Thank You, Post-Standard

Gun-Barrell Politics: Holding government debt hostage is irresponsible

Editorial in today's paper by the Post-Standard Editorial Board 

with a paragraph directed toward Ann Marie Buerkle

“This display of people standing up and saying we cannot raise the debt limit, that is not responsible, after voting to spend and spend and spend, it is just more than I could take.” These words come from leading Republican Jeff Flake of Arizona — speaking during the administration of George W. Bush.

Republicans have joined Democrats in raising the nation’s debt ceiling 74 times since 1962 — seven times during the administration of former president George W. Bush. It is galling to listen to their sermons about fiscal responsibility when their leadership produced a hefty share of the nation’s staggering $14.3 trillion debt.

Tax cuts pushed by the brand-new Bush administration drained $2 trillion from the Treasury over the past decade. The trillion-dollar wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, launched in the early years of the Bush administration, were financed by borrowing — until President Barack Obama insisted on including the costs in the yearly defense budget. Bush’s Medicare drug benefit plan has cost hundreds of billions so far — without any way to pay for it.

It’s not too late for GOP lawmakers to hold their noses and raise the debt limit. After all, they promised not to endanger the nation’s credit-worthiness when they swore to defend the Constitution, which states that “the validity of the public debt of the United States ... shall not be questioned.”

But to win over even a few Republicans, the president must commit himself to an austerity plan that would slash and burn federal spending for a decade. Now GOP lawmakers are flirting with demands for a balanced budget — not seen since the last year of Democrat Bill Clinton’s administration. And forget about tax increases, according to the 41 senators and 236 House members who signed a no-tax pledge. Even ending tax breaks for corporate jet owners, hedge fund managers and oil companies would have to be matched by lower taxes elsewhere or more spending cuts.

Polls suggest voters are more amenable to raising taxes than tea party activists think — particularly for the rich and corporations making record profits. Besides, federal tax dollars pay for things people like. GOP lawmakers, including Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle, R-Onondaga Hill, discovered constituents were appalled by the Republicans’ plan to restructure Medicare and other popular social programs. Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget plan has gone nowhere.

Ending Bush-era tax breaks for millionaires when they expire at the end of the year might raise $50 billion a year — not nearly enough. Erase the cuts for all taxpayers and revenues grow to $300 billion a year. Add smart and significant spending cuts, including the defense budget as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down, and you’re on your way to fiscal balance.

The job can be done, and must be done. But not at the end of a political gun-barrel. “We’re going to have to deal with (the debt limit) as adults,” said current House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio — last November. Why not now?