To the Editor:
Congressional Republicans are once again caterwauling about the national debt after springing for tax cuts for the wealthy and significantly raising military spending in the Trump administration. When the Repos are in power, they spend prodigiously, but when Demos are elected to sweep up their mess, they are suddenly awash in horror about government spending, especially on entitlements.
The House majority has vowed to balance the budget by making cuts to spending and increasing the sales tax to 30% rather than tax income. That way, for instance, the more kids you support, the more you are taxed. The wheels of commerce will be limited to groceries and yachts. DOA.
Senator Rick Scott’s (R-FL) 11-Point Plan to save America identified the intent to put “entitlements” on the block every five years. It garnered so much interest that Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) rushed to deny the real meaning for fear it would be understood and turn Republican voters against the Party in the midterms.
House Republicans insist that they will refuse to raise the debt ceiling, renege on already-accrued debts, and close the government unless they can make unspecified massive spending cuts. The middle class will bear the burden, because raising taxes on the very wealthy is never a Republican option when the middle class can be made to pick up the tab.
The vague Republican proposal is to create “special panels” to study spending cuts rather than identify particular cuts. They fear that their base would revolt at explicit plans to eliminate Social Security and Medicare. They also know that President Biden will never sign sweeping cuts to entitlements. Congressional Republicans are eagerly attacking Democrats for the national debt (to which Republican administrations have lustily contributed), and manufacturing turmoil around the possibility of a second Republican Recession or Depression so they can “own the libs.”
The U.S. has never defaulted on its debt. A default would be a violent blow to investor confidence, increase borrowing costs throughout the economy, lead to a credit-rating downgrade for U.S. debt, and threaten up to six million jobs. Whether the dollar would remain the world currency is questionable. The Republican House (mostly) knows this and are unlikely to do anything so stupidly disastrous. They are posturing for the fame game and for the base that shares their appetite for chaos.
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore