On August 3, 2011, I sent one of a life-long series of such letters to my US Representatives and Senators which they are duty-bound to accept. This one was to Senator Mitch McConnell in the wake of the bi-partisan agreement to once again raise the national debt ceiling. I meant what I said then, and I mean it now. Republicans were banking on 2012, and it didn't work out well for us. This letter, along with my previous post, really sets the framework for the next blog posts which will lay out some thoughts on the pending "fiscal cliff".
Senator McConnell,
I’m extremely frustrated, but not surprised at this debt ceiling compromise.
Yes, I understand that Republicans don’t control the Senate or the White House. I understand that it was probably the best bill you could get. What I don’t understand is why you settled for a bill raising the debt ceiling at all. I know I’m not there in your shoes, facing all the heat and looking at all the doomsday scenarios. I know you fear what President Obama would do if we didn’t extend the debt ceiling, and that Republicans would be tarred and feathered with the outcome. I say “so be it”! I do not believe we should have raised the debt ceiling.
It’s time to put on our big boy pants and make some really tough calls. Not raising the debt ceiling would have forced some decisions we can’t seem to make any other way. It would have been a de facto balanced budget amendment of sorts. It would have been better than this compromise. But you will say, “Mr. Wilson, you just don’t understand the social and economic upheaval coming if we defaulted on our debt and the chaos we would experience”. You’re right – I don’t fully understand it, and you don’t either. But upheaval IS coming, and you all have to know it. We can keep delaying action by just giving this kind of a pittance of a reduction to buy time and try to figure something out. We can try to inflate our way out (which I am fully convinced we will do) and let our creditors take it on the chin, but they will quickly quit loaning to us and we’ll be right back to where we are now except worse. We’ll not have enough money to pay our bills, AND we’ll have inflated our economy to the point where Americans are now dealing with the higher prices of everything.
I know you’re banking everything on 2012. But we banked on 2004 and 2008 and 2010. It seems to me that Republicans are willing to be complicit in slow, inevitable, irreversible financial death, rather than take a chance (and it is a chance at this point) on a systemic shock (no more debt, live within revenue) that might have a chance at fixing this mess. It just isn’t that complicated to me. I work for one of the largest corporations in the world. When we have a revenue shortfall, we have a corresponding spending cut. It’s automatic, it’s painful, and it works. Take away the money and people will find other ways to operate. That’s just the way it works. If they don’t find a way to operate, it may not have been that important anyway.
The tea partiers and freshmen have put a real scare and frustration into Washington. At least they had some impact on this debate. Based on what I see, I think it’s time to work more incumbents who are satisfied with business as usual out until we get some conservatives who are willing to stand, live and die (politically) by their principles.
Mark W. Wilson, P.E.
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