Debt Ceiling Dodgeball

The Obama administration wants us to think it’s playing hardball. Maybe it is. Maybe.

This debt ceiling showdown is a farce much like the fiscal cliff. Both exist because the Republican party says so. Without the urging of the far right neither would have consumed so much of our time.

Because of the legislation passed through Congress over the years the US has issued debt. Because of other legislation passed through Congress we also have a ceiling on how much debt we can issue. In a sensible world Congress would act to reconcile these two aspects of its own activities. It orders the payments, it orders the revenue gathering, it orders the debt issuance, so it is responsible -end to end – of the entire process. It is responsible for the level of our debt.

So it is intensely odd to watch as Congress urges the president to suggest legislation to avoid hitting the debt ceiling. It is a Congressional responsibility. Why foist it on a different branch of government? It is a dereliction of duty.

The answer, of course, is that Congress doesn’t want to lead the way. It is caught in a cleft of its own device. The Republicans want to cut our social programs. This is wildly unpopular. So instead of saying want they want to do, they build the argument that we cannot afford those programs and thus are simply being ‘forced’ by our fiscal circumstances to cut them. That they created those very circumstances they all hope we don’t notice. They redirect our attention by making it look as if it is Obama’s job to suggest the cuts that the Republicans want to make. It isn’t. And he shouldn’t.

Thus far he hasn’t.

Which has produced the current stand off.

The Republicans threaten economic mayhem.Obama stands on principle.

It is the Republicans responsibility to come forward and suggest which cuts they would like. That would be both democratic and in compliance with due process. They’re just embarrassed with what they want to do. They know they would get whipped in an election were they to be honest- in fact they just did get whipped. So they persist with dishonesty. They are trying to take the economy hostage to force their minority and recently rejected views on us all.

The only way to disarm hostage takers is to face them down.

So Obama is playing hardball. For now.

It’s early yet.