Our Founding Fathers chose a republican form of government. In this form of government the power is held by the people and elected representatives are required to help all people, not just a few. To further guard against tyranny, our Founders established three coequal branches of government.
“A republic, if you can keep it,” Benjamin Franklin warned.
The debt ceiling has been raised 78 times since 1960, 49 times during Republican administrations and 29 times during Democratic administrations. A record number of 18 increases occurred under President Reagan, and he warned us of the consequences of default:
“This brinkmanship threatens the holders of bonds and those who rely on Social Security and veterans’ benefits would skyrocket. Interest rates would skyrocket, instability would occur in financial markets, and the deficit would soar.”
Following the failed negotiations of a bipartisan commission and days away from default, Obama would agree to a deal to end the 2011 debt ceiling crisis. Recovery from our Great Recession was described as the slowest since WWII, and our our nation’s debt became $8.6 trillion larger in eight years. Or was that $9 trillion?
The debt ceiling was raised three times during Trump’s time in office as our nation’s debt became $7.8 trillion larger in just four years. But Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) explained that Republicans had only a slight majority in the Senate and didn’t really control Congress.
There also seem to be several ways to calculate debt since a national emergency was declared in order to circumvent Congress and build barriers along our border. This effort was met almost immediately with legal challenges, and we are learning how long this process can take.
Pew Research found in 2019 that a majority of us lacked confidence in our government, and the economy has since become our top concern. We were warned three weeks ago by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen of the possibility of an economic downturn, should we not pass a debt ceiling measure.
Upon reaching the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling on January 19, President Biden submitted a budget proposal including $3 trillion in cuts on March 9. Awaiting a response, he reminded us, “”Our national debt is the consequence of actions already taken, and now is our moment to meet and overcome the challenges we face. And we will, as one people. One America. The United States of America.”
The Fiscal Responsibility Bill of 2023 was passed by a strong bipartisan vote of 314-117 on the evening of Wednesday, May 31 in the House and cleared the Senate chamber late Thursday evening by another strong bipartisan 63-36 vote.
Passed in exchange for increasing the debt ceiling for two years, the bill will not limit defense spending, allow taxes to be raised, or allow other spending to rise more than 1%. But in an unusual step during the long evening, Senate Majority Leader Schumer and House Minority Leader Mc Connell released a joint statement noting that this legislation cannot block future emergency supplemental spending.
Let’s hope that narrative might survive, along with our democracy.
James Thomas Bruce III says
The article quotes Ronald Reagan on the danger of toying with default on the national debt. In contrast, Donald Trump urged Republicans to engage in brinksmanship to achieve spending cuts. The entire MD delegation voted in support of the debt ceiling bill, except for Rep. Andy Harris (R). Fortunately, most Republicans, but not Harris, heeded the Reagan view, not Trump’s, as they voted 2:1 in favor of the bill. Harris explained today in his newsletter, ”…the voters in my district did not send me to Washington to write blank checks for the federal government..” This is a strange statement from Harris, who has sat for a decade on the Appropriations Committee. The Constitution places responsibility for spending from the national checkbook in the Appropriations Committee, not in misguided and reckless assaults on our Nation’s credit worthiness.
Jim Bruce
Reed Fawell 3 says
I agree generally. The return to regular order by the US House of Representatives on important, complex, highly controversial and partisan issues to achieve the passage of bipartisan legislation supported the majority vote of both parties is very long overdue and sorely missed for decades. Should it work to restore the tradition of regular order, it may restore the legitimacy to Congress, the even save the republic. If so, the hard, demanding work is only just begun.
A minor quibble: “President Biden submitted a budget proposal including $3 trillion in cuts on March 9”, not so sure ’bout that’ but who cares now.
Carol Voyles says
Yes, the budget Biden submitted actually would have cut $3 trillion in spending over a decade. There was some discussion, it seems, of an additional amount (which I had initially included until checking several sites).
far less agreement regarding facts than during Reagan’s time – so much choice and so little oversight these days.
