The Democrats are going to vote against raising the debt ceiling, but enough Republicans are going to vote for it. They shouldn’t raise the debt ceiling, but they will, explains Lew Rockwell, editor of LewRockwell.com.
The US Congress is expected to vote to raise the debt ceiling, prompting a possible stand-off between the parties which could end in a government shutdown.
RT spoke to Lew Rockwell, editor of LewRockwell.com, to discuss the ramifications of increasing the debt ceiling.
RT: Thursday is the deadline to raise the government's debt limit so it can pay its bills and avoid a potentially devastating looming economic crisis. What are the chances the deadline will be extended?
Lew Rockwell: Unfortunately, I think the debt ceiling will be raised. I would like to see it not raised because if it weren’t raised there would be two choices: the government could go bankrupt, and I would say that is morally and economically a great idea. The government couldn’t borrow any more money, for example, which should be a great thing for the American people. The other alternative would be for President Trump to say: “Well, I am going have to cut the federal budget by a massive amount," and boy, do we need that. So, all federal spending is out of hand. It would be a great thing. This is not going to happen. The Democrats are going to vote against raising it, but unfortunately, enough Republicans are going to vote for it. They will raise the debt ceiling. This is just a dog and pony show really signifying nothing. It just signifies more spending, more trouble for the American economy and I would argue for the world economy with the federal debt zooming up. There is a lot of publicity about this, a lot of angst or at least seeming angst, but unfortunately, they are going to raise the debt ceiling.
RT: Critics claim the debt issue is overlooked and rather used as political leverage. What do you make of that? Do you agree?
LR: Sure, of course, it is. And in fact, I don’t want to hurt anybody’s civics class conception of the American government, every single thing they do was done for political purposes. There is never anything was done that is not a 100 percent political. Yes, this is political, it is grandstanding. It is the typical baloney, but tragically they are going to raise the debt ceiling. They are going to borrow more money, and we are going to continue down an economic hole. They shouldn’t raise the debt ceiling; they will raise the debt ceiling.
RT: A few years ago, the Democrats were outraged when debt ceilings were used against Obama, and now it seems that they are using the same tactic against Trump. Would it work? What reaction should we expect from the new President?
LR: It is absolutely true that Obama was a debtoholic. He did many evil things, all the spying and so forth, including of Trump. He ran up more debt than all the other presidents put together. What is Trump going to do? I hope he is going to be better. I do notice that since Trump came into office, the debt has decreased by $60 billion. I would say that Trump can’t be worse than Obama, maybe he will be better. I am sure he will be better than Hillary would have been. But I must say, I don’t expect much. I would love to see a real crisis where the government is forced to cut its spending...
It’s another way for them to spend and waste money, do damage, kill people. What’s all the stuff they spend on? More bombs, more cruise missiles, more bombers, more bullets. So they are paying attention to killing people.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.