Politics & Government

Maloy: Let the Debt Ceiling Climb No Higher

The line must be drawn somewhere, and the current one of $14.5 trillion is already far too much.

By Tom Maloy

After giving much thought to the subject of this week’s column, I found myself faced with a conundrum: Should I write a serious piece about Andrew Weiner’s shorts, or go for the less important topic of whether or not to raise the national debt ceiling?

After a few grueling seconds of deliberation, and even though the story’s potential for double entendre humor is almost irresistible, I decided to refrain and leave the complex mystery of the congressman’s bulging skivvies to real reporters whose forte is reporting hard news.  

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While not nearly as exciting, the debt ceiling is something that affects everyone in this country, even those of us who live right here in Powder Springs.

The Washington elite could learn something by coming here to see how we’re forced to juggle our budgets.  They might discover that we impose debt ceilings on ourselves. If we don’t, our banks and credit card companies do.

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If you think about it, you may ask, “Why do credit card companies do that?” Two reasons: First, they are protecting themselves against credit card fraud, and second, they are protecting you against taking on more debt than you can afford. 

In respect to the latter, the ceiling gives the credit grantor some protection against the possibility that you might default on your responsibility to pay. A responsible credit grantor won’t raise your debt ceiling just because you want to buy something you can’t afford. You just do without. 

Now the federal government wants Congress to raise the national debt ceiling and allow it to go even further in debt—not that $14.5 trillion isn’t enough.

But here’s a twist: The government says it must have that additional borrowed money to make its payments to creditors, such as the Chinese. They say that if they can’t borrow more money, the U.S. will go into default sometime in August and that will ruin our credit rating.  

Bringing this scenario down to our level, it’s similar to you using one credit card to make payments on another credit card. Eventually you run out of credit cards. That’s called a deficit, and currently the U.S. has a deficit of $1.5 trillion. 

Simply put, we have to borrow $1.5 trillion just to make the payments on our current debt, and we’ve just run out of credit cards.    

The House of Representatives is saying “NO” to raising the debt ceiling unless it is tied to similar reductions in spending. The administration is saying, “First go ahead and raise the debt ceiling and we promise that we’ll reduce spending after this ‘crisis’ is over. Oh, by the way, we’re sorry you just fell off the turnip truck.”

Truth is, the people in Washington are liars, generally speaking. Ask George H.W. Bush. Remember, “No new taxes?” Well, we got new taxes because Congress told Bush if he would just sign a new tax bill, they would cut spending. 

Taxes happened, spending cuts didn’t. 

Ronald Reagan also allowed Congress to raise taxes because they promised to reduce spending. Taxes went up and so did spending.   

Now the president is recycling the same lie. Congress would be fools to believe that, if for no other reason than the administration (Tim Geithner) has already lied about the debt ceiling. Geithner said that we would be in default in March, then in May.

When that didn’t happen he moved the default date to August. Seems he found some lose change in the couch cushions. 

The bottom line is, this country isn’t going to default on its credit obligations. This administration just wants the debt ceiling raised so it can spend more money to pander to its base, bail out more of its buddies and try to hold power after 2012. 

If the House of Representatives allows them to do that, then they should pay the price in 2012. But if we the taxpayers don’t support them in the battle against raising the debt ceiling, most assuredly, we will pay the price down the road, along with our children and grandchildren. 

Tom Maloy, a retired businessman and 30-year Powder Springs resident, is a board member of the Georgia Tea Party. Contact him at tom@thegeorgiateaparty.org.


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