Kicking the Can: Raising the Debt Ceiling

It’s that time of year again! No, I don’t mean time to get your summer fun in before we settle down to fall. It’s time to raise the debt ceiling, that special season when the government realizes that they’ve spent all of our money, but still wants to spend more. Therefore, they magically reach into the future to borrow from generations of tax-payers not yet born! The money, and it has to come from somewhere; after all, those votes aren’t going to buy themselves!

With one party rule, you might think that this sort of obligatory danse macabre would finally be ended. Or, if they’re not going to cut spending, at least they could raise the ceiling without any strings attached. Unfortunately, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will likely have to add achieving a clean debt ceiling hike to his long list of things he can’t do.

According to an article at Fox Business, McConnell’s recent meeting with the administration and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer failed to reach any agreement. Both McConnell and the Trump administration have stressed the need to raise the debt ceiling, but it seems that the Democrats are playing hard to get. And why shouldn’t they?

Certainly, McConnell has shown himself a pushover when it comes to acquiescing to Democrat demands. And since the good of the Union is off the table as motivation for either party, why not press the inept McConnel for maximum advantage? In fact, I bet most Republicans are probably wondering why their guys won't similarly press for reform and use some of that power they supposedly have. However, that’s just not GOP style! No doubt, the debt ceiling will be raised, as usual, but the Democrats will likely get many of their policy objectives funded for their [eh-hem] cooperation.

Meanwhile, with all this talk about raising the ceiling so we don’t default on our debt, we’ve oddly forgotten about our debt. As of writing this article, our national debt stands (and you got to type fast to keep up with the escalation) North of $19,968,875,315,000, a liability of over $61,000 for every citizen in the Union. That’s billions more than the value of everything produced in the U.S. in one year; everything! And while both Democrats and Republicans amazingly take such awful news in stride, it remains a problem so big it’s beyond such correcting measures as raising taxes or growing the economy, not that such newly revenues gained would end up going to paying down the debt anyway, if attempted.

For those paying attention, there is no evidence that the spending will be thrown into reverse by either party, because there simply isn’t the political will to do it. Most politicians fear public backlash for the obviously necessary cuts and are instead hoping things don’t hit the wall on their watch. But, those that know History understand that this is going to end really badly! However, if Texas decides not to wait for that proverbial kicked-can to run out of road, if we choose to reclaim our sovereignty now, stabilizing our economy and our portion of the national debt, then we could safeguard our savings and quality of life for the time when Washington does a Thelma & Louise off the fiscal cliff. Either that, or we stick with the Union and accept what's coming. If we do chose plan B, I hope at least every Texan is issued a commemorative "I'm With Stupid" t-shirt.