Looks as if we’ll be getting a two-for-one president with Elon Musk on board.
It wasn’t until 14 hours after Musk’s first post on his social media platform X, “formerly known as Twitter,” that President-elect Donald Trump began to follow suit Wednesday evening and say that the House bill to keep the government running until mid-March was no good.
Among the duo’s key concerns was the measure’s failure to include raising the debt ceiling.
You got that right.
The very people who campaigned they’d slash government spending are now saying they should let up the reins.
In fact, on a Thursday morning news program Trump said the government should get rid of the debt limit altogether. It would be “the smartest thing it could do.”
In the early 1900s, Congress devised a limit on how much the country could borrow to ensure it could fund defense spending.
In the last 20 years, the U.S. debt has ballooned from $7 trillion to $35 trillion as Congress has deemed necessary.
The debt limit is the total amount of money the U.S. government can borrow on expenses already incurred.
The problem with refusing to pay our bills — as Republicans are suggesting when they refuse to raise the debt limit — is that it creates economic mayhem.
We know this because when House Republicans refused to fund the government in 2011 and again in 2013, it nearly caused the country to default on its debts.
As a result, U.S. borrowing rates were increased and the country’s reputation as a safe place to invest was downgraded.
After last year’s debt limit fight — again waged by House Republicans — financial markets were once again roiled and the U.S. long-term credit rating was downgraded.
THURSDAY’S bill addressed multiple issues including refilling the bucket for disaster aid, extending the farm bill, rebuilding Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key bridge, a cost-of-living increase for members of Congress, and extending Medicare programs.
In the same breath the M&T tag team criticized House members for failing to extend the debt ceiling, they hypocritically labeled the proposed measure as profligate spending.
