A Whale of a Fight Over the Debt Limit Robert A. Levine 8-29-13 Here we go again! House Speaker John Boehner promised “a whale of fight” over extending the debt limit at a fundraiser in Idaho for Representative Mike Spencer, a close ally, on Monday. It’s like Groundhog Day with the same nightmare repeating itself for America over and over again. Raising the debt limit should be automatic and not a contentious issue. Extending the debt limit merely means that Congress is agreeing to pay for the programs it has already enacted and to use the credit of the U.S. government to allow borrowing of money that Congress has already allotted. Why should House Republicans be using the debt limit to fight with the President over future budget cuts when extending the debt limit simply indicates that America is going to pay its past bills? Does the GOP seriously envision the nation defaulting? If the Republicans want to cut spending further, they should appropriate less money in the future and not force a showdown over money they have already spent. The sequester that went into effect has already impacted our economy and further cuts in government spending would affect economic growth negatively. But that’s the Republicans’ prerogative. There should be no talk, however, of having the government default, which Boehner and the conservative House Republicans are threatening. This threat hurts the economy and certainly hurts the markets. President Obama has said that he will not negotiate with Congress over the extension of the debt limit, which appears to be the right move on his part. The fight two years ago over the debt limit, which was bathed in uncertainty with the possibility of default, resulted in the first-ever downgrading of America’s credit-rating. The nation does not need to have that scenario repeated. Boehner’s threat is being employed to assuage his right-wing colleagues in Congress and Tea Party constituents who do not seem to understand the implications of default and the possible further lowering of U.S. credit. If our credit rating is cut, it means our borrowing costs will increase, which means an increase of our debt as well. In other words, it will cost us more to service the debt we already have which will necessitate further borrowing. Because they want to appear as staunch defenders of smaller government, less government spending, and lowering the debt, conservatives in Congress are willing to play Russian roulette with the economy and the nation’s credit. And since Obama wants to raise the debt limit, that’s reason enough for them to be against it. We don’t need any more fiscal cliff showdowns, with threats of government shutdown and default. We don’t need any more short-term passing of the buck to address contentious issues another day. That’s no way to run a government or a business. Though there have been suggestions that President Obama should extend the debt limit unilaterally by executive action, that would probably also roil the markets and is not the path to take. Congress and the executive branch should be on the same wavelength and automatically extend the debt limit whenever it is necessary to pay the bills that the nation has already incurred. Resurrecting Democracy robertlevinebooks
Posted on: Thu, 29 Aug 2013 13:11:00 +0000
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