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EDITORIAL
Debt talks reveal leaders fueled by ego, not policy
The national disaster better known as the July deficit standoff was an eye opener to
anyone whose natural sense of cynicism hasn’t glued them permanently shut by now.
We all know the story: The U.S. government had been in a months-long race to raise its
debt ceiling. Seems simple enough, but leave it to Washington to weave a Shakespeareworthy
comedy-of-errors. Failure to raise the debt ceiling, we were repeatedly told, would
cause us to default on our national loans, which would cripple our economy with rising
interest rates and a plummeting dollar. The national credit rating would be shot. Borrowing
rates would skyrocket. Mortgages and student loans would become prohibitively expensive.
There would be mass defaults, financial pestilence, locusts.
Democrats wanted new revenues. Republicans wanted spending cuts. It doesn’t matter
what side of the fence you were on: in the end, people with a lot more power and influence
than you played Russian Roulette with your money for the chance to dig into the till boxes
and politically grandstand for the coming election season. It’s the modern Pyrrhic victory.
The biggest losers Us.
First, there’s the fact that both options stunk. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s plan
wanted to slash trillions from federal spending but didn’t bother to account for how the government
could bring in additional revenue. House Speaker John Boehner’s especially shortsighted
plan allowed Congress to raise the debt
ceiling only after cuts to programs like Social
Security, Medicaid and Medicare. It
shakes down the most vulnerable
Americans while leaving the most
privileged unscathed. Moreover,
Boehner’s paltry plan didn’t even
offer enough to solve the deficit.
Congress would have to vote on
raising the debt ceiling again
before the next election.
Second, there’s the fact that neither
party seemed willing — publicly,
at least — to consider proposals
put forward by the other.
Boehner seemed content to hold our
very currency hostage and alienate
members of his own constituency to
appease a fringe group of American
conservatives who are, for lack for a
better word, insane. President Obama, on
the other hand, was quick to sideline the Reid plan and throw programs American working
families need to the sharks as early as preliminary talks. Both, predictably, then blamed the
other for failing to negotiate with an objective of compromise in mind. We all need a strong
dollar, thriving economy and vibrant private sector, but both parties seized the opportunity for
a showboating chance at political sabotage. Each deal was so politically poisoned it became
impossible for the other party to accept anything without a hearty side of humble pie.
The final problem is that both parties lied. Taxing the rich, while helpful, isn’t the silver
bullet the Obama administration claimed it to be (most economists estimate tax revenues on
the rich would lower the federal deficit by about one percent). Conversely, curtailing tax cuts
for the wealthiest Americans isn’t a “blank check,” especially when the deal comes with massive
federal spending cuts. Also, to kill a tired Tea Party line: raising the debt ceiling doesn’t
have anything to do with future spending. It is used to pay the tab for what the government
already spent. Big difference.
Then there’s the hubris of it all. There’s nothing wrong with asking wealthy Americans
in 2011 to pay tax rates above their current 1950s rates. Moreover, to call Medicare and
Social Security “entitlement” programs is, on its face, insulting. The income disparity in
this country has grown exponentially along race and class lines, with black households now
earning 20 times less than white households and Hispanics coming in at a not-too-distant
18 percent, according to a new report compiled by the Pew Research Center. Then consider
that the same leaders who put us into this mess are the ones who conveniently decide
now is the time to cut the fat. If the very idea doesn’t get you mad, I don’t know what will.
— Jon Gingerich
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Jack O’Dwyer
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