Dan Schnieders, Jefferson City,
Dear Editor,
Here we go again! The country hit the proverbial spending limit "wall" on Jan. 19 of $31.4 trillion. True to form, the NT prints a commentary from the St Louis Post-Dispatch Editorial Board (TNS) headlined "GOP to threaten to tank the economy to get its way."
The writer(s) contends the GOP's debt ceiling caucus "are threatening to hold America's full faith and credit hostage by refusing to raise the nation's debt limit" and goes on to use the analogy of not paying a credit card bill and how it impacts the credit rating of the user.
So, don't you get it? It's this twisted logic of we need to spend money, so we can save money, thing. This is the juvenile thinking of an adolescent that wants an expensive car but doesn't have the income to buy or maintain it. Rather than adjust their wants/needs, they keep pondering "how am I gonna get it?"
Congress has acted 78 separate times since 1960 to permanently raise, temporarily extend, or revise the definition of the debt limit. Most of these have been with a Republican in the White House, but frankly, the POTUS is the player least in control. This is where the real balance of power between parties is exercised. Social Security and national defense are the typical hostage of choice to break the impasse. But I can still see Nancy Pelosi speaking of "the children, the poor children" as she wrings her blood-soaked (metaphorically), abortion-supporting hands and berates her Republican adversaries. Does anyone find it odd that in those 78 occasions, not once did the Congress ever say 'no'? It will be raised this time again, because our very system does not reward legislatures that save money; instead we recognize the pork barrel spenders.
Maybe the thing to do would be to look at where we are spending? Maybe a wall instead of billions for social programs? Maybe Europe can fund more of the Ukraine-Russia conflict? Maybe we didn't need to discharge/fire thousands of military members/first responders for not getting a jab? Maybe we need to incentivize people to work instead of stay home? Maybe it's time to just say 'no' to raising the debt ceiling and realize that debt has consequences that can't be fixed by spending more.