Democrats and their lapdog media allies want the American people to believe that Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is fiscally irresponsible. Why? Well, he wants the federal government to adopt a little bit of fiscal responsibility and cut some spending before raising the debt ceiling.
If that makes no sense to you, it’s because you’re one smart cookie and filled with common sense. If that sounds right and good, you just might be a leftist.
On Wednesday, McCarthy is meeting with Biden to begin talks about whether the U.S. raises its debt limit. This sort of thing has happened dozens of times since the inception of the debt limit.
The first debt ceiling was crafted by the legislative branch in 1917 and was intended to slow the roll of accumulating debt. It does so by setting a limit on how the U.S. can borrow. Since that time, America has run the tab up by a whopping $31 trillion. Both Republicans and Democrats are guilty of deficit spending — meaning the government is taking in less money than it’s spending. The debt ceiling can be raised to avoid defaulting.
Leftists look at that and say, “Well, let’s just keep spending and raise taxes. Problem solved!” The GOP tends to look at it and say, “Let’s cut spending and cut taxes as well.” Republicans have been great at cutting taxes, but haven’t fared so well at limiting spending — arguably due to their historical support of the Department of Defense, no questions asked.
Now, McCarthy says he has a plan to craft a balanced budget. Part of that plan seems to include targeting woke nonsense such as diversity, equity, and inclusion trainings, as well LGBTQ nonsense in the military. So, he does want to cut DOD spending — he just wants to be smart about it.
“I’ve got a big plan. The first question is does the president want to continue reckless spending or find a way that we can be responsible. Sit down and find common ground where we put ourselves on a path to budget. Make a balanced budget,” he said on Wednesday.
In January, McCarthy also shot back at his political opponents, “Why would we sit back and be so arrogant to say no, there’s no waste in government?”
“Why wouldn’t we look at all the money that poured out during COVID? What money of that has not been spent? Why wouldn’t you pull that back yet?” he pondered.
That question hasn’t been answered. In fact, Biden isn’t offering any response to McCarthy. He is maintaining that the White House will not negotiate on spending cuts whatsoever.
So what happens now? Well, the U.S. actually hit the debt ceiling in January. Since January 19, the Treasury Department has implemented what it calls “extraordinary measures,” which include not funding certain aspects of the U.S. government, such as a “portion of the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund.”
That will buy the U.S. some time until June before it defaults. If the U.S. were to actually fail to raise the debt ceiling, there could be disastrous consequences for the economy, as well as our credit rating.
So, Biden posits that Congress owes it to the nation and to the world, essentially, to raise the debt limit. That begs the question, what’s the point of even having the debt ceiling anyway?
Perhaps it’s best to look at this another way, using a metaphor of sorts.
Let’s say your mom had a dieting idea for maintaining her weight in a healthy manner. To help keep track, she wore a belt and swore she would make changes if it ever became too tight.
But then as she accumulated mass and her pants became uncomfortable — rather than kicking into Keto ASAP and adopting some intermittent fasting measures — she just decided to loosen the belt a few notches. Let’s say she did that repeatedly until she ballooned so much that “yo momma” got so fat that when she went into the ocean, whales came up her to her and started singing, “We are family!”
Wouldn’t you say that that belt is pretty pointless? As a good daughter or son, wouldn’t you at least try to get your mom to change her lifestyle?
And so it is the same with the U.S. debt limit and McCarthy. He at least has to try to get the U.S. to spend its money more wisely. It’s unlikely the U.S. will default on its debt. That would be a political nightmare for McCarthy.
He promised voters, as did the House Freedom caucus that won him the speakership, to stop reckless spending. He owes it to his voters.
So, what’s the simplest solution that McCarthy and Biden need to negotiate?
Well, according to the president of the Heritage Foundation, Kevin Roberts, “There has to be, first and foremost, a dollar-for-dollar correspondence between whatever dollar amount is added to the debt ceiling with spending cuts.”
Whether McCarthy can actually secure that with a Democratic president remains to be seen, but it’s looney to claim that somehow he’s being unwise to demand the U.S. start cutting out wasteful fat in the U.S. budget.
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