Introduction
The U.S. has hit the debt ceiling, meaning that “the total amount of money that the United States government is authorized to borrow to meet its existing legal obligations, including Social Security and Medicare benefits, military salaries, interest on the national debt, tax refunds, and other payments.” In Congress, there are disagreements over federal spending and what to do about the debt ceiling, leading to concerns that the limit may not be raised in time for the government to make required payments.
Campus Conservative, Marisa Powers
With the United States debt currently at $31.4 trillion and the debt ceiling needing to be raised again after the last time in 2021, I think it is important to question why. Since Biden has been in office, the debt has increased by $6 trillion. He has advocated for large spending policies such as $500 billion in tax cuts, $370 billion for a bipartisan infrastructure law, $80 billion to increase the size of the IRS, the Inflation Reduction Act, and more. These policies have added to the deficit and increased the debt, thus causing the ceiling to need to be raised again.
President Biden wants to raise the debt ceiling without any limits on spending, but the Republicans are proposing spending cuts. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy stated, “Defaulting on our debt is not an option, but neither is a future of higher taxes, higher interest rates and an economy that doesn’t work.” Biden will only discuss cutting spending after the debt ceiling is raised, but some Republicans will not agree to raise it until the Democrats agree to cut spending. Both sides need to find a way to work together as their partisan arguing only affects the American economy and people negatively.
While I agree that the debt ceiling should be raised in order to avoid the risk of recession, I side with the Republicans in their desire for spending cuts as we should not spend billions of dollars on certain policies and bills that cause more debt than solutions.
Campus Liberal, Tasha Khosla
The debt ceiling debate should not be weaponized and instead should be raised as soon as possible to prevent having to default on debt. However, in the future, more reform should go into government spending in order to responsibly control just how much money the U.S. government is borrowing.
Back in 2011, Senator Mitch McConnell devised a plan called the Budget Control Act which “allowed Obama to raise the debt ceiling on his own while allowing Congress to pass a joint resolution to override that action if two-thirds of lawmakers wished to. They said this allowed Congress to continue to have oversight over raising the debt ceiling but prevented it from being used as a political tool.” While this plan did have its flaws, the idea still stands strong today.
Weaponizing the debt ceiling by threatening cuts to social security and other beneficial programs does nothing good for the Americans who rely on these programs. As McConnell explained in 2011, “If we’re unable to come together, we think it’s extremely important that the country reassure the markets that default is not an option, and reassure Social Security recipients and families of military veterans that default is not an option.”
Still, it is important to acknowledge the harm raising the debt ceiling inflicts as it causes interest rates to increase and therefore inflation to increase, thus hurting American households in the long run. The U.S. needs long-term reforms on government spending for this reason, especially to bring down the national debt. But for now, raising the debt ceiling is critical before the U.S. can move forward.
Conclusion
Both sides agree that the debt ceiling needs to be raised and that government spending should be reformed.
