If Kevin McCarthy wants to be America’s dad on the debt, he has to pay the bills first | Opinion

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the Republican from Bakersfield, gave a short lecture in his chamber recently about the federal debt, taking on the persona of a dad.

“If you gave your child a credit card and they kept maxing it out,” McCarthy said, “you wouldn’t blindly raise their limit — you’d help them change their behavior and figure out where to cut back on the spending.”

That is good advice, as any parent of a credit card-carrying child will attest. But McCarthy is confusing the facts by using a household analogy to describe a complex standoff between the House Republicans that McCarthy leads and President Joe Biden over what is known as the debt ceiling. That is the limit on how much the nation can borrow to pay its bills.

The country is poised to begin defaulting on its debts by June 1 if a new limit is not approved. Economists say going into default will plunge the already inflation-burdened economy into a host of unknowns. Financial markets would be upset, and layoffs and loss of business could result. A recession might occur. It could even impact financial markets worldwide.

Biden wants Congress to raise the ceiling so bills can be paid, and take up future budgeting as a separate matter. McCarthy and the House GOP have already passed a bill that would increase the ceiling for a year, but also tie it to spending cuts, beefed-up work requirements in safety net programs and other measures Democrats oppose. Biden, up to now, has not accepted that deal. He is to meet with McCarthy next week.

Debt history

America was born with debt on its books, as the founding fathers had to borrow money to be able to fight the British for independence.

McCarthy, whose 20th District includes Clovis and parts of eastern Fresno County, has been in Congress since 2006. In that year the federal debt stood at $8 trillion and represented 61% of the gross domestic product — the value of the nation’s goods and services.

By 2022, the debt had risen to $31 trillion, and was 123% of the GDP.

Throughout all those years, was McCarthy banging the drum about the dangers of the debt? It depended on if the occupant of the White House was a Democrat or a Republican.

As much as McCarthy today blasts Biden for wasteful spending, the president before him — Republican Donald Trump — added more than $8 billion to the debt, in part because of tax cuts he proposed on corporations and wealthy Americans and which Congress (including McCarthy) approved.

Cuts in California

Biden administration officials say the House Republicans’ budget plan would mean $7.2 billion less in federal spending in California. Among the details:

▪ Elimination of 45,900 preschool and child-care slots.

▪ Loss of food assistance for 265,000 women and children. New eligibility standards would jeopardize food assistance for 136,000 seniors.

▪ Loss of rental assistance for 83,200 households, including seniors, disabled people and families.

▪ A cut in outpatient services for 524,000 veterans.

▪ About $463 million in funding for schools would be cut, which is equal to slashing 7,200 teachers and support staff, impacting 4 million students.

▪ Nearly 1.5 million college students would lose loan relief.

▪ 88,800 Californians would lose access to job training and employment services.

Deal with debt first

The debt is a real problem and it is only getting worse. But GOP-backed cuts should not be promoted in the crucible of an impending default. A robust debate between the parties should happen in budget deliberations. Questions should be asked, such as why can’t corporations pay more of a fair share in taxes? Why does America need to have such high military spending?

Biden is right to make it two issues. McCarthy is pandering to the hard-right members who only backed him for House speaker on the 15th vote in exchange for concessions on the issues like the debt.

Speaker McCarthy, don’t take America to the brink of default. Stop the posturing, raise the debt ceiling, then have the honest budget debate the nation needs.

Correction: An earlier version of this editorial incorrectly stated the national debt in 2006.