Mark your calendars. Oct. 18, which will be here before we know it, just two weeks from Monday, is the day when our nation will no longer be able to pay its bills. Though this is what anyone with a clue would consider a real problem, that hasn’t kept congressional Republicans from playing a game of chicken with the full faith and credit of the United States government. Because, well, it’s all a game, right?
Not at all, obviously, though there are plenty in the once-Grand Old Party today who operate as though it were.
Senate Republicans blocked a move to boost the nation’s debt ceiling after the party’s leader in the upper chamber, Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, said members of his conference wouldn’t help Democrats foot the bill for their upcoming spending spree.
Though this may sound good to some, it’s actually a non sequitur based on a skewed view of reality.
There’s one fundamentally important fact that often gets lost in these discussions: The federal government’s budget cannot reasonably be conceived of as like the getting and spending of a gigantic household, or like a really, really big business. The government operates in its own way.
When it passes bills on one thing or another, those votes set the spending level. End of story. Almost. Because the Treasury later issues debt to pay those bills, and sometimes needs to raise the debt limit so that the feds can continue to sell bonds.
In other words, increases to the debt ceiling cover legislation that’s already on the books. And it’s almost never a problem. Except when some Republican lawmakers decide to pitch a nutty over the debt limit. Just because. Which is where we are now.
Republicans should have considered where their needless tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy four years back would lead. One imagines that they actually understand how things work, but are confident that not everyone does. So they can make a whole lot of noise and get some people to believe that what they are huffing and puffing about is based on something. Something besides pure political posturing, that is.
It isn’t.
Democrats can fix this problem on their own, and will soon do so. And McConnell will strut about like he’s walking on the moral high ground.
Those in the know should feel free to laugh at him.
