The new Republican majority in the House of Representatives is reportedly united in its demand that the limit not be raised without cuts to the budget in return.
To make it clear, since Republicans love to use the (completely irrelevant) household budget example, what they are proposing is that the U.S. government not pay this month’s credit card bill. The debt limit is about money that has already been appropriated by the congress.
As historian and author Eric Fonder said in a recent New York Times op ed, there’s also the question of how section 4 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution applies to this situation.
“The validity of the public debt of the United States shall not be questioned…”
There’s a lot of doom and gloom rhetoric about what happens when the treasury runs out of money, and I have no way of knowing who’s right. But I do know this is a bad thing being forced down our throats as part of the GOP’s performative nonsense agenda.
Making the most noise about this are members of the Freedom Caucus, any member of which can tank the current leadership any time they don’t like what they see. This puts a negotiated settlement –typically extending the limit with some stern language about deficits and a promise to cut next year’s spending– out of the question.
Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell knows the situation, which is why he’s said his chamber won’t even consider voting on the subject until the House passes an agreement.
Media coverage of the impasse is at best irresponsible. This is not a “both sides” question.
Over the last quarter century, the debt limit has been raised over a dozen times, including three times with GOP support (with no drama) when Trump occupied the White House. Insisting that we pay our bills isn’t the “extreme” position that CNN thinks it is.
In fact, the only time the national debt gets treated seriously is when there is a Democrat in the White House and Republicans control at least one chamber of the congress. The national media takes the bait every time.
By the way, Democratic administrations have a MUCH better record on managing the budget than Republicans. I guess Speaker McCarthy skipped school on the day that history lesson was covered.
The Clinton administration balanced the federal budget after Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush ran up record deficits. Obama cleaned up after George W. Bush’s runaway spending and tax cuts.
The Trump administration added a whopping $7 trillion to the national debt. And now, Republicans want to negotiate about paying those bills. Republicans won’t even say what it is they expect to be cut from government spending, because they can’t until we’re on the precipice of a national emergency.
Even a few sane Republicans are decrying the recklessness of the House GOP:
Debt has two elements: income and outgo. It’s funny (not funny) how Republicans addressing shortages in income as a means of controlling the national debt never seems to include tax increases — like repealing the giant Trump tax cut.
All their solutions carefully avoid impacting wealthy corporations and individuals; instead the social safety net is expected to bear the burden.
Which brings us to the real reason Republicans are waging this fight. They see it as a means of getting Social Security and Medicare to be reconsidered, something that would be political suicide if a frontal attack was waged.
Here’s the historical context on the 14th Amendment as it applies to the national debt:
In the Reconstruction Acts of 1867, Congress began the nation’s first large experiment in interracial democracy, granting the right to vote to African American men in all the former Confederate states except Tennessee. This propelled Republicans to control of governments throughout the South. But Republicans feared that at some future time, former Confederates might return to power there. Their congressional representatives might join Northern Democrats in repudiating all or part of the national debt while honoring the Confederate one (this latter possibility was explicitly prohibited by Section 4).
The nation needed to be made “safe from the domination of traitors,” declared Representative James Ashley, Republican of Ohio, “safe from repudiation.” The 14th Amendment would help accomplish these goals. Whatever one thinks of Civil War-era fiscal policy, the amendment’s language is mandatory, not permissive — the validity of the public debt “shall not be questioned.” Today, over a century and a half after the amendment’s ratification, this promise is no longer considered an “extraordinary guarantee”; it is an essential attribute of a modern economy.
Should Congress forgo its opportunity to honor the obligations of the US Government, then the executive branch should step in to enforce the constitution.
Here’s snip from a NYT op ed by Jamelle Bouie:
Biden should make the case that the debt limit, because of the threat it poses to the validity of the nation’s debt, is unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment.
By this reasoning, Congress has no right to prevent the White House from faithfully executing the law and borrowing money in accordance with its own instructions. If and when the Treasury exhausts its extraordinary measures, it should simply keep issuing debt, in order for the federal government to do what it is obligated to do under the Constitution.
There’s an argument to be made for the position of extremists in the GOP actually wanting a default. This fits into the nihilism expressed by the likes of Trump acolyte Steve Bannon, who isn’t shy about saying he wants it all torn down.
Finally, a note about what the people think is important:
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