Raising the Roof

The House passed a budget deal yesterday which raises the debt ceiling in exchange for certain budgetary concessions from the White House. This agreement has been greeted with mixed reviews. The moderates in both parties cheered Kevin McCarthy for his leadership on this deal, but the more extremes in both parties think it’s a travesty. The rightwing Republicans said that McCarthy did not get enough cuts in spending while the leftwing Democrats claim that Biden agreed to too much spending cuts. Many conservatives believe that McCarthy could have gotten more out of this deal than he did, but are taking heart that at least, he did not agree to a flat raise of the debt ceiling without any concessions. 

 In reality, it doesn’t really matter what the budget deal they agreed on actually looks like, it is not going to solve our problems. It is not even a first step in solving our problems. Just the idea that we are going to raise the debt ceiling at all when we already have repeatedly raised the debt ceiling over and over again in the last 40 years to accrue $31.5 trillion of debt, is an absolute joke. When you have $31.5 trillion of debt, does it matter if you increase that debt by $4 trillion or $6 trillion over the next 5 years? Does that mean anything? Of course not. If you’re already drowning in a pool, does it matter if the hose is turned on or not?