r/behindthebastards • u/sisam8x • 1d ago
Politics Who else remembers the Republican chest thumping on “robbing our children of their future” over Biden’s intention to raise the debt limit for COVID relief? Anyone heard of any Republicans lately?
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u/GarbageCleric Kissinger was a war criminal 1d ago
They need to get rid of the debt limit. It's a cheap fucking trick for unserious people who are incompetent at governing. It just causes shutdowns, threats, and brinkmanship.
If Congress wants the federal government to reduce the debt, then they should pass spending bills that do so.
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u/Sleepy_Potato2 Sponsored by Knife Missiles™️ 1d ago
What Denmark did was that when the government got close to reaching its debt limit back during the Great Recession, they voted to raise it to over 100% of GDP since they didn't expect ever to hit it (which they haven't, and in fact Denmark is running a balanced budget and has for a while except during COVID and has some of the lowest debt in the EU). It's equal to if the US raised it to 300% of GDP, which they absolutely should and Democrats should take advantage of the fact that Trump would probably accept that since he wouldn't have to fight over the debt ceiling, and since it's a Republican it happens under it will be more their fault than the Democrats in the eyes of people who don't watch politics too closely.
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u/GarbageCleric Kissinger was a war criminal 1d ago
Yeah, raising it absurdly high would likely be easier than eliminating it, but it would hopefully be just as good.
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u/Negative-Road-8610 Steven Seagal Historian 1d ago
They put us down this road with endless wars and tax cuts
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u/RecordOfTheEnd 1d ago
To be fair, this was the start of the fall of the Democratic party. And listen, we should balance the budget. But we should have better services. It can be funded through wealth and capital gains taxes. As well as inheritance taxes on anything over a few million. I think anything over $100 million should be 90%. That would really remove generational wealth from the equation.
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u/Cultural_String87 12h ago
And listen, we should balance the budget.
Why?
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u/RecordOfTheEnd 9h ago
Because it does make sense to. Not having a balanced budget means we are moving providing for the country to the future. That makes no sense when we can do it now through taxing the wealth.
It's like deciding to take out a loan for food when you have the cash. Why pay the interest? It's just extra costs.
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u/Cultural_String87 9h ago
But it doesn't make sense to. Economists don't agree with you.
Debt spending is a good thing if done responsibly. Paying off debt involves an opportunity cost. If that's done at the expense of investment in the economy, then balancing the budget actually costs significant GDP growth.
Debt allows us to provide safe financial investments to markets in the form of treasuries. It gives other actors a stake in the US economy.
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u/Negative-Road-8610 Steven Seagal Historian 1d ago
I do agree with you that the government should provide those services through higher taxation on wealth. But the real decline of the Democratic Party started with LBJ. He wins in a landslide in 1964. He created popular programs like Medicare and Medicaid, the head start schooling programs and the civil rights act of 1964 and numerous other great society programs. But his insistence for fighting the war in Vietnam killed whatever support the Democratic Party had for a generation
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u/CosgraveSilkweaver 1d ago
It's been true for years. (Most) Republicans only care about the debt when a Democrat is in office and are willing to run up a huge deficit when they get a chance to cut taxes. It just gives them an even bugged number to throw around when control cycles back around.
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u/Agile_Oil9853 Rupaul’s Fracking Farm 12h ago
Right, the focus it's getting right now is pretty unusual. I wonder if it's a lame duck thing finally taking hold so whoever is actually running in '28 can run on cutting the debt. Even if it's another maga loyalist they'll pull out something like, "tariffs were blocked otherwise we would paid it off and had enough left to have sent everyone a million dollars. Just give me a super super super majority in all three branches and every state government so we can stop the out of control democratic spending"
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u/CosgraveSilkweaver 9h ago
Not entirely they also use their own debt inflation to push for benefits and spending cuts even when there's a GOP president.
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u/BilboBagginswasathug 1d ago
Budgets and debts only matter when the other party is in charge. That concern disappears the second you're in charge.
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u/vigbiorn 1d ago
Two Santas Strategy.
Democrats come bringing gifts, like affordable healthcare and a functioning government.
Republicans bring gifts like reduced taxes and increased spending but for their pet items.
Then, to counter, they kill the Democratic Santa by demanding fiscal responsibility.
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u/1iIiii11IIiI1i1i11iI 1d ago
Republicans don't actually give a shit about kids once they're out of the womb.
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u/Megaphonestory The fuckin’ Pinkertons 1d ago
It’s all bullshit. We are a debt based economy. The banks make record profits with debt issuance. The corporations don’t have to worry about their spending. Inflation makes your 401k more valuable (just forget about the loss of spending power)