Biden, McCarthy commit to more debt
The debt ceiling deal struck over the weekend by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy isn't much of a deal for the American people.
While both pat themselves on the back for an agreement they claim will avert an economic crisis, the reality is all they've done is preserve the fiscally unsustainable status quo of the last two decades.
“I've now reviewed the bill text of the debt ceiling `deal,' and it's actually worse than I imagined,” opined former Libertarian Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan on Twitter. “It locks in the inflated spending levels of recent years. Under McCarthy's `deal,' any incentive to cut spending for the rest of this term vanishes. Until January 2, 2025, the Treasury will now have unlimited authority to issue debt to finance commitments requiring payment. It's the ultimate kick-the-candown-the-road agreement.”
To Amash's point, Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado notes that under this deal forced by the supposedly conservative McCarthy, the federal government debt will certainly reach $35 trillion in two years.
Consider that the national debt was just under $20 trillion at the time President Donald Trump took office.
The profligate spending of the last decade especially cannot continue indefinitely.
There are real and harmful consequences to growing federal debt, as more and more money that could go to productive uses gets squandered on both frivolous spending as well as interest payments on the debt.
More debt means less economic growth. And as we have all seen, when the federal government is busy throwing around trillions of excess dollars, we all ultimately pay in the form of heightened inflation.
But the perhaps even bigger problem with runaway spending becoming the norm is that at no point do leaders in either party feel the need to constrain their visions or constrain what exactly the federal government does.
While it is seemingly quaint to say so even among Republicans, it is important to remember that the Founders envisioned a limited federal government. What they did not envision is the bloated Leviathan we have today, where the federal government assumes more and more power and more and more responsibility in our lives.
Bass's budgeted homeless initiative in Los Angeles
Re “Bass signs revised $13B budget for 2023-24” (May 27):
It's wonderful that Mayor Karen Bass is focusing on the homeless crisis so vigorously, but as a taxpayer, it's important to also focus on costs. Many of the homeless being housed have been put in motels with leaking pipes, mold and broken appliances.
As shown on a recent newscast, the rents for these hotel rooms ran $3,000 and $4,000 a month per room. Who is negotiating these rates and why are we trading tents for hovels? The other of the mayor's ideas is to buy the hotels. While a good idea, I hope they negotiate a good deal because they are still going to need to go in and make these apartments liveable. Costs matter.
FBI surveillance program
This letter will be very short and to the point. As opposed to what Patrick Eddington would have us believe, there is nothing seriously wrong with the FBI (May 28). In order to go along with his narrative, you have to have the same mindset that DeSantis and Trump have. DeSantis is simply appealing to a mass of uninformed people because he believes that works and Trump employs that narrative pure and simple because he is a criminal and the FBI should be focusing on him. I read most of your Opinion section every Sunday and, while there is some good information there, you do have writers who themselves are either very poorly informed or who simply have an agenda. I really don't know which of those possibilities is true and don't care.
Stossel, DeSantis and the COVID-19 pandemic
John Stossel, in his column (May 26) did try to do a balanced job, but he needed to spend more time challenging Florida Gov. DeSantis's argument that few public health restrictions during COVID resulted in a lower “excess mortality rate” than in California and New York. That's misleading. Excess mortality rate refers to death by any cause. Stossel should have looked at the actual deaths from COVID per 1 million population: Florida's rate is 4,111 per 1 million population; California is 2,601; New York is 3,990.
Could we conclude that public health restrictions save lives? See more factual evidence at many statistical websites, including worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us