Our Unserious Congress

William YeatmanAfter midnight on July 31st, the federal government reached the$28.5 trillion debt limit, which is the amount of money Congress allows the Treasury Department to borrow to keep the government running. Since then, Treasury has relied on bookkeeping gimmicks —known in bureaucratese as “extraordinary measures”—to shuffle existing funds and thereby keep the government fiscally afloat. These extraordinary measures, however, are a stopgap. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen yesterdayestimated that incoming receipts will be insufficient to pay daily obligations sometime “during the month of October.”In two ways, this news is scary.First, the debt,per se, is disconcerting, as it amounts to almost $231,000 for everyhousehold in America. Inpriorposts, my colleague Chris Edwards has explained why we should all be concerned about the ballooning balance on our country ’s credit card.Second, the federal government would roil financial markets if it started defaulting on its obligations. Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan,testified that this would engender a “cascading catastrophe of unbelievable proportions.” Moody’s warned of a “fiscal Armageddon. ”If the debt limit news is scary, then Congress ’s response has been downright terrifying.Ten days after exceeding the debt limit, the Senatepassed the Infrastructure Improvement and Jobs Act, including $500 billion ofnew spending on roads, broadband, and the electric grid. Because this spending isn ’t...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs