In February, 2013, Mitch McConnell was enshrined into the Gutless On Principles (GOP) Hall of Shame due to his track record of non-existent leadership when it came to dealing with the budget and the national debt. Well, in the words of the great Ronald Reagan:
With everything he needs to do as he promised when he was re-elected, McConnell has already announced a full and unconditional surrender in the upcoming debt ceiling negotiations.
Appearing on CBS’s Face the Nation over the weekend, Mickey made it official:
“I made it very clear after the November election that we’re certainly not going to shut down the government or default on the national debt. We will figure some way to handle that.”
Wow. Such tough talk for an invertebrate. But he’s wrong for two reasons:
- The Constitution. The 14th Amendment, Section 4 states: The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.
This is reason enough to prove McConnell wrong, but when you consider the treatment the Constitution gets in Washington these days, you can understand why this wouldn’t matter to anyone. The second reason he’s wrong is:
- Government receipts are sufficient to pay the on the debt in addition to mandatory expenses.
So what would actually happen if Congress doesn’t increase the debt ceiling? Not much. The government’s debt obligations would be paid, but reductions in other spending would become necessary.
And there you have the real reason McConnell and the rest of the pathetic excuses we call Senators and Representatives in Congress are looking for excuses instead of answers to the debt ceiling issue. No one in Congress wants to face their constituents with the hard truth of our budget crisis. They are too cowardly to face them with the news of budget cuts. It’s much easier to promise them another check.
Here’s another problem I have with McConnell’s surrender.
Do you remember the good ol’ days when the majority in the Senate would offer a spending bill to raise the debt ceiling, and when the minority filibustered it they would get the blame? That’s exactly what happened with the 2013 government shutdown. Whatever happened to that scenario? Why is a Republican majority to blame if they offered a spending bill that gets blocked by a Democrat minority?
I guess we’ll never know the answer to that one, since McConnell is too much of a coward to actually lead. But ask yourself: if this is what the GOP is going to do with their new position of power, why did we bother to make that happen?
By the way, as of March 9, 2015, the US debt is over $18.15 trillion. That’s approximately $56,704.14 per US citizen—just the legal ones—not workers only. In addition, the debt continues to grow by $2.35 billion per day.
And Mitch McConnell, soon to be joined by John Boehner, won’t be doing anything about it.
