Tag Archives: Debt Ceiling deal

A Realistic Look At The Debt Ceiling Bill

Posted on by

I am not a regular reader of substack, but there is an awful lot of really good content there. One of my favorite contributors is Florida lawyer Robert DuChemin, Sr. On Thursday, Attorney DuChemin posted an article about the agreement reached and passed by Congress on the debt ceiling. The article presents a very realistic view of the bill.

The article states:

I am quite disappointed in the way many Republicans are discussing the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023. It was a GOP win. Period. If one is playing a football game and your guy kicks a field goal with three seconds remaining to win the game, you won. The fact that you threw four interceptions and should have won by much more doesn’t really matter at that point. You won.

FSU blew a 14-point, fourth-quarter lead against LSU last year. Yet we still cheered when FSU blocked the tying PAT with no time remaining for the win.

…And this was actually a very big victory. It is the first time in history where Congress has retrieved funds, any funds, that it previously had appropriated. Among the funds recovered was a $400 million gift to the National Institutes of Health to fund more “gain-of-function” research. Yes, that is the same research that brought us the Wuhan Flu (Covid-19 to the wokies) and caused Russia to invade Ukraine after they discovered we were doing the same thing on their border.

The same goes for the reduction in the IRS funding. I will admit it is not as much money as I wanted but is sufficient to terminate China Joe‘s plans to expand the IRS this year. When next year‘s appropriation comes up, the GOP can simply cut out more.

Although future guarantees are like frosting on the cake, they are worthless. If the federal government had a nickel for every time a politician went back on their promise, we wouldn’t be in this situation because the federal government would no longer be in debt. Should the Democrats keep the Senate and pick up only four seats in the House, they will simply refund everything in 2025.

The article mentions something the Republicans complaining about the bill need to realize:

The Democrats are so much better at this than the Republicans. That is why 165 democrats in the House voted for the bill. The only Democrats that voted against it are from gerrymandered “safe“ districts. The other Democrats know they better claim it as a victory if they want to win next year’s election. The conservatives voting against the bill also are mostly from safe districts but their criticism is costing their brethren votes.

The conservatives are a minority in one branch of government. Until they control two branches, Washington will continue to do business as usual.

Comments On The Debt Ceiling Deal

Posted on by

One of the people in Washington that I trust to analyze financial things accurately is Larry Kudlow. On Tuesday, he posted an article at The Daily Caller explaining his views on the Debt Ceiling Deal.

The article reports:

Former Director of the National Economic Council Larry Kudlow said on Tuesday during his Fox Business program that the debt ceiling deal negotiated by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was “a fiscal win” because it contains many conservative priorities, including regulatory provisions and work requirements for welfare.

McCarthy released the text of the Fiscal Responsibility Act on Sunday evening, which increases the debt ceiling through Jan. 1, 2025, taking it past the 2024 presidential election. “Let’s not forget there are no tax hikes, period, full stop,” Kudlow said. “So, I think this is a political win for Republicans and conservatives. It’s a fiscal win. It is a free-market capitalism win. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Save America, pass the bill.”

I understand some conservatives’ reaction to the bill, but do they really believe that they can get anything better? The bill has to get through the Senate and be signed by the President. Compromise is the only way that is going to happen.

The article notes:

The law freezes discretionary spending on non-defense budgetary items at Fiscal Year 2022 levels, adds reforms to permitting for energy projects and includes new work requirements for some welfare programs. Many of those provisions were in  the Limit, Save, Grow Act, which passed the House of Representatives by a 217-215 vote on April 26.

The reforms to permitting for energy projects were promised to Senator Manchin by the Democrats if he voted for the Inflation Reduction Act. After the vote, the Democrats reneged on that promise.

The bill also has some other good things:

“Student loan payments will be restarted to the tune of $5 billion a month and Joe Biden’s massive regulatory assault on energy and business will be stopped with a pay-go provision that says any executive branch regulatory costs must be offset by regulatory cost reduction,” Kudlow said. “By the way, Biden’s modern socialism regulatory assault has cost something in the neighborhood of $1.5 trillion.”

It’s not a perfect bill, but it is a good bill.