House Republicans, now being led by new Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, are holding tight to the commitment they made concerning the reduction of spending before resorting to an increase of the federal debt limit. Which is exactly what should be done. Unfortunately, the progressives within the Democratic Party want to go beyond having a safety net for folks in this country and want to provide them with care from cradle-to-the-grave.
This sounds good in theory. I mean, you’d be a heartless individual if you didn’t want to see folks have their needs met. But, unfortunately, having an expansive welfare system does not work. First off, such a system means a massive increase in taxation, which is a deterrent to working hard and creating new companies and jobs, as the more you make, the more the government takes. Not only does this obliterate economic opportunity, but a system like this also creates dependence, which means there’s no real reason for someone to apply themselves and use their skills, abilities, and talents, since they can just participate in welfare programs. That kills off society’s advancement in every area.
According to The Daily Wire, “On Friday, in a letter to McCarthy, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Congress not to block the raising of the federal debt limit, claiming that increasing the debt limit ‘does not authorize new spending commitments or cost taxpayers money.'”
“But on Sunday, the chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, Republican James Comer of Kentucky, stated on CNN’s State of the Union, ‘We hope that the Senate, Democrats and Republicans will agree to spending cuts. Look, this has to stop,'” the report continued.
“We cannot continue to operate with these types of deficits,” he added. “Our national debt is one of our biggest threats to our national security. China continues to have leverage over us because of the basic financial strength of their overall economy vs. ours with respect to the national debt.”
“Republicans were elected with a mandate from the American people in the midterm elections,” Comer proclaimed. “We campaigned on the fact that we were going to be serious about spending cuts. So, the Senate is going to have to recognize the fact that we’re not going to budge until we see meaningful reform with respect to spending.”
Texas Republican Tony Gonzales, talking with the hosts of “Fox News Sunday,” said that, “The debt ceiling is no doubt going to be a knife fight.”
“We don’t want to put any fiscal problems through our economy, and we won’t,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy went on to state last week. “But fiscal problems would be continuing to do business as usual. I remembered when Trump was President and Nancy Pelosi was Speaker that became a debt ceiling agreement, and it was a cap agreement for two years, to cap the spending and make those decisions.”
“This is something that people have utilized,” he added. “But I ask all of you and all Americans if you have a child and you give them a credit card and they spend the limit, so you increase the limit again and again and again, when does it end? We’ve got to change the way we are spending money wastefully in this country, and we’re going to make sure that happens.”
McCarthy finished up by saying, “To get a debt ceiling, they also got a cap on spending for the next two years. Spending is out of control here. There’s been no oversight, and we cannot continue around the same process.”
There is a lot of waste spending within our government that could be shaved off, making a dramatic difference in our ability to provide funding to the things that really matter. We should also consider a drastic reduction in the salary that politicians are making. Public service was never designed to be a high-paying career. The face that salaries have swelled so high are one of the reasons so many greedy, corrupt individuals run for office.
We could certainly use fewer of those individuals, especially if we want to actually preserve the foundations our country was founded on.