Letter to the Editor: Be careful what you wish for on debt limit

By Al Charlson, Waverly

Financial panics are not rational. The federal debt ceiling is an arbitrary artificial limit. The U.S. economy would not fundamentally change on the day the Treasury could not send Social Security checks or military payroll because it was barred from borrowing to pay the bills Congress has already approved. But world financial markets would freak out.

It appears the network of conservative multi-billionaires, which is the foundation of the support base of the Republican Party, is encouraging House Republicans to go ahead and force a default. They would be betting that President Biden would end up with enough of the blame for the resulting chaos that they would gain total control in Washington, D.C.

In the meantime their wealth would shield them from the resulting financial storm, then enable them to snap up devalued assets for pennies on the dollar as they did after the crash of 2008.

However, they should heed the old adage “be careful what you wish for.”

Many of the safety net programs the ultra-wealthy decry as socialism began as a response to the financial panic of 1929 which exploded out of control into the Great Depression of the 1930s.