Democrats at it again! I almost can’t believe it, but it looks like dozens of House Democrats have proposed legislation to eliminate the debt ceiling.
According to Foxnews.com, the federal government hit the $31.381 trillion debt ceiling last week, and House Republicans are pushing for commitments to cut back on the record growth in federal spending before agreeing to allow more borrowing.
But Democrats accuse Republicans of setting up the possibility of prohibiting a debt ceiling hike, which would make the government unable to fund all of its current obligations.
Democrats are saying that a better idea is to eliminate all limits on federal borrowing and allow the government to borrow whatever it needs. But let’s be real here, this is just another way for the Democrats to spend without any accountability. This is a dangerous idea that would only lead to more debt and more financial problems for our country.
Rep. Bill Foster, D-Ill. says “Weaponizing the debt ceiling and using it as a pawn in partisan budget negotiations is dangerous and repeatedly brings our nation to the brink of default, which would be disastrous to the U.S. economy – something we’ve witnessed as recently as 2011 when Republicans created a debt ceiling crisis that resulted in the first ever downgrade to the U.S. credit rating.”
But let’s not forget, it was the Democrats who have been pushing for more spending, not the Republicans. Before the housing crisis in 2008, the total national debt was $9 trillion, an amount that more than tripled to more than $31 trillion in less than 15 years thanks to programs related to the housing bailout, 20 years of military presence in Afghanistan, COVID emergency response measures, and routine funding increases for defense and social programs.
COVID drove federal spending to record-high levels, and the government continues to spend near those levels even though the emergency has abated. The federal government spent $4.4 trillion in fiscal year 2019, just before COVID hit. It spent $6.5 trillion in FY 2020, $6.8 trillion in FY 2021, and $6.3 trillion in FY 2022. While President Biden last year said the pandemic is “over,” the government is still on pace to spend more than $6 trillion in the current fiscal year.
It’s clear that the Democrats are just looking for a blank check, but as Republicans noted this week, in 2011, Vice President Joe Biden championed the idea of bipartisan negotiations on the debt ceiling. Biden was quoted in a 2011 Washington Post story saying that “everyone wants an agreement” on the debt ceiling that “bends the curve on long-term debt.”
I urge my fellow conservatives and Republicans to stand firm against this dangerous idea. We cannot let the Democrats continue to spend without any accountability. It’s time for them to be responsible and make the tough decisions needed to get our country’s finances back on track.
