Just because we’ve all seen this show before doesn’t mean it will end the same way. President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy both have vowed not to let America default on its national debt for the first time ever, risking global economic chaos. But McCarthy can’t necessarily keep that promise as the debt-ceiling fuse burns down, given the stranglehold on his caucus by a klatch of nihilistic right-wingers who would rather crash the nation’s full faith and credit than pass up a chance to stick it to a duly elected Democratic president.
Biden owns a good deal of this mess for failing to snuff out this long-foreseeable threat while there were still good options. The only option now is to offer the bomb-throwers some concessions that are modest enough not to threaten Social Security or other important priorities. It’s not right — this kind of political extortion shouldn’t be allowed to work — but it may prevent an economic catastrophe. And if it doesn’t, it will be clear it was House Republicans who let the fuse burn down, visibly placing blame where it belongs.
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For those who are still being willfully misled by the Republican narrative regarding America’s debt ceiling (namely, Fox News viewers), here are the facts: When Congress approves spending initiatives — funding for Social Security, Medicare, defense, anything — that’s only half the process. Because of a byzantine system that isn’t mentioned anywhere in the Constitution, Congress occasionally must take another vote allowing the Treasury to acquire new debt any time the spending that Congress has already approved bumps up against the previous debt limit. A limit that, remember, is arbitrary and ever-shifting. In fact, it shifted upward three times during the Trump administration, with none of this gnashing of teeth from anyone.
It’s an unnecessary and bizarre requirement that essentially says to lawmakers: You already wrote this check, now do you want the bank to cover it? The fact that it’s usually Republicans who answer no says all there is to say about the GOP’s claim to be the guardians of fiscal responsibility.
Last year, when Democrats still held both chambers of Congress, they shrugged off calls to eliminate the debt ceiling altogether — a heavy lift with the party’s thin majorities at the time, but one that might have been possible had Biden thrown his weight behind it. Ever the institutionalist, he declined, calling the idea “irresponsible.”
No. Irresponsible was leaving in place this burning fiscal fuse that has never made sense and makes even less sense in this explosive political era. But that pales next the recklessness of House Republicans who, having approved spending they know their constituents demand, are now arguing to ignore the bill that’s come due. Call that whatever you want, but don’t call it fiscally responsible.
