That’s how U.S. Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia says Congress must respond to threats by extremist House Republicans to force the U.S. to default on its current bills unless the majority of Congress agrees to big future spending cuts in health care and other programs.
America has to increase its debt limit very soon in order to pay the bills on money it already has borrowed. Raising the debt ceiling is not about new spending. Paying our existing bills keeps the national and world economies stable. So if Republicans want to use the debt limit to extort spending cuts, they need to tell the citizens what programs they want to chop.
Do the right wing zealots want to axe the Affordable Care Act, a typical target of the radicals? OK, explain to tens of millions of people now receiving health insurance benefits because of the ACA what you’re going to give them instead. Remember the “repeal and replace Obamacare” movement that only included repeal and no replacement plan?
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Talk of cutting Social Security and Medicare in the future bounced around Washington last week. Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy supposedly put the kibosh on that for purposes of the debt limit negotiations. But if two of the country’s most important programs for senior citizens face reductions, it is time to say so.
So what’s left? How about the $75 billion in defense budget cuts that McCarthy supposedly agreed to in order to make peace with the extremists who blocked his ability to become Speaker through 16 ballots. Please tell the country where those defense cuts will come from, especially if the GOP wants to gut aid to Ukraine in its fight against Russian invaders.
Let the American people know how each and every one of them will suffer simply by holding the debt limit hostage to future spending cuts. Warner, one of the best business minds in Congress, predicted “carnage” in the stock market “if we even get close to this debt ceiling.” Interest rates will rise, he said. The job market will suffer. Warner reminded that Democrats helped Republicans raise the debt limit three times under former President Donald without market-shaking drama.
When the Trump devotees in the House come with their harsh spending cuts in 2023, it will be worth reflecting on who gets hurt the most. As Warner said: “It is time for them to put up or shut up, show us how you will do this. And then, let the American people make the judgment.”
For now, let us simply agree on a judgment which experience has proven beyond any doubt. No one in America profits from playing chicken with the debt limit.
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