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Default Meets Its Perfect Match
Time to end the game of chicken with the debt limit
In 40 years, U.S. shutdowns have cost taxpayers $7,710,470,000, without adding the cost of credit rating downgrades caused by a potential default.
A simple fix will be to dock the salaries of 435 congressional members and the President for holding the U.S. economy hostage to gain political leverage. But, it will be naive to expect lawmakers to hold themselves accountable. They will never punish themselves for the mistakes they commit.
The idea that someone “would shut down the government in order to gain leverage over a political opponent” was unearthed by the democrats in 1980.
Yes, the Democrats.
The Federal Trade Commission, with 1,600 employees, was about to run out of money on May 1, 1980. The agency needed Congress to authorize spending for the next fiscal year.
“Congressional members had delayed the funding extension, seeking to first pass an authorization bill that would limit the investigatory and rule-making powers of the FTC, which they, and businesses, had criticized for its aggressive monitoring of economic activity”.
President Carter did not like the idea. He asked his Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti’s opinion.
