Should We Have Let the Debt Default?

Should We Have Let the Debt Ceiling Default?

Editorial by Brill Commentariat @BrillComment

The question is a very profound one, but it is one that needs asking. Nearly every year the question is brought to the house and nearly every year the GOP have to give a reaction to whatever deal is put in front of them in order to vote. And, we find that through these negotiations whatever the rhetoric is, whatever the presentation of the grandstanding looks like, the GOP or at least the Moderate GOP end up voting for the bill and each year the debt goes up, bureaucrats get richer, government grows and becomes more of a problem mainly for Conservatives, Libertarians, Classical Liberals, Religious Conservatives and Conservative Democrats like Joe Manchin and the members of the Blue Dog Coalition what few of them there are left.

The GOP is long becoming complacent in the growing administrative state and the Leviathan of our creation become ever hungrier to take on more competencies and when Government becomes too powerful, we are finding an overbearing pressure on Groups that normally lean Conservative and very rarely the other way. Parental Rights have become a very clear issue that very few seem to talk about and are normally left to fend for themselves against an ever increasing and a powerful government, with the advent of the internet, has tools available to themselves that Conservatives or more specifically Neo-Conservatives gave them during the Bush years through the Patriot Act creating the Surveillance state.

How does this all lead back to letting the debt Default? The Debt, while a problem, you can generally ignore it until the crunch finally happens, probably sometime in the next generation but the growing government apparatus you can’t ignore. Conservatives and Libertarians while rhetorically sound, always warning about big government but most never really believed it could be that as bad as the rhetoric suggests until it is.

During 2020 whether you agree with the Government actions or not, you have to acknowledge that in the land of the free (for now), it doesn’t take much justification from overly powerful centralized unelected bureaucrats to convince other bureaucrats and power hungry politicians to increase more power for themselves at the expense of the Common Man and Woman with a range of tools at their disposal and full authority to take away your right to freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, right to property etc.

Government has grown beyond people’s imagination, and it is more imperative than ever that Government has less power, less financial weight, less oppressive tools at its disposal to go after the public for simply disagreeing with the powers that are in charge at any given time. The Government continues to grow, rights and civil liberties continue to shrink and the hope of shrinking government even by a cent seems quite hopeful even to the most optimistic small government advocates.

This was a time for the GOP, to which their support from their party membership, voters and supporters depends, at an attempt to entice a game of chicken to bring down government in every conceivable way but it was not to be; Kevin McCarthy relinquished a lot of his bargaining power by giving in to every single demand the Democrats wanted and the little victories that were proclaimed turned out to be rather disappointing to everyone involved.

While Conservatives did not get everything that they wanted or anything that they wanted, why shouldn’t we just accept whatever the Democrats and the Establishment GOP want? Because de ja vu appears to be happening again and again and as Einstein once said, “Madness is repeating the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” so maybe the new strategic thinking we need is to try another tactic and having the ability of walking away from the negotiating table if the Democrats don’t play ball, they were certainly willing to not talk to the GOP for 100 days while the Debt Ceiling limit was beginning to reach boiling point.

If the GOP repeat themselves with the same tactics, then Government will continue to grow, and the people become less free and will have less avenues for freedom. Some might say that there will be consequences to a debt default like interest payments going up, but this is going to happen anyway; Debt will continue to grow, Government will continue to grow, and they will find more reasons why they should grow until everything collapses in on its own weight.

We need to stand firm and let the debt default as the strategy not just because we wish to see government shrink but because it will show we are serious for future negotiations because there is beginning to be a thought within the Democratic party that the GOP aren’t serious about cutting government down to size and will eventually cave if they wait long enough, but this has to change because the GOP representatives are not seen as people who will stick by what they say when it comes down to it.

To be fair to McCarthy, he did come to a deal with the Freedom Caucus and was for the most part able to unite the party behind a set of proposals which passed in the House, but it all now seems rather pointless if the only reason he made the deal after many votes was to become speaker instead of being a unifying figure.

Now of course this is not to say that we should let the Debt Default indefinitely but a week or two would be better than nothing. Once the Democrats realize that the GOP are willing to stick to their word, they will be more willing to compromise on future Debt Deals but of course this is more to set up themselves for future negotiations than whatever one they are currently under. If something does not change soon, the debt will be at a point where it will never get repaid and once the collapse happens, a little wake up call to the politicians would have been the least of their worries. So, while this might not be the perfect solution, it might be the only one available to us before it is too late but only time will tell.