With any luck, by the time this is published, the debt ceiling crisis will be behind us, for now. But I felt compelled to answer Angelo Branch (“Lack of leadership creates fiasco,” Our Readers’ Views, May 27). Paraphrasing his solution paragraph, he said Joe Biden should give in to the demands of the GOP and the GOP, in response, would raise the debt ceiling.
Why should the president give in to the demands of self-described hostage-takers in order for them to do their 14th Amendment, Section 8 constitutional duty, something they managed to do regularly without complaint before now?
The debt ceiling is not negotiable, as is the budget — it is the bill for money already allocated and appropriated from previous budgets. You don’t negotiate with your credit card company when your bill comes due — you pay at least a minimal amount or default on your obligations, thereby losing some of your borrowing power.
The GOP is wrong to suggest that spending is the problem. The deep tax cuts beginning in the 1980s, which were supposed to increase revenue and pay for themselves, severely reduced federal revenue for programs that Americans want and support. Not both sides — The Greedy Oligarch Procurers are the problem.
