Debt ceiling debate: the opportunity costs
We live at a time of 9.2% unemployment, with tens of millions un- and underemployed. The job market is stuck in neutral鈥攊f the economy were a bicycle, it would be wobbling along, threatening to keel over unless the rider paid some attention to the pedals.
And yet, instead of dealing with this fundamental challenge to the living standards of everyday people, Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, spent the day figuring out a to avoid having to vote to raise the debt ceiling.
Clearly, he鈥檚 in the same mode as his house colleagues, who now that 鈥渋t鈥檚 the administration鈥檚 debt ceiling.鈥�
The proposal would have the President call for increasing the debt ceiling, and that call would trigger an equal-sized (nonbinding) cut in spending. The Congress could vote against raising the ceiling, but they鈥檇 need a veto-proof majority to make that vote stick.
I鈥檝e seen a bunch of analysis suggesting that Obama should like this deal. He can raise the debt ceiling on his own, get credit for proposing spending cuts, and leave it to Congress to enact them or not. Sure, he and the D鈥檚 (assuming they鈥檇 support his veto if the R鈥檚 鈥渄isapproved鈥� of the debt increase) get tagged with raising the ceiling, but hey, that鈥檚 the price of being the grown ups.
Maybe this is the President鈥檚 best option if no others open up. It does present a way for R鈥檚 to avoid triggering default without getting their fingerprints on the debt ceiling increase, and maybe that鈥檚 the best we can get.
But I don鈥檛 like it (I doubt House R鈥檚 will like it either, since it practically insures a debt increase with no commitment to spending cuts). It鈥檚 a cynical ploy, an admission that you won鈥檛 take the responsibility to do the right thing, and it pretty deep complexity to what should be, and has been in the past, a pro forma vote against wholly avoidable economic pain.
Also, consider the opportunity costs being expended here. Every legislative moment spent figuring out how to game the debt ceiling is not being spent preventing that bicycle from toppling over.
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