Responding to letter writer Rennick Heatwole’s concerns, the problem with “the stalemate in Congress over the debt ceiling” in October is not whether we’ll ever “get out of the extraordinary debt that we owe” — God help us if we ever try to pay off the national debt — but rather whether we’re going to pay our bills by honoring the debts we’ve already run up.Our government controls its own currency so — given the political will — can always pay its bills. But Republicans seem willing to crash our economy in order to make Democrats look bad and take power.
I wonder if Mr. Heatwole was equally concerned when former President Donald Trump pushed through a nearly two-trillion dollar tax cut for the rich? What about the huge Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003? They were advertised as “paying for themselves” by generating more revenue, but no, they just generated more debt and more income inequality.
Current Democratic bills, on the contrary, will reduce inequality while, in fact, generating increased productivity through both physical and social infrastructure. Our national debt will thus shrink as a percentage of GDP, which is the only measure that matters.
But some national debt acts as lubricant, helping the economy to run smoothly.
Every time our government has ever tried to pay it down, the economy has crashed, because reduced government spending (in order to run a revenue surplus) sucked out demand. while those who wanted to hold financial assets — government bonds — cut back on spending too. That’s a recipe for disaster. Let’s not repeat it.
— Rick Wicks
Anchorage
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