Congress needs debt ceiling to check spending

Eliminating the debt ceiling, as President Donald Trump and congressional Democrats want to do, avoids critical conversations about spending, columnist Chris Tomlinson writes.

Politicians love to spend money on pet projects, but they hate taxing people to pay for them.

Elected officials from all parties fear revealing how much financing government really costs. That’s why they love government bonds, because issuing debt passes the buck to future generations.

The federal government alone has run up $19 trillion in debt, or about $165,000 per taxpayer. State and local governments have run up an additional $3 billion in debt, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Every penny of this debt was authorized by elected officials, and since the birth of our nation, congressional approval has been required before the federal government could borrow more money.

Now comes word that President Donald Trump and congressional Democrats want to remove the only brake on this financial lunacy. The Washington Post reported last week that Trump and Democratic leaders Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi plan to repeal the debt ceiling, taking away the requirement that lawmakers publicly acknowledge their fiscal irresponsibility.

Last week’s vote to finance the

government through December is typical of the parliamentary shenanigans used to avoid meaningful debate on our national debt.

Seizing on the crises created by two catastrophic hurricanes, Congress voted Friday to give $15 billion to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and it tucked into that bill authority for the Treasury Department to increase borrowing.

Fiscal conservatives, desperate for every chance to slow the federal debt, winced.

“I am not against voting for relief programs to help hurricane victims, but I am against raising the public debt ceiling without a plan to reduce deficits in the short term, and eliminate them in the long term,” Rep. Joe Barton, R-Arlington, said in explaining his vote against the bill. “We have yet again missed an opportunity for substantial reforms and reduced spending.”

Trump’s deal with Democrats would permanently eliminate those opportunities.

Democrats have long wanted to repeal the debt ceiling because Republicans correctly use it to highlight reckless spending and demand budget cuts. Though sometimes the impasses can get out of hand, such as the government shutdown in October 2013, these debates are important.

Democrats argue that the debt ceiling should rise automatically whenever Congress passes a budget. If Congress authorized the spending, after all, shouldn’t that empower the Treasury Department to pay the bills, even if it means issuing debt?

Republicans argue that lawmakers get so excited about passing a spending bill that they often exaggerate revenue forecasts in order to take money back to their district. Voting on a debt ceiling forces lawmakers to face facts when revenues don’t cover liabilities.

Trump’s readiness to break with his party on the debt ceiling reveals his long-term strategy to pass his spending and tax priorities.

Trump is traveling the country touting a tax plan the public has yet to see. But in general terms, he has promised $1 trillion in tax cuts for corporations as well as reduced rates for middle- and low-income Americans.

Any tax cuts will create budget deficits that will need to be financed with debt.

Administration officials have also promised $1 trillion in infrastructure spending to boost employment and economic growth. Trump’s economic team claims that his policies will boost U.S. GDP growth to more than 3 percent, which would offset the lost tax revenue and increased spending.

Most reasonable economists, though, consider that impossible because the U.S. has an aging population and slowing population growth, both of which dramatically impede economic growth. Since the odds are that Trump’s economic growth figures are too rosy, the debt ceiling is even more important, giving lawmakers a chance to adjust spending as necessary.

Trump, though, wants to avoid any embarrassing confrontations with fiscal conservatives if the federal debt explodes, which is why he wants to eliminate the need for congressional authorization to raise more debt.

Tax-and-spend politics are bad, but borrow-and-spend is worse. While we have some control over whether our lawmakers raise taxes, our children and grandchildren don’t get a vote on whether we burden them with debt.

Over the long run, huge government debt takes cash out of the economy and drives up interest rates, slowing economic growth and hurting private enterprise.

To protect the U.S. economy, Republicans need to nip plans to eliminate the debt ceiling the bud and then get to work balancing the federal budget.

Americans need to learn to live within our means. If we want to maintain the current level of benefits and services, we need to pay more in taxes. If we want to pay less taxes, we need to cut government programs.

Adding more to the debt is shameful. Lifting the brake on borrowing is reckless.