Chinese philosopher Laozi said “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”. I suppose the same might be said of a journey of 16 trillion dollars. The sense is the same; the distance from where we are to where we need to be is vast. One step would seem a pointless gesture in a thousand mile journey; one small fiscal step might seem a futile action to dig ourselves out of a 16 trillion dollar debt.
For years our leaders have been talking about “a grand deal” where entitlements could be reformed, budgets slashed and revenues increased. Up until now, the only thing politicians have been willing to do is raise taxes on rich people, which will supposedly pay for about eight days of government expenditures, and I think that’s probably an optimistic number that doesn’t take into account unintended consequences. Our government in Washington seems to delight in endless debate and then passing legislation that does little if anything to fix the problems it supposedly was crafted for. Republicans may have finally realized that “a grand deal” and Barack Obama are mutually exclusive.
Just when it looked as though we were in for another debt limit battle, Republican House leaders proposed on Friday that the limit be extended to cover three more months. This is apparently a concession on the GOP’s part that the President is winning the P.R. game in these constant showdowns by using the bully pulpit, well, to bully them. On the other hand, Republicans aren’t just throwing in the towel, but shifting strategies. Instead of pursuing the elusive “grand deal”, they appear to be willing to accept a more incremental approach of one small step at a time.
The bill includes a provision that lawmakers’ salaries will be withheld unless and until each chamber passes a formal budget, something they haven’t done since 2009. The last time the Senate passed a budget, Michael Jackson was still alive. Instead of laying out a unified plan for how the Government will handle its finances, Congress has just passed omnibus spending bills and continuing resolutions, which are the legislative equivalent of assuming you can keep spending money because you still have checks left. It’s hard to stick to a budget when you don’t have one.
Granted, the budget is non-binding, but it is at least something the public can look at to see what lawmakers consider a practical plan for the year ahead. For a long journey, it is a good first step, and it should seem reasonable to reasonable people. We may find as time goes on that we can take larger steps, but for the time being we may need to be content that we are at least moving in the right direction, and that people can see the plan.
IMHO: American Express boasts regarding some of their charge cards that they have “no pre-set limits”. Now some might think that this means that the card has no spending limit; believe me, that is not the case. There is indeed a limit, you just don’t know what it is. President Obama and the Dems would love for Congress to eliminate the debt limit entirely. This would eliminate the battle to raise it every so often, and also eliminate the only leverage the Republicans have to slow the spending and eventually begin to bend the curve of ever increasing debt. Not having a budget, a plan, or a spending limit might be a big government liberal’s wildest fantasy, but it can’t work in the real world where there are always limits, even if you don’t know where they are. Creditors, reporting agencies, and competitor nations will not ignore our lackadaisical fiscal irresponsibility forever. Sixteen trillion dollars worth of debt might lead one to believe that the credit line has no end, when we are really just being given enough rope to hang ourselves. There are those who would love to see our fall. There are others who seek only to loot our wealth. These wage war not with guns, but on the battlefield of the global economy. They will let us know when we have reached our limit, there will be no grace periods, no mercy. These enemies don’t take prisoners, they don’t take excuses; and they don’t take American Express.