Debt Ceiling Circus
Sham bills, closed door meetings, rhetoric and lies; all to fuel political games.
The House Republicans just passed legislation that’s a responsible solution to our Nation’s debt crisis by:
Limiting Washington’s irresponsible spending
Saving taxpayer dollars
Growing the American economy
It’s time Democrats finally do their job and come to the negotiating table.
This is the mantra being shared by all Republican representatives today. The only problem is, it is hollow rhetoric, nothing more.
The GOP struggled greatly to get anything put together. They had to meet behind closed doors multiple times to work over their members and attempt a proposal.
In the end it took Kevin McCarthy, Speaker of the House, to strongarm his Republican colleagues into agreement. His pitch? That the legislation they were voting on would never become law anyways. It was all for show to make it look like the GOP had agreement in order to try to shift the problem onto the Democrats.
That was what it took for Republicans to barely win the vote, 217 for 215 against. Now the spin machine revs into high gear as they act as if they have achieved a resounding success and are ready to lead the country forward to brighter, more prosperous days.
McCarthy is right, at least as far as their bill never becoming law. It will fail the Senate and even if it didn’t, Biden would veto it.
There also isn’t much to the bill that they’ve decided to call “Limit, Save, Grow”. It limits government spending back to 2022 levels and then allows for only a 1% growth in budget for agencies per year for the next decade. Returning to 2022 levels would be an ~9% cut.
Inflation in 2023 thus far is 5%. Next year is expected to be 4%. The average annual rate is 3.8%. That is a stark contrast to the 1% growth agencies would be allowed each year. Overall what this legislation does is to significantly slash the budget without making it directly look like they are slashing the budget.
The cuts wouldn’t be even. The reason for this is that House Republicans have repeatedly said that not only do they not want to cut the defense budget, they want to increase it. If no cuts happen to the $850 billion defense budget, then deeper cuts have to happen in other areas such as Veterans benefits, Medicaid and Medicare in order to make the overall budget reach the target reductions.
The Republican plan would also
Cancel Biden’s student debt forgiveness entirely
Remove the increased IRS spending that is being used to hire more agents to properly collect taxes - which in turn will increase the deficit due to lowered tax revenue
Repeal Green Tax Incentives
Reintroduces the benefits proposed by a previous GOP House bill to oil and mineral companies in the US - the same companies that made record breaking profits last year
Adds work requirements to Medicaid, SNAP, and other assistance programs - there is a link discussing how those work requirements have negative effects at the end of this article.
This is a plan that would simultaneously increase spending on our already over bloated military that we don’t use, while reducing care for our veterans.
An overall misguided solution that gives more money to oil companies while slowing down investments in green energy that would have been used to build new businesses, improve our economy through technology exports, and protect our environment.
This bill is a sham.
They know it, the Democrats know it, anyone following politics knows it. But the average American won’t because they don’t have enough time to invest into researching the details. The general public only sees the press conferences, the sound bites, the clips played on their favorite News shows.
The other trickery going on with the Republican plan is that it suspends the debt limit until March 31st of next year, an election year.
A game designed to sway a difficult election while risking the US economy and the livelihoods of all Americans. The current fight has dragged out for months. We’re getting ever closer to default. The fight next year will be a game of chicken. Who will win or lose the most votes by holding our economy hostage and pushing America to the brink of a default, or maybe even over the cliff?
It doesn’t have to be this way. We have historical context to know going to the brink of default is bad for the country. We know that raising the debt ceiling is to pay for our existing debt; the budget is a separate debate. We know that a position of austerity hurts the economy.
Austerity increases poverty, increases income inequality, and slows economic growth. But again, our politicians know this. What matters isn’t how practical or feasible a policy is. It is how it can be framed to best fuel the outrage game that is modern American politics.
By stating that spending is out of control and our debt is $31 trillion, it is then easy to state that we need to reign in spending. Anyone uninformed will see that as a sensible formula and our debt as astronomically terrifying.
The problem is it misses the reality of the situation. Our debt is high, but as a measure of GDP many nations are even higher. China is over twice as high. One major factor in how our debt grew to such levels is through continual tax cuts for both the wealthy and corporations. Remove the revenue and you accrue debt.
America has a low average tax rate in terms of comparable nations. Those other nations also have lower poverty, longer lifespans, less division, and are overall happier. In fact, several of the highest taxed nations also have the highest happiness scores. This is because the taxes are being used as they should be; as a collective fund by the people used to improve the lives of the people.
When do we finally look to other nations' successes to inspire our own policies?
How do we get back to a government that works for the people instead of for special interests?
Governing our nation has become a circus. A game of grasping for power at the expense of the American people.
