Commentary:
Both January 6, 2021 and January 6, 2023 were sad days for our democracy.
The former was something the U.S. had seen only in movies, like Frankenstein and extraterrestrials. An outgoing President attempted a coup. He egged on people who attacked Capitol police and threatened to hang the vice-president. Fortunately, he was thoroughly incompetent.
This year, Kevin McCarthy’s comical contortions to accommodate every crazy demand of his party’s extremists were sad and dangerous. He exemplified the principle-free politician, to whom only power matters. He’ll do anything necessary for his advancement. (Not all politicians are so extreme.)
We didn’t see Republicans invite Democrats to collaborate to get government going again, in some sane fashion. That might have worked. Just trying might have weakened the Republican extremists’ hold over McCarthy. (If he made some reasonable effort, and Dems chose to enjoy the embarrassing spectacle to serve their political purposes, Dems are complicit.)
The extremists are right that the U.S. political parties are too powerful and too inextricably involved in every aspect of our governments. Unwanted by our founders, they’re like prescription drugs: doing something helpful and making life easier, but with dangerous side effects the maker tries to minimize.
Unfortunately, since moderate Republicans value party above country, these extremists could seriously damage the country they purport to love.
The consequences are obvious: greater gridlock and deeper bitterness; hamstringing any beneficial activity by our government; wasting more time than expected on impeaching Biden for policy differences, rather than improper or illegal conduct.
This is childish tit-for-tat. Some Democrats wanted to impeach Donald Trump even before he took office. The Party didn’t support them. Once Trump as President did things any schoolchild could tell were unlawful and against the nation’s interest, Democrats (and a few courageous Republicans) impeached him. There’s no indication Biden has done anything remotely impeachable.
Above all, it’s now more likely the Republicans will plunge us into economic disaster by preventing us from raising the national debt ceiling, as Congress must do periodically. (Congress approves a budget; as a formality, if there’s a deficit, Congress must vote again on it.) Later this year, the nation’s debt will reach the borrowing limit Congress set last time.
The federal debt limit is a weird thing. Suppose my wife and I set a family debt limit. Maybe we owe banks and credit card companies, and are tired of paying more and more interest instead of replacing the muffler. We decide that if we exceed the limit, we’ll stop paying. But the banks and credit card companies didn’t approve our plan. They foreclose, and we’re in even worse shape. Smart!
Experts say a default could cost the U.S. six million jobs and $15 trillion in household wealth. The U.S. credit rating would sink, sending interest rates for homes and cars skyward. We’d be in a recession. Folks on Social Security and Medicare would get nothing. Investors’ loss of confidence in U.S. debt, the only truly safe asset, would explode the world economy.
McCarthy has promised the extremists to refuse this time, without severe budget cuts. He’ll try to impose cuts that hurt us regular New Mexicans, not huge corporations, you can bet. (Higher taxes would make more sense. U.S. taxes are relatively low, particularly on corporations.)
This is governing by extortion. How about some sort of collaborative government with folks who disagree working together for all of us?
That ain’t how party politics works.
