The Debt Ceiling

I know we all have a lot on our plates these days and staying informed on complex political issues isn't always easy. Even watching the news one usually misses the intricacies that are typical of many governmental debates and, depending on your news source, there's a good chance you're only hearing one side of an issue. Since most of us have things to do (not me so much, but most people. I don't have kids, or much of a social life, which leaves me with a little more time to look into these things), I am going to try to explain what is probably the most important political issue in the country right now in layman's terms (the only terms I know) and without bias (my best friend is black and gay).

There is a cap on how deeply into debt the United States can get. It's called the debt ceiling and, because the government spends more than it takes in, we're going to hit it on August second. If that happens the government will be unable to borrow any more money and will be forced to stop paying out ... something. No one's really sure. Social Security, interest on our debt, payments to military contractors, and payments to federal employees are all possible casualties. Of course no one says federal employees when they're talking about it- they say U.S. soldiers- because nobody wants to stiff servicemen, but the idea of an I.R.S. auditor not getting his paycheck doesn't tug at anyone's heartstrings. Whatever checks they decide to stop cutting, it will have a tremendously negative impact on the economy. Not just the U.S. economy, but the world economy, and a lot of those people hate us already. They're going to be really mad when they all get pink slips and can't afford to buy falafel and escargot (or whatever it is people eat in other countries) because we can't figure out how to keep our credit card balance under fourteen trillion dollars.

President Obama really wants to raise the debt ceiling. He can't seem to stress enough, how bad it would be not to do so, even though in the ten minutes or so that he was a senator, he voted against raising it twice. He's been meeting daily with the republicans in congress (to the point where his golf game is suffering) trying hard to iron out a deal that both sides can agree on. The republicans don't want to raise the debt ceiling, even though in the eight years prior to Obama's presidency they did eight times, but may be willing to if a plan is laid out that will drastically cut the deficit in the future. One congressman even put together such a plan that ended Medicaid and Social Security and gave huge tax breaks to oil companies resulting in a net savings of zero. Voila- problem solved. The president is willing to play ball on a deal, but only if the plan involves some tax increases for uber-wealthy Americans. Republicans are opposed to this, saying it's a bad time to raise taxes on the "job creators" of our country, who've had record low tax rates since 2003 while America has hemorrhaged jobs.

If no compromise is reached by the August second deadline and congress does not agree to raise the debt ceiling the president will then, probably, invoke article four of the fourteenth amendment (thou shall not be a deadbeat- or something to that effect) and raise it anyway, making all of this debate and posturing kind of big waste of time and energy, unless you host a political discussion show, then it's been a good excuse to yell at the dumbest and/or most insane person you can find with an opinion that is different from yours.

That about sums it up. I hope this makes some sense to you now. If it does please drop me a line and explain it to me.