Reed Fawell 3 says
Carol says “Yes, the budget Biden submitted actually would have cut $3 trillion in spending over a decade.”
Carol, I don’t believe that is accurate. Biden said his budget would reduce the Federal deficit by 3 billion. Never believe a politician of either party who makes such a claim. It full of potentially phony assumptions, such as assumed tax increases, reduction in costs of programs, by coercion, reductions of fraud, and promised increases in efficiencies, and the like.
As to the first question – reduction of spending versus deficits, note this NPR interview:
INSKEEP: So is the White House saying it’s time to borrow and spend less?
KEITH: Let’s say caring about the deficit is cool again. Back in 2017, Republicans passed a massive tax cut that has added to the deficit big-league in 2020 and 2021. Both parties – and then just Democrats – threw money at the pandemic. Now, there is a Democratic president, and Republicans are in control of the House. House Republicans are demanding spending cuts. And President Biden has, for more than a year, touted his own administration’s deficit reduction.
INSKEEP: True, the deficit was so high that it has been coming down even though it’s still high. So what does he want to do now?
KEITH: Well, according to the White House, the president has a plan that would reduce the deficit by nearly $3 trillion over the next 10 years. That comes through a combination of tax increases on the wealthy and big businesses and targeted spending cuts. That sounds like a lot, but I spoke with Bob Bixby of The Concord Coalition – it’s a group that advocates for responsible federal spending – and he put it into context.
BOB BIXBY: Three trillion dollars is a lot of deficit reduction, and it sounds good. But the Congressional Budget Office says that we’re going to add about 20 trillion over the next 10 years, so you’d really have to do about twice that – I think probably more than twice that – in order to keep the debt from rising as a percentage of the economy.
KEITH: Hold on to your seatbelts, he says. The national debt is going to rise a lot. This budget is an opening volley in a high-stakes political fight between President Biden and Republicans over government funding and the debt ceiling.
INSKEEP: Debt ceiling – OK, we’ve talked about that. That is basically paying the bills that the U.S. has already incurred. Republicans have yet to sign onto doing that because they’re demanding unspecified spending cuts to lower future spending. In that context, what is the president offering?
KEITH: Well, the president’s budget leans heavily on cost savings through things like negotiating drug prices and cutting tax breaks on the oil industry. He wants to raise taxes on the wealthy and large corporations. That’s something he campaigned on three years ago and will campaign on again. And the White House sees these as popular proposals supported by the majority of Americans. You know, the biggest two sources of government spending are Social Security and Medicare. The president says he doesn’t support cutting either of those things in his budget proposal. He has a plan to extend the life of Medicare by another two decades. He, as you say, has talked a lot about the deficit reduction he achieved in his first two years in office – $1.7 trillion – but that came largely because those expensive pandemic-era programs ended, and there was better-than-expected job growth. The rest of the deficit reduction to come is going to be a lot harder.
INSKEEP: What do Republicans say?
KEITH: They are not excited about this. They say the tax hikes and proposed spending cuts aren’t serious. Kevin McCarthy said he wants to negotiate with the president, but he isn’t saying exactly what he and Republicans want to cut, though they are saying they don’t want to cut Medicare and Social Security either.
INSKEEP: NPR White House correspondent Tamara Keith, thanks so much.
KEITH: You’re welcome.
https://www.npr.org/2023/03/09/1162120336/biden-budget-proposal-to-show-nearly-3-trillion-in-deficit-reduction-over-10-yea
Carol Voyles says
We’re getting closer.
$3 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years was proposed. That’s roughly the equivalent of five space shots annually: https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=26709.40
Those costs could change, but I should have said “reduce deficits” in my reply earlier. Both spending and revenue are part of this equation. We’ll agree that won’t change.
Bob Parker says
The GOP’s primary focus isn’t on the deficit for if it were they would support tax increases. They want to cut spending and make government small(er). However, they do not understand, or accept the fact that our society has changed since 1786, and many people require a degree of support provided by the government. It would be interesting to see how robust the retirement portfolios are of the Republicans who voted against any tax increase. Just wondering…