Bad deal on debt

It appears that we’ve avoided default. So why don’t I feel better about the economy or America’s future?

The answer can best be summed up by U.S. Rep. Rush Holt, the Democrat who voted against the debt deal. In an e-mailed statement, Holt characterized the debate as a hostage-taking in which the “Tea Party and their enabler … have insisted that, unless Congress enacted their radical, ideological agenda, they would force an unprecedented default on America’s obligations and thus trigger an economic collapse.”

That approach, he said, led to an unbalanced deal that will do damage to the American economy and leave the most vulnerable Americans at the mercy of the market.

The House has voted for vast cuts in government services that ordinary Americans depend on:  student loans, unemployment insurance, food safety inspections, highway safety programs, and more.  These cuts will force layoffs among teachers, public safety officers, construction workers, and more.  These laid-off workers will, in turn, be forced to pare back their spending at their local grocery stores, drug stores, and small businesses, forcing still more layoffs – a vicious circle that threatens to destabilize our fragile economy.  We saw in last week’s economic reports that job growth has been choked back by cuts in state and local governments.  This deal does not help the situation.  It hurts the economy.

The deal lays the groundwork for another $1.5 trillion in cuts to come, to be negotiated behind closed doors by an unelected super-committee.  Given that the first round of cuts will have decimated discretionary programs, these later cuts will very likely focus on Social Security and Medicare.  The citizens who will be hurt most are those who have the least voice in our democracy.  After all, when a handful of politicians gather in the proverbial smoke-filled room, the interests of ordinary Americans are nearly always left out.

Yet although most Americans will sacrifice greatly, the most privileged among us will be immune.  Favored corporate interests, millionaires, and billionaires will continue to receive special tax breaks as far as the eye can see.  That is not the sort of fair, balanced deal that Americans asked for and expected.

As poor as this deal is on its merits, I am even more troubled by the precedent it sets.  The Tea Party and their enablers have, by taking the American economy hostage, transformed a routine budgetary authorization into the most dramatic reshaping of government in decades.  Today’s deal establishes that government-by-hostage-negotiation is a legitimate, effective way to achieve one’s political ends.  I am frightened by what this means for the future of our democracy.

• Send me an e-mail.
• Read poetry at The Subterranean.
• Certainties and Uncertainties a chapbook by Hank Kalet, will be published in November by Finishing Line Press. It can be ordered here.
• Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.

• Send me an e-mail.
• Read poetry at The Subterranean.
• Certainties and Uncertainties a chapbook by Hank Kalet, will be published in November by Finishing Line Press. It can be ordered here.
• Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.

Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie. View all posts by hankkalet