I'm curious who is engaging in the gamesmanship in this scenario. This has been an issue long in the making with our deficit ballooning, even after significant increases in federal revenue. The bill signed by Republicans is hardly extreme, and when we considering the amount of expenses being paid to interest alone, it's clear the federal government needs to do something at this point.
Legislators across both aisles have demonstrated they have no interest in decreasing spending. This bill forces their hand while there's still leverage.
We have a budget process. If they fail to pass a budget, we get a government shutdown. Shutdowns are already extreme, but at least they are well understood and incremental. A 1 day shutdown is not too bad. A 1 year shutdown is untenable. Why do they need more leverage?
I answered that in my second paragraph. They've proven they're incapable of developing a budget that doesn't balloon. Non-discretionary spending is through the roof, as evidenced by their demand of latching spending to the 2022 budget levels. That's last year. How is this extreme or outside the realm of even negotiation?
Recall that the largest contribution to the budget shortfall is not increased spending, but tax cuts. If this were not simple gamesmanship, the proposed solution would include tax increases to pay for that which we have already agreed to purchase.
The term ballooning is so qualitative and subjective that it is essentially a Barnum statement.
How would you determine if the number for the debt is too high? And why?
And how would you determine if it is too low?
For example would the calculation consider the current population? the current factory capacity? Agricultural capacity? the year? Interest Rates? Tax Revenue? The populations desired rate of saving? The current desires and goals of the nation and its citizens? If there is no exact formula, then would a representative body that debates and agrees on a best estimate number be a reasonable way to decide that? If so isn't that what congress does already?
Without including meaningful tax increases, I don't think that the Republican bill can really be said to be a serious proposal. "We get everything we want and you get nothing" isn't a good faith negotiating position.
Spending is the side of the equation that's most problematic, though. Renevue has increased substantially lately, but the federal government has continued blowing past it at pretty insane rates. Both parties are obviously at fault, but this is the first major effort intended to curb it that we've seen in a long while.
I don't understand why this time it's different than every other debt ceiling show. Republicans refuse, Democrats call them a bunch of names, there's a "government shutdown" where about 5% of the federal government is furloughed - the things most visible and painful to the average citizen like passport renewals, immigration, national parks etc... and then the Republicans admit defeat and everything opens up again.
The government shutdowns have been over failures to pass a budget. We have never failed to raise the debt ceiling yet [0]
[0] Unless you count forcing the treasury department to take extraordinary measures, which has happened several times; and has been going on since January.
