Debt Ceiling "Crisis"

One step the leaders of both political parties could do to improve their public approval ratings would be to stop posturing about the supposed “debt ceiling” crisis and do something about it this week.

Of course it would be a disaster for the U.S. to default on its debt payments, but nobody actually expects that to happen. So the threats issued by Republican extremists are toothless unless they wish to ruin the government’s credit and tank the economy.

Meanwhile, Biden’s refusal to negotiate with Republicans over spending cuts is calculated politics at its worst. In the past, similar threats to block raising the debt limit have failed, helping Democrats to paint the GOP as reckless, but like most tropes, this one is growing stale over time.

While it is true, as Democrats insist, that cutting new spending is unrelated to the current debt ceiling issue, there is an important caveat to that statement. Continued deficit spending by the government will only raise the national debt, ensuring future confrontations like the one we are enduring now.

Therefore, the Republicans have valid arguments about deficit spending; Biden should acknowledge that and indicate his willingness to talk about that in return for an early settlement of the debt ceiling matter.

So far, both parties seem willing to play out the psychodrama of approaching brinksmanship, hoping to score political points. But they cannot afford to let it reach the brink, even as both sides seem determined to wring every last drop of political capital out of this fake fight — which is a rhetorical exercise in shadow boxing.

It’s time, at this week’s meeting at the White House, for both Biden and McCarthy to give ground, act like adults, and make substantive progress. Otherwise, the main bankruptcy to result from all this will not be the Treasury but is that of a broken two-party system.

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