Letter to the Editor: The debt ceiling
Imagine a country, a democracy such as ours, having a law that if it isn’t passed, the country defaults on its debt and is financially destroyed. Well, this is the unconstitutional 1917 Liberty Bond debt-ceiling law that was used to fund America’s involvement in WWI.
Congress has routinely passed the debt-ceiling bill. The debt-ceiling increase is currently required because: 1) it is used to pay bills already approved by Congress and 2) incoming tax revenue is insufficient to pay the bills because of several substantial tax cuts for the wealthy.
Failure to increase the debt-ceiling would cause a massive U.S. and global recession, downgraded U.S. credit rating, cause massive unemployment, and cause government programs such as Social Security/Medicare to be curtailed or eliminated, but predictably allows the wealthy to become even wealthier (they buy assets on the cheap).
Speaker Gingrich was the first to hold America hostage with the debt ceiling. Happened again under President Obama. And now, Speaker McCarthy is holding America hostage by demanding President Biden cave to their demands. Funny how zero Republican presidents are faced with debt ceiling demands…
Some of the Republican Limit, Save, Grow debt-ceiling bill demands are: 1) a 23% cut to the Social Security Administration; 2) arbitrarily limit spending growth to 1%; 3) revoke IRS funding increase; 4) undo Biden’s $10K student loan forgiveness; 5) repeal renewable energy incentives but increase incentives for oil and gas (really?); and 6) imposing work requirements for those needing food assistance. Work requirements don’t address any problems for those in need and instead cause more harm than good. It’s just plain cruel.
Both Clinton and Obama to some degree caved to the Republican demands. President Biden is rightly not participating in the Republican extortion negotiations. The 14th Amendment to the US Constitution clearly states in part that “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, … shall not be questioned”.
President Biden should call a press conference and simply state that the US public debt shall not be question, ignore the un-Constitutional 1917 debt-ceiling law, and instruct the Treasury Department to continue to pay the bills. This is the only solution. Passing the Republican debt-ceiling bill is basically the same as defaulting as they both destroy America.
Sure, lawsuits will happen and will go to the Republican-dominated Supreme Court. The current Supreme Court is corrupt and illegitimate and when they vote to force a debt ceiling, all Americans and the world will know that the U.S. Supreme Court and the Republican Party are out to destroy our democracy.
Mark Mihevc
Graeagle