The Upcoming Debt Ceiling Battle

Now that the so-called fiscal cliff battle is at an end, all’s quiet on the western front, right?  Hardly.

The upcoming battle on raising the debt ceiling could be much bigger.  Here’s why.

Republicans unfortunately didn’t have a great deal of leverage in the fiscal cliff battle.  That’s because the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 were automatically expiring on January 1st, 2013.  President Obama was holding all American taxpayers hostage – threatening to allow everyone’s taxes to go up unless Republicans would agree to throw just wealthier Americans overboard – which eventually happened.  I voted against the deal.

Republicans had hoped to get significant reductions in spending in return for the tax increases, but rather than less spending, the deal called for even more.  This was another reason I voted NO.

The upcoming debt ceiling battle promises to be different.  Whereas taxes would have gone up automatically without a deal, spending does not go up automatically if there is no debt ceiling agreement.  We are expected to bump up against the current debt ceiling limit of $16.394 trillion in mid-February.

President Obama is already attempting to get the upper hand in the debate.  He is warning that “I will not have another debate with Congress over (the debt ceiling).”  He seems to imply that the elected representatives of the American people should have no role in the debate.  It’s up to him.  He’ll call the shots on appropriate spending levels.  The arrogance is rather stunning.

It’s interesting to note that not so long ago, back in 2006, then-Senator Barack Obama voted against raising the debt ceiling.  Explaining his reasoning, he stated at the time:

“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure.  It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills.  It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our government’s reckless fiscal policies.  … Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally.  Leadership means that the buck stops here.  Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren.  America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.  America deserves better.”

And if that isn’t enough, in 2007, and again in 2008, when the United States Senate voted to again raise the debt ceiling, Senator Obama didn’t even bother to vote!

The bottom line is that the debate on raising the debt limit is one of the strongest leverage points that Congressional Republicans have, considering that Democrats control the Senate and the Presidency.  Republicans cannot realistically expect to dictate their terms, but they should be an important part of the debate, whether President Obama thinks so or not.

There should be good faith negotiations on getting spending under control as part of the debt ceiling debate.  If we continue to allow spending to spiral to such unprecedented levels, the debt is going to crush us.  Even if the President of the United States doesn’t seem to recognize this, or care that much, others must.

And we must be willing to fight for what we believe.

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