The Debt Ceiling

Ok, so I have not wrote in the blog for a while and things are starting to get interesting.  Just like any business or household the government needs to borrow money to keep operating.  Other than our mortgage, my wife and I have no debt.  Yes, we still charge items on our credit card, but at the end of the month it is paid off.  It took several years to pay off our cars as we did not have the capitol to purchase them outright. Our government does this also, but most politicians have followed the Dick Cheney school of thought that deficits don't matter.  With that in mind they have driven up the debt to numbers that most of us can not even  comprehend.  So let's start with the facts: 

In 1994 a Republican Congress worked out a deal with a Democratic President to cut most welfare programs, while at the same time raising taxes on the wealthiest two percent of income earners in this country.  By 2000 when said President left office, the country had a  surplus of 230 billion dollars a year and rising, and that was after making payments to pay down the national debt. If things stayed the same our national debt would almost be completely gone.  These are the facts and are not disputable.  That information came from the new Republican Presidents Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'neill.  What happened since then? 

To get a stalled economy going the new President devised a plan to take the surpluses and borrow some money to give tax breaks to everyone, but the largest share going to the top two percent of income earners. Then 9-11 hit and we got into two wars, and many minor conflicts that cost billions.  By June 2008 the wars cost was up to 850 billion, plus another 750 billion in veterans costs and other indirect costs such as setting up the T.S.A. and the Department of Homeland Security.  Other programs such as Medicare Part D will cost around 730 billion by the year 2018.  Ok so we have a spending spree by the government during the Bush years that both Democrats and Republicans supported.  The problem is that the tax cuts have left us with the lowest tax rates in sixty years while spending was at its highest in our nations history.  How did we pay for all of it?  We borrowed to pay for it all. Total tab during the Bush years was over 4 trillion borrowed.  So here we are today. 

In order to keep the country operating we need to borrow more. I don't like it at all, but we have no choice.  The only way to fix the problem is to cut spending across the board while at the same time raising taxes.  The Republicans say raising taxes stops job growth, but history proves otherwise.  The Clinton administration raised taxes three percent on the wealthiest Americans and we had a net gain of 22 million jobs.  Bush cut taxes, Obama cut them even more and we had a net gain of 1 million jobs under Bush, and Obama is sitting on 9.2 percent unemployment.  Bush in fact had the slowest job growth of any President since the Great Depression. 

One question I have is that why did 130 current Republican Congressman vote to raise the debt ceiling 7 times under Bush yet they wont do it under Obama.  What's worse is that almost every single current Republican voted for the Paul Ryan budget which required raising the debt ceiling more than 6 trillion dollars over the next ten years?  Almost every economist including economists employed by Republican Think Tanks agree that it must be raised.  Even the beloved Ronald Reagan had to raise it 18 times during his 8 years in office. In September 1987 Reagan said that if it is not raised "It would threaten the holders of government bonds, those who rely on Social Security, and Veterans Benefits.  Interest rates would skyrocket, instability would occur in financial markets and the federal deficit would soar". 

So why are these Republicans who in the past quote Ronald Reagan, who they worship, and voted to raise the debt ceiling under Bush, are now refusing to even compromise?  Michele Bachmann who voted to raise it numerous times while Bush was President is a leading candidate for the Republican Presidential race has said that she will not raise the debt ceiling, period.   She also has stated that the worse the economy is, the more likely she will get Obama out of office and her chances of getting elected would be higher. The Republicans in 2010 ran on getting more people back to work, yet there has not been a single jobs bill introduced in the House yet. 

History shows that when the public prospers the incumbents get re-elected, so there is no reason for the Republican controlled House to introduce anything that would create jobs and help the economy.  There you have it, that is what this is all about.  It's about making things so bad that Obama will be a one term President. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said the day after the 2010 midterm elections that the number one goal is to get Obama out of office.  So they are going to sink the economy even worse than it is, just to get Obama out of office?  How patriotic is that?  One other thing, both Democrats and Republicans have to stop calling Social Security an entitlement program. I have put money into it since I was 15 years old.  It is a savings account for when I retire and you the government has borrowed from it since the 1980s.  If you want to reform it, give me back everything I have put into it with interest and I will do just fine when I retire.  Also, the Republicans tell us as Americans that we are responsible for saving for our own retirements, well what is going to happen to my wifes 401K when these assholes send the nation over the cliff and default on our debt?  I'll tell you, her 401K that she has put money into for 20 years will be worth less then the paper her statement is printed on!