Boehner: No More Kicking the Can Down the Road on Debt

Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner brought up a nasty topic yesterday--the federal deficit and the debt limit. He has been savagely attacked for his remarks by the left and the New York Times (which means he may be on to something). In essence, he said he does not think the debt limit should be increased again unless there is some sort of corresponding reduction in federal spending.

Raising the debt limit will never go away as long as Congress with the encouragement and consent of the Administration continues to spend, spend and spend.

Mr. Boehner’s comments underscore what has been apparent for some time. The fiscal condition of the Federal government is woeful and the country is in a political jam. Mr. Boehner said he would not allow Congress to duck tough decisions with another round of short-term measures and he urged lawmakers in both parties to reach a long-term deal on spending and tax changes — but no additional taxes — to head off a fiscal meltdown.

The federal deficit is a problem. Eventually the interest payments on it, if not brought under control, will consume the federal budget. It is not economic theory, it is a mathematical certainty. A certainty which is largely ignored by President Obama who in the past has paid lip service to the issue but has not done anything to stem the avalanche of red ink. 

The Obama Budget for this upcoming year called for federal spending to top $3.8 trillion dollars by adding new and expanding existing programs in areas of renewable energy subsidies, education, school construction, payments to protect local government worker and infrastructure. One thing for sure, his budget is not a deficit reduction blueprint. It shatters his promise to cut the deficit in half when campaigning for office. This will be the fourth consecutive year the deficit is more than $1 trillion and more, bold red ink for years to come. It is not even worth the effort to review the size and growth of the deficit under his watch. Suffice it to say, it will soon approach $16 trillion, hitting the celing sometime after the first of the year. 

Speaker Boehner has his hand full. He has a raucous caucus of believers to deal with on almost every vote. Democrats on the other hand have as their goal preserving as much largesse and federal spending as they can. In the liberal Democrat ranks there is really no appreciation or concern over the size of federal spending or the deficits. Goodness knows the President has never really made any serious attempt to curb the expansion of government His sole solution is to tax the rich which if enacted would only fund the deficit for a few more days.

He simply is not serous and will never ever be serious.  He believes as shown by his actions that eventually, the government will collect more taxes, be able to maintain and increase the dependency of voters on the government and all the while the deficits pile up and up and up. Mr. Obama talks about no more kicking the “can down the road”, well, he has heaved it, thrown it, and catapulted it into the next county many times.

Republicans have a contrary view to the President. They are alarmed about the growth of government, the size of government, the increases of the federal debt. House Republicans have passed budgets that are ignored by the Senate Leadership, which has not passed a budget as required their own rules going on 4 years now. Given the divided government and the distain Senator Reid as Senate Majority Leader has for his House counterparts, what weapons does Mr. Boehner have? Practically none, except for the occasional funding bill and the debt limitation.

Of course, the Congress will eventually deal with the debt limit. There are no other options. We have heard this all before. This Administration and the Congress have deferred important decisions for years but I am not so sure it can be done again. On this point, Boehner is right and at some point, decisions have to be made. 

It cannot be noted enough how the election will influence these decisions. It is not only the debt ceiling but also the Medicare reimbursement rate, the Alternative Minimum Tax, the expired tax provisions, and, of course, employee payroll tax reduction and the 2001 and 2003 tax rate reductions. That is a handful.

Tell me how the election will be resolved and I can predict the results. In anticipation of all of this, Mr. Boehner is serving notice that his House Republicans and fiscal conservatives must again be dealt with. I think he means it this time.