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“But the first big task for the new Congress will be to avert yet another trumped-up disaster. The slash-and-burn budget cuts that would have taken effect Jan. 1 were delayed by only two months. This means we will soon be going back into sky-is-falling crisis mode — at the same time as we’re bumping up against the federal debt ceiling, which must be raised to avoid default. So before winter ends, our leaders will be at it again. Almost everyone, liberal and conservative, agrees that some spending cuts are needed but that they should never be imposed in such a ham-fisted, indiscriminate way; doing so would unnecessarily curtail needed programs, cause great hardship and gratuitously harm the economy. Almost everyone, liberal and conservative, agrees that failing to raise the debt ceiling — which would mean refusing to pay for spending that Congress has already approved — is unthinkable; such a move would throw the world’s financial system into chaos and potentially cause a global recession. Everyone knows these things. Everyone knows it’s time to stop the foolishness and get serious.”
- Eugene Robinson, Washington Post, 1/3/13 |
