The Trouble With Debt Limits

There is a lot of buzz today about the "clean" debt ceiling being passed today by the US House.

I want to remind my readers of something.

The battles over the debt ceiling could and should be one of fiscal responsibility versus irresponsibility, but cannot be so unless the side touting responsibility actually is responsible.

I believe that the Democrats are without excuse. They are the ones preaching spending essentially without limit, and every dollar spent will magically pay for itself. They are masters of self delusion demagoguery. They have gone so far down the road of pandering to constituencies that they have taken to calling pandering a virtue. They may not be capable of balancing a budget.

Republicans have a better story, but when push comes to shove, they have also voted for bailouts of all kinds and have failed to make the hard choices. The taxpayers demand their freebies, and they have not managed to stick together and say no.

Unfortunately, the debt ceiling fight is misplaced. It is a fight over closing the barn door after the cows are gone. The debt ceiling is a potent tool, but is the crudest and most blunt of instruments. It is also abstract enough that it is difficult to make the case to voters that it should be maintained, as I believe it should.

The fact is that the spending that causes the massive debt has been authorized by Congress. The real fight has already been lost. Fighting over the debt limit is a way of having it both ways. It allow Congress to spend irresponsibly, and then stand up and condemn the spending and vote against raising the debt ceiling. I could even call the Democrats more intellectually honest on this question. They don't try to be responsible, so at least they are intellectually consistent.

Given that today's debt deal goes through, which I suspect it will, the Republicans have an opportunity. They can stick their heads in the sand and go back to business as usual, and pass more bills like the recent "Farm Bill" - loaded with pork, waste and bad policy - or they can stand up for fiscal responsibility and make some hard choices. They could spend their energy where it belongs - bringing the voters to the realization that we have dug ourselves a debt hole so deep, that we may not be able to dig out. I have detailed this problem before. (here, here, and here) It has not gotten any better. This is a huge, and urgent problem, and there are no easy solutions. About 2/3 of federal spending is driven by Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and interest on the debt. You can eliminate everything else, and still have a problem. There is NO solution without fixing those "third rail" programs. Those programs make promises that simply cannot, and will not be kept. It is time to face that fact and act.

Those who speak the truth are seldom rewarded for it. Those putting honor over re-election may not  be re-elected this November, but that's the job of public service.

Ponzi schemes crash. It's not a question of whether, but of when. I am calling on leaders to act as Robert E Lee described a leader, as someone with "a great carelessness of self". We need leaders who stand up for the truth and call us to virtue without own effort, and our own money, not someone else's. We need those leaders now.

Follow me on Twitter: @donlee1037