Negotiations continue in D. C. about raising the debt ceiling. We’ve heard all the numbers, and if you’re like me, trillions, billions, and multi-millions eventually lose all meaning. So I thought I’d take a crack at simplifying the issues.
Democrats talk about Republican plans to cut spending as irresponsible, immoral, and unthinkable. They warn us of dire consequences if we cut spending, and equally dire consequences if we don’t raise the debt limit. In fact, there is no "if" about it. On the present course, at some point in the very near future, our debt will be unserviceable, whether we raise the limit or not. Cutting spending is not a matter of "if," but a matter of "when" and "how." At the moment, we have the option of deciding what to cut, and how to do it. But when this nation’s creditors call in their markers, our ability to borrow and spend will also end. Cutting spending is inevitable. The only choice we have is whether to do it voluntarily, responsibly and methodically, or wait until national bankruptcy forces it upon us and leaves us unable to pay anything at all.
Democrats insist that new taxes must be part of any debt ceiling agreement. Like the compulsive shopper who believes the solution to his retail addiction is a higher limit on his credit card, the Democrats are saying, "We’ve spent too much–raise our limit." Trillions in federal spending by Democrats have condemned generations yet unborn to shoulder the debts of their antecedents. Don’t give the Democrats a higher limit. Cut up their credit cards and make them return their extravagances to the store.
This week, President Obama resorted to the favored Democrat tactic of terrorizing beneficiaries of government largesse. He said he couldn’t guarantee that social security checks would go out if the debt ceiling were not raised. In fact, he can’t guarantee that now. Again, the government has run out of money it has, and it will soon run out of money it doesn’t have. Social security, Medicaid, unemployment compensation will all cease when the people we owe insist they be paid, and paid first. Obama’s taxpayer-enabled generosity exists on borrowed time, and borrowed time is borrowed money.
There is talk of compromise–a mixture of spending cuts and tax increases–to enable a raising of the debt ceiling to go forward. But raising the debt ceiling does not guarantee that our creditors will be paid, or that our credit rating will be protected. The higher our debt, the greater percentage of our GDP it consumes, the lower our credit rating will go, and the less likely our chance of paying it off will become. Raising the debt is not the answer. Only by cutting spending can we show the world we are worthy of credit, that our debts will be paid, and that our economy is sound.
The crisis is real, but a Democrat administration and Congress allowed our economic situation to reach crisis proportions. As Rahm Emmanuel famously said, "Never let a crisis go to waste." The Democrats created this economic disaster with runaway spending, and now hope to use it to scare us into higher taxes and greater debt.
They have punctured our life raft, and now tell us that we all have to get out and swim so the boat won’t sink so quickly. But what they really want to do is put a few more holes in the side while we’re too busy treading water to notice.
