By Josh Resnek
Many of us listen to the news about the national debt. The Republicans want to attach spending cuts to any bill that is offered by the Democrats, who’ve sworn not to negotiate the national debt.
The debt ceiling must be raised or the United States will default on its fiscal obligations.
Closer to home, this means instead of paying important bills that allow the lights to be on and for the heat to work, we say no and the lights get shut off and the heat doesn’t work because the gas has also been shut. Fooling around with the national debt is even worse, because Social Security payments could be postponed if the debt ceiling is not adjusted.
Can you imagine what life would be like for something like 70 million Americans if Social Security payments were late or suspended altogether!
Can you imagine the horror of not receiving your Social Security check and not being able to pay the rent or buy food or go to the doctor?
That would be a catastrophe.
Our politicians talk about it as though it would be a lesson in fiscal sanity.
It is just the opposite.
Our soldiers, sailors and air force military servicemen and women would also not be paid if the debt ceiling is not raised, and soon.
That is impossible to imagine.
Can you imagine not paying our military people?
Republicans can imagine this.
About 5 million federal government employees would not be paid either.
Section 8 holders and recipients would find their payments would not be made, sending the real estate marketplace into a tailspin like we’ve never seen.
Or how about holders of American bonds and Treasury bills all over the world failing to receive their interest?
What would this do to the state of affairs for the USA?
It would be catastrophic.
Does the debt ceiling really matter?
It does and it doesn’t.
Because the US government spends much more than it takes in, the debt ceiling has to be raised almost from year to year dependent on how much in taxes comes in.
The foolishness is not about the Republicans wanting the federal government to curb its spending or for the democrats to boldly proclaim that nothing can be cut or should be cut because so many Americans need help from the government.
The foolishness is toying with a default.
It is very risky business.
Let’s hope our leaders with courage or heroism, morality of even common sense, step out of their party stances and agree to raise the debt ceiling to let life go on.
Why ruin a good thing?