Stop the Debt Ceiling Scare Tactics

To quote the famous Yogi Berra, “it’s like déjà vu all over again” with the battle over ceremonially raising the debt ceiling.

According to the elected officials of our great nation, we must saddle our children and grandchildren with another couple trillion dollars of debt in order to protect them. This logic seems flawed.  

In the coming week, we will see how the genius of Washington will save the American people from another crisis–a crisis that will bring Apocalypse 2.0, if the talking heads are to be believed. Markets will crash, 401(k) plans will be wiped out, a huge recession will ensue, and cats will be sleeping with dogs. It will be horrible!

But will it?

On Fox News last week, I discussed how we are being fed a line akin to being offered oceanfront property in Arizona. We have been fed this same line for years now. We got it in 2008 to approve the TARP and again in 2011 with the doom-filled sequester.  

Did we suffer greatly?

Fact is, the markets came through just fine after the sequester, hitting all-time highs. The TARP was fully paid back, allegedly, with profit from banks who never wanted the money in the first place. Those same banks are now booking record profits. Yes, growth is anemic and employment is weak, but we seem to get through these frightening scenarios each time.

We need an adult to take a stand in D.C. and tell the truth. We need to stop raising the debt ceiling and learn to live on the nearly $3 trillion in tax revenues the Leviathan currently confiscates from the public.

That same adult needs to treat all Americans like fellow adults and fess up about Social Security. He or she must admit there were lies told. That the “lock box” was never locked. That the money has long ago been spent. Yes, many Americans paid in who will never see a dime.

This rings true for all entitlement programs: Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, etc. These programs simply aren’t sustainable. Without reform, these programs will implode, leaving our descendants with the burden. It isn’t right. It isn’t fair. But it’s the reality.

How many more times will we rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic until we see whether free markets sink or swim under a constitutional republic? That principle, after all, is what our founders sought and established in the Constitution. And it worked extremely well until 1912 when Woodrow Wilson, our first openly progressive, took office. Within a year, he had passed the 16th amendment, requiring income taxes–a measure found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court repeatedly. He also formed the unconstitutional Federal Reserve bank and set America on a course exactly opposite of the founders’.

Central banks and a government infused with massive amounts of cash set out to make America a better country. And they may have been able to, had corrupt politicians not gotten greedy and catered to those who want every handout available without giving anything in return.

After 100 years of Progressivism, will we finally admit this approach doesn’t work? Will we come to terms with the fact that the founders had it right?

Being honest with the public and stopping the increase in the ceiling will be painful. However, if we want a better future for our children, the time has come to go through the necessary pain to right the ship and get back on course.

If the fear merchants in D.C. plan to scare us into action every time there is a crisis, I say let it break now. If we really care about the children, we have the power to clean it up for them.

It is time to face the music. And we will see the fear mongers are wrong. We will not meet an untimely demise. Blood will not be running in the streets. Chaos will not rule the day. We can fix this very fixable problem. We just need the politicians to step out of the way.

If for no other reason, let’s truly do it for the children and grandchildren–those who don’t deserve to be handed a country, for the first time in our history, worse off than the one handed to their ancestors.