We’ve been hearing for the last couple of months that Congress needs to raise the debt limit before August 2 in order to prevent the U.S. Government from defaulting on its obligations. This isn’t new; in the past, Congress has increased the debt limit as a matter of course. The only thing different this time is that there are members of Congress who have to show their constituents that they are “doing something about the problem” of excessive government spending.
Don’t get me wrong. I agree that our government squanders entirely too much money. I’ve noted many times in the past that I think our government’s spending is completely out of control and that we must rein it in if we want to maintain our standard of living and our status as a leader in the world economy. But refusing to increase the debt limit is not the way to do it.
Those who say we shouldn’t increase the debt limit are, at best, confused. In the first place, we’ve already committed to trillions of dollars in new spending–money that we don’t currently have. We will have to borrow in order to meet those commitments. We can’t just say to our creditors and others we’ve made those commitments to, “sorry, we’re out of money.”
Second, there’s no way that failing to increase the debt limit will prevent us from meeting those commitments. Our government will meet its obligations, at least for the immediately foreseeable future. It’s not like government will stop functioning on August 2. We will be “breaking the law” by continuing to spend beyond the currently authorized debt limit, but government will continue to function.
Those who think that the way out of this mess is to increase taxes haven’t been paying attention. Congress has shown that it’s unable to exercise any kind of restraint when it comes to spending. If government takes in more, it just spends more. We’ve seen this happen as recently as the Clinton years, when a combination of an unusually prosperous few years and a President and Congress who actually kept each other in check produced a projected budget surplus. That surplus wasn’t nearly as large as some would like you to think, and it disappeared pretty quickly when the economy turned down, helped of course by the next President and Congress who had a “you wash my back and I’ll wash yours” approach to spending.
Our current President and the previous Congress had the same type of relationship, and as much as the Republicans who control the House would like you to think otherwise, that hasn’t changed much since last year’s election. Neither really cares how much money is spent. They just want to make sure that when money is spent, they can spin it to make the other guy look bad. Or, if that fails, make themselves look good. That is, it’s best if one can say, “The other guy spent that money!” It’s almost as good to say, “Well, yes, I spent that money, but it was for this Good Thing.”
All the noise you hear coming out of Washington recently about the debt limit boils down to nothing but a bunch of hot air. Members of both parties will blame the other for reckless spending, obstructionism, confiscatory taxation, stealing food from the mouths of babies, “playing politics” with our grandchildren’s futures, balancing the budget on the backs of the poor (or the rich), and all manner of other heinous crimes.
The whole mess is a result of Republicans insisting on some type of deficit reduction as a condition of increasing the debt limit. Whereas I think they’re right in raising objections to our profligate spending, their choice of battleground is not particularly wise. They somehow think that the good press they’ll get from “making a stand” against excess spending will outweigh the bad press they’re getting from all corners. I suspect that they’re going to come out smelling like they rolled in a pig pen.
President Obama and the Democrats in Congress said they were willing to participate in a discussion. The original proposal was to cut four trillion dollars off the deficits over the next 10 years. The project deficits over that period amount to about $15 trillion. So even if the four trillion figure were attainable, we’d still amass $11 trillion in new debt. But Republicans won’t entertain any kind of increase in taxes, and Democrats at first weren’t willing to pass anything that didn’t include more revenue (i.e. higher taxes). Increased taxes are now off the table, and current proposals by both parties amount to about $2.5 trillion reduction over 10 years. Those proposals are so full of holes that the Congressional Budget Office estimates they’ll result in a savings that’s between 25% and 30% lower. Not that either proposal will fly. The House bill is D.O.A. in the Senate, and likewise the Senate bill in the House.
Both parties are playing a game of chicken, arguing over what amounts to at best a 12% reduction in deficits over the next 10 years, and holding up an increase in the debt limit that probably doesn’t matter at all and most likely will eventually be passed, regardless of how this particular little squabble turns out. In other words, all this noise is just an argument over an imaginary spending reduction that started over a routine bit of meaningless bookkeeping.
The real issue has nothing to do with spending, taxation, deficits, or debt limits. If you’ve been paying attention at all, you can see that the real issue is simply election politics. Next year is a big election year. Republicans are pushing for a small increase in the debt limit, hoping that we’ll have to go through this again next year, shortly before the election. Democrats want a larger increase in the debt limit so that they can skip having to discuss this until after next November’s election. Republicans are hoping to make President Obama look bad going into next year’s election, and Democrats are trying to prevent that.
Of course, each party is accusing the other of “playing politics.” And the mindless parrots who make up the majority of the American electorate go along with it happily, never stopping to consider that their selected tribe is doing the same thing that they’re excoriating the other tribe for doing. It never occurs to the denizens of either tribe to engage their brains and figure out that they’re being hoodwinked by their tribal leaders who don’t give a damn about the American people, our economy, or the long-term health of our country. Their only consideration is power: how to get it and how to keep it. Whatever helps the tribe amass or retain power is good. Everything else is irrelevant.
There’s no doubt that we need to rein in spending, but the people currently in charge of the purse strings aren’t going to do it. They’re not even interested in it, and neither are any of the people who are thinking about standing for election next fall. You might think that a “throw the bums out” reaction in next year’s election will “send a message,” and it will. The message received will be, “Suckers! You think you can get rid of us that easily?” The new crop of elected parasites will set up shop and continue to fleece you.
The only way out of this mess is to throw off the idiotic illusion that your tribe is better than the other tribe, and that if your tribe has control everything will be okay. Ditch party politics. Think for yourself. Refuse to vote for anybody who claims a party affiliation. Judge based on actions and on real answers to real questions.
You can continue in your slavish devotion to your tribe, and continue to blame the other tribe for things getting worse. And they will get much worse. Or you can engage your brain, see the parties for the manipulators that they are, and elect real people who actually care about doing what’s right rather than what will keep themselves and their tribes in power.