After two years of Democrat President Joe Biden’s “leadership” – or lack thereof – the US might be rapidly hurtling towards a default, a ludicrous but possible scenario in which the government of the world’s largest and most sophisticated economy ever would be unable to pay its bills and debts.
According to the latest outlook released by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the nonpartisan body of the legislative branch watching out for the government’s finances, America may go bankrupt as early as July 2023.
That is because in January, the US government “hit the ceiling” for borrowing, which had previously been set at $31.4 trillion (TRILLION!) by the US Congress, and could borrow no more.
For the next few months, the nation’s government would subsist on “emergency measures” and adjustments by the Treasury Department. Still, for the US to survive financially, Congress must approve a new, higher borrowing limit – and do so fast.
When the National Debt Spiraled Out of Control
That is essentially what the good people of the United States get after one administration after another in the recent decades has had the nation live beyond its means – the government has been splurging on spending, paying out far more than it has been raising.
Stats show that the US national debt spiked tenfold in 30 years – from $3 trillion in 1990 to over $30 trillion in the early 2020s.
The nation’s fiscal situation seems to be swiftly growing unsustainable – the CBO’s new forecast is that in the next decade, the US would have to spend $10.4 trillion on debt interest payments alone. In May 2022, less than a year ago, the nonpartisan government watchdog had projected “only” $8 trillion in interest debt payments until the early 2030s.
There is plenty of “bipartisan” blame to go around in Washington, DC, over the mind-blowing heights the national debt has reached – as the GOP hasn’t steered sufficiently clear of making deficit spending.
Even so, the Republicans have been willing to tap that for national security, defense, and policing – the first more or less tangible debt spike was in the George W. Bush years after Islamist terrorists struck America’s heart on 9/11, with the ensuing war on terror in Afghanistan, Iraq, and worldwide.
It’s Been the Democrats, and They Show No Remorse
Nevertheless, when it comes to deficit spending, the Democrats, who have turned from more or less common-sense leftists to hardcore Marxist-Communist totalitarian progressivists since the 1990s, are the undisputed champions of the world.
In Barack Obama’s eight years in office, as this graph shows, the national debt practically doubled – from $10 trillion to $19.5 trillion – compared with a $4 trillion increase (from $6 to $10 trillion in the Bush years.
The Democrats’ splurge on taxpayer dollars’ spending has spiked by another $3.5 trillion in Biden’s first two years in office. Even though there was a $7 trillion increase under Donald Trump, that was largely due to the emergency response measures to the eruption of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.
As not just the fiscal “health” but the fiscal “survival” of the United States government is at stake at present, it is the Democrats who are showing no desire to take even remotely radical measures to slash deficit spending and restore financial soundness.
So much so that there has been a vile campaign of mainstream (that is, leftist) media attacks on the Republicans because they flat-out refuse to approve a blind, blanket debt ceiling increase that the Bidenflation Democrats are demanding eagerly.
Fortunately, last November, the American voter made sure that the GOP would win a majority in the US House of Representatives, which has put the Republicans in a position to extract spending cut concessions in what are shaping to be needlessly complex negotiations to up the borrowing limit over the next few months.
Default Is a Very Real Possibility
In its latest forecast, the Congressional Budget Office says the emergency accounting maneuvers of the Treasury Department may last the federal government through September – but if incoming tax revenues are off, the US faces an actual default in July.
There has been “an impasse” between the Republican House majority on the one side, and Biden’s White House and the Democrat Senate majority on the other regarding the debt limit raising, The Wall Street Journal states in a report.
It emphasizes that both the congressional Democrats and the Biden administration “have rejected the possibility” of even considering “spending cuts.”
The pork-barrel-loving lefties have declared that Congress should spike the ceiling – and that’s that! – no questions asked.
The WSJ article clarifies that the present standoff over the borrowing limit has already “heightened fears” over the real possibility of a default.
It also underscores that if America came to the point where it could pay its bills no more, that would shatter financial markets while wreaking “broader havoc” on the US as well as the entire world economy.
Guess Who’s Toying with America’s Future
With predictions of a major recession pouring for a while, with some claiming it has already arrived, a default could be devastating.
However, even just the fiscal “brinkmanship” of the Commie Democrat dead-enders before a last-minute deal could be detrimental enough to the embattled US economy and a growing share of American families who are financially insecure.
After all, such scenarios would come on top of the “boon” of the economic bust the nation has already endured in the first two years since Biden occupied the White House.
With the sky-high inflation, an energy crisis, a supply chain crisis, a lingering COVID pandemic, a labor shortage fueled by Democrat handouts, and all the other recent “niceties,” it’s no accident that one hears terms like “Bidenflation” and “Empty Shelves Joe.”
In a previous fiscal standoff, back in 2011, the US saw a shameful development when for the first time ever, the Standard & Poor’s agency took away its AAA credit rating.
Dems Get Schooled. But Would It Be Enough?
President Joe Biden doesn’t seem to be letting up – he is showing no desire for moderation or fiscal common sense. After, in his State of the Union address, he tried to make it seem as though the GOP wanted to abolish Medicare and Social Security, in a speech on February 15, he launched further attacks at the Republicans.
Biden claimed the GOP wanted to “take the economy hostage” and had “no business playing politics” with Americans’ lives and the nation’s “full faith and credit.” That’s a bizarre accusation from the man who may be pawning America’s future in exchange for a few trillion in extra spending while in office.
The new GOP Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, reacted on Twitter by stating the obvious: a “blank check” to allow the Democrats “more spending” would “destroy our country.” McCarthy insisted on negotiating a “responsible debt limit increase,” which would put the “fiscal house back in order.”
Perhaps the most damning characterization of the Democrats’ dystopian push for unbridled spending came from Phillip Swagel, the director of that nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Of course, Swagel didn’t mention Joe Biden or the Democrats, but he was undoubtedly speaking to those eager for unrestricted government spending:
“The fiscal trajectory is unsustainable.”
The CBO chief didn’t stop there, though:
“We have a Wile E. Coyote moment.”
“It’s unsustainable.”
He may as well have said that “we have a Joe R. Biden moment.”
That says the same – but scarier.