Fantasy Versus Reality: the Truth About the Debt Ceiling Debate

<p>On May 31st, Congressman Crenshaw voted to pass the Fiscal Responsibility Act, voting with more than 2/3 of the Republican conference to avoid a catastrophic debt limit default. Below is a statement from the Congressman on why he voted yes:</p> <p>"We vote based on realistic choices, not what we wish were true. Of course, I wish that Ronald Reagan was resurrected, and we had 60 votes in the Senate. Then we could enact massive reforms that truly put our spending on a reasonable path. But this isn’t the reality we have now. The reality we have is a slim House majority while radical Democrats have the Senate and White House. Our leverage is limited.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p> <p>But even with that limited leverage, we forced Biden to give up on every single demand he had. He first wanted a clean debt ceiling increase without reforms. We said no. He then wanted tax increases. We said no. He wanted cuts to our military. We said no. In the final bill, Biden got nothing, and we got about half of what we wanted. Of course we wanted more, but again, our leverage was limited.</p> <p>Here are other facts to consider. Whether you like it or not, there has to be a debt ceiling increase. The economic consequences are catastrophic if you let the government default on its debt. Your 401k would crash as markets crash, the cost of borrowing would increase and make our debt worse, and recession would be imminent. Only third-world countries have allowed this to happen.</p> <p>Some might say, “well if we cut spending, we wouldn’t have to increase the debt!” But this isn’t really true, not unless you’re fine with abolishing our Social Security and Medicare programs for our seniors, which account for nearly TWO-THIRDS of all spending. Yes, you read that right. Nearly TWO THIRDS. That means during these negotiations we are only arguing over 11% of all spending. Why? Because no one wants to touch Social Security, Medicare, Veterans benefits, or the military. That leaves all the other government agencies and progra