Are half of House Republicans really willing to let the U.S. default?
Economic suicide is a real option for scores of lawmakers, says Politico
Unless Congress acts, the U.S. will run out of money to pay its bills in late February or March — at which point, economic chaos would (at least theoretically) break loose. And yet, more than half of Republicans in the House are willing to allow such a catastrophe as a way of forcing President Obama to agree to steep spending cuts, according to Politico:
These lawmakers appear to be severely underestimating the fallout from a default. The U.S.'s budget deficit — mainly driven by entitlement programs, and exacerbated in recent years by the Great Recession, the Bush tax cuts, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — is indeed too big, but the deficit's short-term impact on the economy has so far been negligible, and pales in comparison to what would happen under default. Matthew O'Brien at The Atlantic explains:
House Republicans are demanding a "dollar-for-dollar decrease in spending in the time period covered by the debt increase," reports Politico. That means a $1 trillion increase in the ceiling would, in an ideal House GOP world, result in $1 trillion in spending cuts — right now. Even some conservative writers are baffled by this suggestion. As Conn Carroll at The Washington Examiner writes:
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If the House GOP really is as adamant as Politico reports, the Obama administration's best hope may be to negotiate a deal with Republicans in the Senate, and shame the House into allowing the bill to come to the floor. Or perhaps the White House may want to reconsider its decision to take the $1 trillion coin off the table.
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Ryu Spaeth is deputy editor at TheWeek.com. Follow him on Twitter.
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