Good government should be boring most of the time.
Instead, in the current “attention economy” wrought by social media, government officials — for example, members of Congress — engage in political theater to boost their profiles and their chances at reelection. Instead of solving problems, the essence of governing, their voters reward them for creating problems.
The debate over raising the debt ceiling is likely to provide once such exceedingly dangerous example.
The United States reached its debt limit on Thursday, prompting the Treasury Department to use “extraordinary measures” — accounting maneuvers — to prevent the nation from defaulting on its debt. These maneuvers will allow the Treasury to keep paying the government’s obligations until early June.
Congressional Republicans oppose raising the federal borrowing limit unless Democrats agree to cut spending. President Joe Biden has said he won’t negotiate on the debt limit.
The 2011 debt ceiling crisis — during a similar period of divided government, with Republicans holding the House and Democrats the presidency and the Senate — caused the stock market to plunge and Standard & Poor’s to downgrade the credit rating of the U.S. government for the first time in history.
Since 2011, the political incentives for engaging in theatrical confrontation worthy of professional wrestling have only grown.
Congress has an obligation to tackle the federal debt and excessive spending, but brinkmanship that threatens the nation’s ability to pay its bills helps no one and has the potential to hurt millions of Americans.
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