When President Joe Biden and his team talk about a clean debt ceiling increase, it is one more example of Washington using language to deliberately mislead the American people.
They are using the word “clean” because it is a positive word. In everyday speech, it means “free of dirt, blemish, or unwanted matter.”
But in Washington-speak, “clean” means more spending, taxes, regulations, debt, and interest payments on the debt. It means weakening Medicare and Social Security, shrinking the economy, and lowering the American standard of living. A supposedly clean debt ceiling increase is the dirtiest option—and is enormously destructive.
Stopping the growing debt, widening deficits, and ballooning government are vital to the future of America. Having a clean debt ceiling deal removes one of Congress’s best tools to fix these problems. The chance for serious reform collapses if the debt ceiling is simply increased, because the pressure point disappears.
Historically, debt ceiling fights have been major opportunities to control spending, shrink projected growth in government, and insist on reforms. Caving in and giving Biden more money with no reforms eliminates the opportunity.
He wrote, “Political speech and writing are largely the defence [sic] of the indefensible ... political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness.”
If our political system was honest, anyone who called Biden’s debt ceiling position “clean” would not be taken seriously.
Of course, being honest would doom Biden’s extreme position. It would make life much harder for those who favor higher taxes, bigger bureaucracies, and more spending than the American people support.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has taken on the issue of controlling spending and proposed a serious, reasonable “reform debt ceiling increase” (to offer an alternative language).
“[McCarthy’s] plan is wise: it would suspend the debt ceiling for one year in exchange for common sense fiscal reforms. ... “They are: “1. One percent cap on domestic spending “2. No funding for 87,000 IRS agents “3. Cancel the hundreds of billions of unspent Covid money (the green new deal) “4. Repeal Biden student loan bailouts “5. Enact Reins Act requiring federal reg agencies to get congressional approval for new regulations.”
“President Biden has a choice: Come to the table and stop playing partisan political games or cover his ears, refuse to negotiate, and risk bumbling his way into the first default in our nation’s history.”
“While it is reasonable to sincerely disagree with any specific debt ceiling approach, we will achieve a historic default, and the economic whirlwind which follows, if President Biden continues to refuse to even negotiate a reasonable and commonsense compromise.
“To that end, I applaud Speaker McCarthy for putting forward a proposal that would prevent default and rein in federal spending.”
Ultimately, Manchin called Biden’s refusal to negotiate “a deficiency of leadership” and urged him to work with McCarthy.
“Failing to do so may score political points with the extremes of the Democratic Party, but make no mistake, it will be the American people—and our nation—who will pay the ultimate price if partisan politics continues to define our politics and policies,” Manchin said.
Despite the bipartisan McCarthy–Manchin appeal, Politico reported that Biden is still refusing to negotiate—and leaning on congressional Democrats to do the same.
If we accurately describe the Biden position as “a dirty debt ceiling deal,” I suspect the numbers would be even worse.
