Republicans want spending cuts before raising the debt ceiling. The national debt sits at $40 trillion. These two facts arrived in their brains simultaneously, which must have felt like getting hit by a bus made of irony.
The GOP spent decades voting for tax cuts, defense budgets, and farm subsidies while the debt counter spun like a slot machine. Now they've decided fiscal responsibility matters. The timing is perfect. By perfect I mean late by about four decades and $35 trillion.
The election complicates this crisis. Some crisis. Washington will raise the ceiling like it always does, probably at 11:59 PM on the deadline after everyone pretends they won't. This happens every few years. The script never changes. Politicians threaten default. Markets get nervous. Retail traders panic-sell their portfolios. Then Congress votes yes and everyone goes back to spending money we don't have.
But this time feels different, they'll say. It won't be different.
The debt ceiling is not a ceiling. It's a suggestion. It's a speed limit sign on a highway where everyone drives 90. Calling it a crisis implies someone might actually let the country default, which would require courage, conviction, or a complete misunderstanding of how bond markets work. Congress has none of the first two and plenty of the third.
Deep spending cuts sound great until you ask which spending. Defense? No. Social Security? Absolutely not. Medicare? Try it and lose your seat. What's left is the rounding error, the stuff that makes voters feel good but saves nothing.
So we'll get another theatrical hostage negotiation where both sides pretend the stakes are real. The debt ceiling will rise. Spending will continue. And whoever bought Treasury bonds because their cousin said the dollar was collapsing will somehow lose money on the safest asset in human history.
Photo by Louis Velazquez on Unsplash
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