Right-Wing Populism on Display: The Battle over the Federal Debt Ceiling
Last time I illustrated the ways in which Donald Trump personified the populist penchant for blowing up the conventional political processes, or ways of doing things. I did not know at the time that Trump would be interviewed on CNN by Kaitlan Collins. But lo and behold there he was last week, threatening to disrupt politics as usual.
In addition to the list of extreme measures he attempted or promised during his presidency, Trump encouraged Republican leadership in the House of Representatives to allow the government to default on the federal debt, although that could severely affect the national and global economies in many ways. In my previous post I talked about the government shutdown Trump caused in 2018-19 over funding for the border wall. But Republicans have been engaging in populist disruptions of the status quo since the Newt Gingrich led House-inspired government shutdowns of 1995-96. over funding for education, the environment and public health in President Clinton’s budget. Public opinion generally blamed the Republicans for the disruption of a number of government services then, and they finally agreed to Clinton’s budget bill.
The Tea Party, which you’ll recall, emerged as a result of right-wing trauma over the election of a Black president, instigated a government shutdown in the fall of 2013 over the fiscal 2014 budget. The causes of the impasse were many, but underlying it were Republican attempts to delay or defund the Affordable Care Act, and an unfortunate congressional agreement made in 2011. It mandated “across-the-board cuts if a ‘supercommittee,’ or a panel of bipartisan leaders, could not agree on a way to cut the budget by $1.5 trillion over a decade.”[1] $85 billion in those automatic cuts had already begun in 2013. In October Obama and the Democrats hung tough. Both Houses passed a bill funding the government and suspending the debt-limit until early the following year. Once again public opinion blamed Republicans for the shutdown.
Today’s House Republican Party led by Speaker Kevin McCarthy lacks institutional memory. And it has more populists in its ranks (this time as the Freedom Caucus) than either the Tea Party class of 2013 or the Gingrich “Contract on America” crowd of 1995. As we watch with bated breath, House Republicans are threatening to refuse to the adjust the federal debt limit to pay for the governments existing obligations. This concern for fiscal responsibility masks Republicans inability to legislative through the normal channels for the budget cuts they would like to see. Like good populists house Republicans would rather allow the government to default if they can’t muscle massive cuts for programs like food stamps, federal housing assistance college financial aid and also tie Medicaid eligibility to work requirements. The defaulting of the largest government in the world would also send financial shocks through the world economy.[2]
Notice that in each of these historic and current rounds of threats to blow things up the concessions Republicans seek would hurt working class and poor people. This embodies a drastic populist approach to a traditional conservative policy agenda. Progressive economists say there are two options: Let the economy default and watch the Republicans take the blame as they have in the past. Or, invoke Section 4 of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution which essentially holds that the public debt, once incurred, must be paid.
We’ll see what happens, but what a great laboratory for witnessing the aspirations, and also the perils of this right-wing brand of populism.
[1]Christopher Gene Hopkins, “Obama's Budget Would Undo Broad, Automatic Cuts Made In 2013” https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/01/29/382276085/obamas-budget-would-undo-broad-cuts-made-during-recession
[2] “ What is the Debt Ceiling?” Peter G. Petersen Foundation. https://www.pgpf.org/infographic/what-is-the-debt-ceiling?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIz_mFz-mB_wIVoB2tBh30dwwiEAAYBCAAEgKYj_D_BwE
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