With local governments all raising taxes in the last year, we have heard a lot of speeches from local officials about living within our means.
We all have to do it at home, they usually say, so why should government not be held to the same standard with our tax dollars? Live within your means.
Our federal government needs to take the lesson as well, but things are probably going to get worse before they get better on that front. The U.S. is backed into a corner on debt, and we have no choice but to raise the debt ceiling so that we can give ourselves a chance to get back on track long term.
To get there, we need President Joe Biden, Speaker Kevin McCarthy and all our federal officials pulling in the same direction. But like everything else in this divided era of politics, both sides see desperation and a deadline, and they circle like buzzards to see what they can gain from the unfortunate situation.
The Hill reported that “Senate Democrats had urged Biden for months not to negotiate with McCarthy over legislation to raise the debt limit, arguing that the full faith and credit of the federal government shouldn’t be used as a bargaining chip.”
That’s because everything is looked at as a bargaining chip these days, rather than getting into government to help make the lives of your citizens better.
Those Democrats who have asked Biden to enact the 14th Amendment to raise the debt ceiling unilaterally are not acting in good faith. In The Northeast Georgian last week, we had comments from both sides of the aisle that the parties needed to work together to come to a reasonable solution.
We also had excellent insight by local attorney Doug Collins, who has been through the ringer in Congress before. Collins said the economy had to get back to 3-4 percent annual growth to even have a chance to turn things around and get the U.S. debt under control.
To get to the long-term solution, we need cooperation and statesmanship. We need our federal representatives to do their jobs and help make sure American citizens don’t have to go through another recession or at minimum, make it impossible to afford auto or home loans. That not only hurts the average consumer, but those who work in real estate and auto sales and manufacturing as well. It’s a slippery slope once we let one piece of the economy fail, and we cannot allow that after we have worked so hard to get out of the pandemic in one piece.
All Americans need to pull their own weight.