Debt vote can’t be held hostage to budget battle

11:41 PM Thursday, May 12, 2011

Going into the fight about raising the national debt limit, House Speaker John Boehner, R-West Chester, is facing pressure from several directions. (Actually, so is just about any major player; it’s called politics.)

He’s being pulled toward a hard line on spending by the Tea Party and others on the right who are not thrilled with the compromise he accepted on the 2011 budget.

Meanwhile, though, many on Wall Street and in the financial world generally want to be assured that the politicians understand that the debt ceiling simply must be increased.

Also, Speaker Boehner is obliged to take a position that does not cut off the possibility of compromise with a Democratic Senate and presidency.

The speaker went to Wall Street on Monday, May 9, to stake out his position for now: Republicans won’t agree to lifting the debt ceiling without agreement to cut a couple trillion dollars from projected national borrowing in future years.

The next day, he said that tax increases are off the table.

His general position was seen as hard-line. But this is not so much because of the numbers in it. After all, both parties have proposed similar levels of debt-reduction (though they arrive at it in very different ways).

It seems that both parties have turned a corner, after the Democrats approved big spending to combat the Great Recession and the Republicans approved major, long-term spending increases when there was a Republican president.

The real issue of the moment is whether to make the need to raise the debt ceiling an occasion to fight over spending and taxes. Or whether spending and taxing issues should be left to the regular budget process.

The federal government is borrowing hugely. But the amount it may borrow is limited by law.

As long as the government spends more than it takes in, that limit has to be regularly raised. The time has come to do just that. If it isn’t raised, the government can’t pay its expenses.

In that case, the government defaults. (Or, theoretically, at least, it raises taxes and/or cuts spending in an unheard of, dramatic and sudden way.)

With the United States in default, nobody knows what happens next.

Speaker Boehner and Republicans in Congress have acknowledged in the past that the ceiling must be raised. After all, Congress has already approved the spending that’s underway. Rejecting the measures necessary to pay is not a viable option.

That makes it strange that they ask for concessions now — to do something they want to do anyway.

Disturbingly, Speaker Boehner said in New York, “It’s true that allowing America to default would be irresponsible. But it would be more irresponsible to raise the debt ceiling without simultaneously taking dramatic steps to reduce spending and reform the budget process.”

In fact, though, the harm done by even raising the spectre of default — by making Washington look dysfunctional — outweighs any good that could come of taking advantage of the ceiling issue as an opportunity to win cuts.

Unfortunately, Speaker Boehner can’t take that position, because his troops in Congress won’t allow it.

Now come the actual negotiations. Both sides have to recognize that the way to achieve their goals is not to win a game of chicken. It’s to win more elections, not just in one year, but in the long run.

— Cox News Service

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