By now most of you have heard that GOP Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is proposing to permit the President to ask for an increase in the debt limit 3 times between now and next year’s elections.
The plan works like this. If the President believes the country needs to borrow more money, he requests an increase in the debt ceiling. All told, in the three requests he could ask for $2.5 trillion. Each time he requests an increase in the debt ceiling, the President would also have to propose a greater amount in spending cuts.
Greatly simplified, once the request has been made, Congress will approve it or not. If they do not, the President can simply do it anyway with that decision subject to a veto from Congress with the requisite 2/3 majority needed for the override. If the President is overridden, the increase fails. If not, it is implemented.
The big question here is whether or not there will be any deviation from party line votes by any Democrats. I can envision Republicans voting to increase the debt ceiling. I have a much harder time envisioning Democrats willingly voting to cut spending.
All of which begs the question, how is the new arrangement fundamentally different from the situation as it exists right now? There are some mechanics that are different, to be sure. However, right now we have a Congress which could vote to increase the debt limit which is what the President wants. The GOP is holding out not just for no tax increases but for spending cuts, too. The votes are breaking right along party lines for the most part.
The only difference passing this bill will have is to guarantee that we will have this same debate and the accompanying gridlock twice more between now and the elections. What time will that leave for actually passing a budget? What about military deployment and strategy issues? Immigration? Will there be any time for any issue other than this? And, of course, the absolute most important thing for us to be paying all of our time, money and attention to – campaigns!! What would the next 16 months be without people running for office as opposed to actually doing the work they were originally elected to do in the first place?
While I can see the benefit to the nation and the world of having Washington locked in the embrace of an insolvable problem and unable to do anything else, I’m unclear this is the best solution.
Rather than institutionalize the gridlock we are currently enduring due to Democrat intractability when it comes to considering spending cuts, why not simply let the discussion we are currently having play out however it will? It may last until next year which gives us the same result as McConnell’s proposal without the downside for the GOP. And if the GOP holds firm, perhaps we might even get some serious spending reform out of the Democrats to boot!
Of course, there is always the chance that portions of the GOP will cave and give the Democrats the votes they need to raise the debt limit along with the tax increases they dream of. In one sense that would be the best result for Conservatives despite the damage to the Economy. If Progressives think they got “shellacked” in 2010 because of their reprehensible and immoral fiscal policies, they haven’t seen anything like what would happen if they get their way on issues of the debt and deficits.
I don’t recommend this, mind you. It’s just that I don’t see any upside for stretching out the debt ceiling controversy out over a year and a half even if the Left is forced to justify to America their choices. They are still easily shown to be responsible for the fiscal ills of the nation and we don’t need to give them the ability to lay another $2.5 trillion on top of the $14.3 trillion we already have to take advantage of that.
McConnell is being compared to Pilate and other betrayers for his role in all of this. I don’t know that I would go that far. I’m not well enough connected to know what the content of his heart and spirit are in regards to this matter. But I can say with certainty that the matter ought to be dropped here and now as an alternative that was briefly considered and soundly rejected for the huge downside it guarantees and the miniscule chance of any benefit to the nation.
It is just this sort of foolish plan that has been implemented by past Congresses and which remain in place to cause problems long after the issue it was intended to address is dead and gone. Address the debt ceiling issue here and now, once and for all. Grow a spine. Take a stand. Just say no to raising the debt limit and to institutionalized gridlock.
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