“The Debt Ceiling is the only leverage the GOP has to get some spending cuts.”
Debate from my previous post, What Republicans Want… I Don’t Know, prompted a commenter to write that sentence. The sentence, although not filled with heated rhetoric or vitriol, encapsulates the dysfunction within the Republican Party and our current political system.
Before I get to why, a little lesson on the debt ceiling is needed. The debt ceiling is an artificial problem with profoundly real consequences. Each year, Congress passes laws concerning taxation levels and spending programs. If spending is greater than the tax revenue brought in then the government has to borrow money to make up the difference. That borrowing, is “raising the debt ceiling.” The money has already been spent, but needs to be paid back. This is important to understand. By not raising the debt ceiling the government is not saving money or acting fiscally responsible; it is simply not paying its bills. Which by the way is against the law.
In effect, Congress is fighting with itself; arguing about paying for programs already passed as law. Republicans can talk all they want about spending cuts, but that is not related to the debt ceiling. Once again, it is money already spent. Republicans are simply using the debt ceiling as a bargaining tool to get what they want. As I said, it’s an artificial problem. Raising the debt ceiling will not make us worse off or increase our debt. Congress agreed to a certain amount of spending, they spent that money, and now Republicans don’t want to pay it back.
Although this is a fabricated problem by Republicans; the consequences of their threats are all too real. If the U.S. government defaults on its debt it would wreak havoc on still fragile financial markets as well as hurt our standing on the world stage. If that seems too abstract, the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein puts it in very real terms:
” The FBI will shut down. The people responsible for tracking down loose nukes will lose their jobs. The prisons won’t operate. The biomedical researchers won’t be funded. The court system will close its doors. The tax refunds won’t go out. The Federal Aviation Administration will go offline. The parks will close. Food safety inspections will cease.”
The debt ceiling is not just government jargon, economic fuddling, or accounting trickery; it is very real, and the effects of not raising the debt ceiling will be felt very quickly. Which brings me back to this sentence: “The Debt Ceiling is the only leverage the GOP has to get some spending cuts.”
The debt ceiling debate, the one manufactured by Republicans that would cause devastation and hardship, is a game for conservatives; something they can use as leverage. Republicans are willing to devastate the economy in order to don’t get what they want. That is not how governance in this country works; we do not govern via a system of threats and hostage negations, well, not until now. Republicans are strapping a bomb to themselves, threatening to detonate it unless their spending cuts (demands) are met.
The GOP realizes this is the only way to pass their out of touch and unpopular agenda. And here lies the problem with our political system. One Party, one crazy enough to default on our debt, is wielding control through unprecedented governing and threats of economic collapse. A successful two-party system necessitates compromise with both sides willing to give; obviously, this isn’t happening. Republicans have decided to forgo normal negations for one with which they use the health of the economy as a bargaining chip.
Instead of addressing real problems like high unemployment or a warming planet we are debating whether or not to pay our bills. And the GOP thinks this is totally fine. As my one commenter said it’s the GOP’s only leverage to cut spending. It’s sad we are dealing with threats from inside our own government. It’s sad Republicans think our economic and financial stability is all just a game. And it’s sad the Grand Old Party thinks it’s just fine to hold the wellbeing of our country hostage to get what it wants.
Ajones1021's Blog 
I am glad my comments had such an impact as to drrive you to devote an entire post to it.
So the GOP won’t negotiate? What was Fiscal Cliff agreement. They caved on tax increases for everyone (just received my 2% pay cut on my January pay stub). I thought only the wealth were seeing their taxes go up. Thanks for the help King Obama.
So we are going to hit the debt ceiling next month. What do we do? Do we just raise it without a thought or due we reflect on why we keep hitting our credit limit? Do we take this opportunity for some corrective action so in the future we don’t keep burning thru money at such a rapid pace. No one is questioning the need to pay our past debts. We are however voicing the need to lower the deficit in the future. Based on Obama’s campaign of a balance approach of tax increases and future spending cuts we thought both would be addressed in the fiscal cliff agreement. King Obama was not willing to offer spending cuts (campaign promise broken) then so the next opportunity is when we reflect on why we keep hitting our credit limit so fast. In other words Obama can’t be trusted to keep up his end of his own balanced approach. So like any negotiations it is about leverage. Obama had the leverage in the fiscal cliff because the GOP didn’t want tax increases and no deal would have meant taxes go up much more then they did on the middle class. Now the GOP is using the Debt Ceiling as leverage – since spending is Obama’s sacred cow.
Also, we bring in enough money each month to prioritize the key expenditures (interest on the debt, social secuirty payments, military payments, medicare payments). So those threats by the Dems are just the usual scare tactics to demonize the GOP and media galdly goes along with it. So we can fund the critical parts of the government with no Debt Ceiling deal. However, Obama will have to reduce his cash outlays until a Debt Ceiling deal is done. If he offers meaningful reforms then he can resume his deficit spending but at a lower defict level. That is not too much to ask.