“Fiscally Responsible” House Republicans Threaten to Not Raise the Debt Ceiling Even Though It Could Cause a “Financial Disaster”

Spoiled cry baby House Speaker John Boehner (R) threatens to not raise the debt ceiling if he doesn’t get what he wants
Image:Pundit Mom

At what point do we stop pretending the current Republican party is “fiscally responsible?” Back in the summer of 2011, Congressional Republicans refused to raise the debt ceiling until only a few days before the borrowing authority of the US would be exhausted and because the S&P viewed this “political brinkmanship” as a sign that the US government’s ability to manage its finances was “less stable, less effective, and less predictable,” the United States’s credit rating was downgraded from AAA to AA+ by S&P for the first time in history.

Because of the U.S. credit rating downgrade, markets plunged. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 635 points (or 5.6%) in one day. The Government Accountability Office found that the delay in raising the debt ceiling resulted in government borrowing costs increasing by 1.3 billion in 2011 and further increased costs for years to come.

You’d think Speaker Boehner and other Congressional Republicans would have learned their lesson after that debacle. But no, here we go again: although Speaker Boehner acknowledged that not raising the debt ceiling would provoke a “financial disaster,” he still threatened last Saturday to not raise the debt ceiling until Obama agreed to spending cuts.

So Speaker Boehner has basically said that he is willing to risk another downgrade of the U.S. credit rating and billions of dollars of increased government borrowing costs just so he can get his way.

The Republican party might have the reputation of being fiscally responsible, but how can threatening to not pay your debts on time just so you can get what you want be considered responsible in any manner? This is the behavior of spoiled children, not “fiscally responsible” politicians.