The Debt Ceiling

Now that going over the fiscal cliff has been avoided through a tax rate increase on big earners, the next national financial crises are two-fold.  First Congress must address the increase of the debt ceiling sometime over the short term … and secondly, there is a massive mandated sequestration of government spending that was originally attached to the fiscal cliff legislation and has only been postponed by two months … see: CNN/Money Story.  It seems that the Republicans, with their typical political tone-deafness, have decided that they will stand and fight their spending-cuts battle on the field of the debt-ceiling increase.  Stupid them!

Why would conservatives fight such a battle over the debt ceiling when they know that they will be forced to surrender for no other reason than to maintain the bond rating of the United States?  In such a fight Republicans are obviously at a strategic disadvantage.  However, in a fight over spending sequestration, the Republicans hold the high ground.  This is because, by doing nothing, the administration will be forced into significant spending cuts because it no longer has the leverage of threatened tax rate increases.  Yes, these spending cuts are also very painful for the Defense Department … but I am reasonably certain that the Obama Administration will politically find a way to ameliorate those particular spending cuts … with the happy assistance of the Republican House of Representatives.

So the Tea Party members in Congress need to acquire some more political savvy and choose their pugilistic arenas somewhat more carefully ... and it should not be the debt-ceiling fight.