Letter to the Editor / THE DEBT CEILING:  SELF INFLICTED WOUNDS

By Roger C. Kostmayer

The US may be the only nation to maintain a recurring dangerous financial and political ritual called “raising the debt ceiling (DC)” – which has nothing to do with either debt or future spending.  Raising the DC is about authorizing payment for goods and services already acquired by our government – meaning bills due from both the 4 years of the Trump administration and the 10 months of the Biden Administration.  Congress must authorize the money by mid-December or our failure to pay our bills will create a financial and economic disaster worldwide.  Unemployment will go up, capital markets and our credit ratings will plunge.

 If it occurs to you that getting rid of this DC thing, which has zero benefits to justify the high risk of catastrophe and no legal or Constitutional authorization, might be a good idea – you are exactly correct.  Terminating the ancient DC process altogether would allow our country to pay it’s legitimate bills without going through a game of partisan political “chicken” in the next 30 to 60 days, one that could easily trigger economic and human disaster every year.

Most of Wall St., the business community and all of the US Treasury believe that it would be wise and prudent for the US to eliminate this clear and imminent danger being used by politicians to gain political advantage.  If you agree, you might want to mention it to your President, Senators and Congressmen.  As the great American philosopher Pogo once said: “We’ve met the enemy . . . and it’s US !”

[livemarket market_name="KONK Life LiveMarket" limit=3 category=“” show_signup=0 show_more=0]