DAVID MARCUS: This $4 trillion spending ‘deal’ to raise the debt limit will bankrupt America

President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy are each loudly proclaiming victory in the deal they finally struck this weekend to raise the debt ceiling.

But let’s face it, this 11-hour compromise was as inevitable as it was depressing, with no real winner and only one big loser: the American people.

As Debt Default Day, early June, approached, both sides resorted to the usual blunder.

McCarthy urged the Democrats to get real with uncontrollable government spending. Biden boldly claimed that he would not negotiate under any circumstances. Neither side seemed to budge.

But on Sunday, details of an agreement did indeed emerge. And, really, even though the deal document is some 99 pages long, it amounts to little more than a $4 trillion splurge — with a few paltry cuts on the side.

If this bill passes, we will see the debt ceiling suspended for the next two years. While early estimates calculate that the agreed cuts will total $55 billion next year — and $81 billion by 2025.

That may sound significant, but when we weigh it against the $4 trillion (already $31 trillion) increase in national debt that this deal will cause, people begin to realize that McCarthy’s “concessions” won are not so much a drop in the eye. be a hot plate, but a drop in a hot plate. the infinity pool.

Let’s not forget that after his failed withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, Biden wrote off about $7 billion in US weapons as collateral damage. It is clear that this is a man who is not concerned about such meager amounts.

It’s also worth putting this new deal in the context of President Obama’s 2011 agreement to swallow some $2.4 trillion in spending cuts to raise his debt limit – albeit with a lengthy schedule of cuts in a decade.

So Florida governor and presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis was right when he added his voice to the growing number of concerned congressional conservatives on Monday.

“After this deal, our country will still be headed for bankruptcy,” DeSantis said.

And he’s right: The U.S. economy is already suffering from its highest interest rates in a decade and facing a potentially catastrophic recession. Spending more is the last thing we need.

But can you really blame McCarthy? After all, the odds weren’t stacked in his favor.

Without the Senate or the White House, Republicans only have a nine-vote lead in the House — the narrowest margin in as many decades. While the Democrats under Obama in 2011 suffered the biggest electoral defeat in more than 60 years.

Florida Governor and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis was right when he added his voice to the growing number of concerned congressional conservatives on Monday. “After this deal, our country will still be heading for bankruptcy,” he said.

This deal is expected to add $4 trillion to the national debt (already $31 trillion).

Now McCarthy has secured a few goodies in the gift bag for the GOP, including raising the age limit of work requirements for some welfare programs from 49 to 54. There’s also the promise of expedited approval for a 303-mile gas pipeline between the red states of Virginia and West Virginia.

$21 billion has also been forked from the massive new $80 billion Internal Revenue Service (IRS) budget passed last year, primarily intended to hire tens of thousands of additional agents to audit citizens’ taxes — or, as Senator Ted Cruz put it, “to harass Americans.” .’

This is because the IRS is facing whistleblower allegations of bias in the Hunter Biden tax fraud investigation and the increased perception of institutional intolerance towards conservatives.

Although, as Congressman Dan Bishop quipped Sunday, “I suppose so [now] 85,260 extra IRS agents are instead of 87,000 to eat you alive. Big win.’

Sure, it all looks like mighty little potatoes. And the problem is that we can’t escape saddling the American people with yet another Biden fantasyland budget that will continue to inflate the Thanksgiving parade balloon of crippling debt.

And it’s not like closing a deal was McCarthy’s only choice. He could have told Biden it was his way or the highway — and forced the nation into bankruptcy.

But it’s hard to imagine Republicans would have been rewarded by the public for causing such a crisis — even if the intentions were noble. In addition, the majority of GOP members wanted a deal.

Ultimately, most of the popular anger should be aimed at the Democrats, who are now sickeningly celebrating yet another financial albatross for the American people to carry.

A chart produced by the Congressional Budget Office in February projecting the rise in federal debt.

It’s not like making a deal was McCarthy’s only choice. He could have told Biden it was his way or the highway — and forced the nation into bankruptcy.

Biden’s track record when it comes to the treasury is abysmal. And such gigantic planned future expenditures represent economic illiteracy at best – and sheer contempt for this nation at worst.

So the main lesson for Republicans should be winning elections – the need to take back the Senate and White House and secure true majorities in Congress.

It’s been three decades since Bill Clinton ran his first presidential campaign under the simple slogan that the key to electoral success is “The economy, stupid.”

Anyone who doesn’t want America decimated under the weight of Biden’s multi-trillion dollar debauchery should hope that every Republican running in 2024 learns that mantra by heart.