage to the economy is not