Kendall Stanley: The blackmailers

Blackmailers, that’s what the Republican Party has become.

As I write this the debt limit issue was still up in the air so perhaps, perchance, the debt limit has been raised and fiscal peace has returned to the land.

Or not, in which case we’re in deep trouble.

The U.S. was staring down a situation where by June 1 it would run out of money to pay its bills. Bills that need to be paid because Congress has already approved the spending.

So are we going to become a deadbeat country by not paying them?

The Republicans in the House wanted concessions before they would vote to approve an increase, such as requiring those utilizing federal benefits to be working to receive them. A non-starter for Democrats.

Or say cutting Social Security, Medicare and military benefits, that would give the country a little more time.

But it’s a crazy way to run a country. If Congress agrees to spend money, then it should be a given that the bill gets paid in the end.

The debt limit was raised three times during Donald Trump’s presidency, so it’s not like the Republicans haven’t voted to increase it before.

Now, however, following the wishes of the fringes of his party, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy had to make a show of extracting concessions from the Biden administration before any vote to approve raising the limit would pass.

“Paradoxically, though, the United States created the World War I-era system as a way of making it “easier, not harder,” for the government to borrow money, according to Maya MacGuineas, the president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget in a story in The Washington Post. “The cap spared the Treasury Department from having to obtain congressional permission every time it issued bonds or otherwise borrowed, so long as policymakers stayed below the limit.

“More recently, the limit has functioned like a forcing mechanism, as “one of the only fiscal speed bumps that exist” to push the country’s spending to the political foreground, added MacGuineas, whose organization advocates for deficit reduction. She called this week for rethinking the threshold, rather than repealing it, as a way of nudging Congress to analyze more regularly and systematically the tax dollars it spends and receives.”

The debt limit debacle sits atop a budget process that over the years has become more dysfunctional, oftentimes relying on continuing budget resolutions to keep a little money in the coffers and the doors open and lights on.

Through it all there’s enough grandstanding to last a lifetime.

Hopefully a solution to the debt limit crisis was found and the Republicans didn’t hold hostage the world’s economy.

In the running

Word had it on the street that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was going to announce his candidacy for president this week and all we can say is, "Oh Boy!"

DeSantis had surely been acting like a candidate, schmoozing the good folks of Iowa, traipsing around the country on what was billed as a book tour.

Despite the obviousness of those visits to early primary states, DeSantis was still being seen as having the potential to be the GOP’s nominee for president.

Yes folks, DeSantis vs. Trump in a battle for the heart and soul of Americans.

I could give you a final thought on that thought, but columnist Gail Collins of The New York Times put it as succinctly as it needs to be:

“The bottom line: Would you rather see the Republicans nominate a candidate who had an exemplary family life and an agenda based on longstanding, extremely conservative beliefs? Or a guy with a sleazy personal history who’d probably go anywhere the votes were?

“Some days it pays to be a Democrat.”

— Kendall P. Stanley is retired editor of the News-Review. He can be contacted at kendallstanley@charter.net. The opinions expressed in this column are those of the writer and not necessarily of the Petoskey News-Review or its employees.

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Kendall Stanley: The blackmailers