Column: Ridiculous GOP Debt Ceiling Threat

For years now, I’ve been told that the old consensus of fiscal conservatism and limited government is dead. So, you might think I’m thrilled by the sudden resurgence of tea party-style budget-cutting zeal, manifesting itself in the Republican Party’s balancing act on the brink of a debt ceiling.

Not so much.

I’ll get into the fight for the debt ceiling, but first let’s look at Mitch Daniels, the former governor of Indiana who is rumored to be considering running for the Senate in 2024.

Daniels was probably the most successful and dexterous budget divider our lives, both as governor and as president of Purdue University.

When Daniels left his job at Eli Lilly to become governor in 2005, Indiana was suffering from debt and deficit. He left the state with a three A credit rating and a $2 billion rainy day fund. When he took over Purdue, the school raised tuition every year for 36 consecutive years. He froze tuition at less than $10,000 for ten years while increasing income. This was during an era of skyrocketing public university tuition fees (134% since 2003).

But last week Club for growth who positions himself as a leading advocate for limited government and economic conservatism, attacked him for even considering running for the Senate. “After 50 years of big government, big pharmaceuticals, and big academies, Mitch Daniels has forgotten how to fight.” the group said in the ad.

I think it depends on what you mean by wrestling.

For trumped-up institutions like the Growth Club, wrestling is defined as performative pugnacity. The Liberty House caucus, tail wagging the dog at conference speaker Kevin McCarthy, a Republican, is such an institution.

In his race for the Speakership, McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) reportedly committed to detaining increase to the debt ceiling in exchange for spending cuts from the Democrats. deadline this week. If the limit is not raised, the government will start running out of cash and the prospect of a debt default will shake the US and global economy.

“If you had a kid and you gave him a credit card and he kept hitting the limit, you wouldn’t just keep pushing it up.” — McCarthy said on Sunday. “You should first look at what you spend money on. How can we cut elements?

Sounds right, and I’d be happy if the GOP gambit succeeds. But the first problem with the analogy is that you still have to pay your credit card bill with money you’ve already spent. The time to cut costs is when you spend. The second problem is that the gambit isn’t really about spending.

Republicans are right! – opposed the massive lame duck of the Democrats $1.7 trillion omnibus account for the last month. But every year of the Trump presidency, Republicans have approved over a trillion dollars in consolidated spending bills. And that’s not counting all those lavish COVID spending. He paid for the MAGA agenda with America’s credit card.

It appears that these new deficit hawks don’t mind increasing debt, they just want to be the ones doing it.

In 2021, Mick Mulvaney, one of the founders of the House Freedom faction, explained in an interview real motives of the group. Early in his presidency, Trump worried that the Freedom Caucus would become a thorn in his side. But Mulvaney, Trump’s former acting chief of staff, said he told Trump the group was actually his base because “at its core, the Freedom Caucus is anti-establishment.”

According to Mulvaney, the Liberty Caucus moved away from financial conservatism because with Trump in office, “the Liberty Caucus sort of moved forward and focused on Fox News” and “they realized there’s a lot more energy behind psychos than sanity.”

In other words, when financial conservatism is rebellious and destructive, they will put on their green eyeshadow. But when one of their leaders is in power, a credit card is opened.

This anti-establishment spirit was full display in McCarthy’s race for Speaker of the House of Representatives, and this explains the fierce opposition to aid to Ukraine. But there has also come a definition of what it means to be a Conservative in good standing among many mainstream constituencies, as well as small and large donors and the organizations that rely on them.

The insurrectionary spirit of the New Left of the 1960s, which saw pragmatic progress as evidence of a “sale”, is alive and well in the New Right of the 2020s.

In this climate, the real rebels will be people like Mitch Daniels who really want to achieve something.

@JonahDispatch