My Modest Proposal to Solve the Debt Ceiling Fight

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National Journal reports:

Republicans appear to be willing to avoid a showdown over the debt limit and instead use the sequester as their main negotiating lever in upcoming fiscal fights with the White House and Senate Democrats.

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Republicans at a closed-door retreat in Williamsburg were weighing a short-term increase in the country’s borrowing limit, giving all sides time to work on a broader fiscal plan in March that would include substantial spending cuts.

I’m not a conservative, so I can’t pretend to have their best interests at heart. But it sure seems to me that their best bet right now is to unpaint themselves from their corner and make sure they never go back. The last thing they should do is approve a short-term increase in the debt ceiling and then have this same, self-defeating argument all over again in March.

Here’s my suggestion: pass a law that gives the president the ability to raise the debt ceiling on his own, but put some limits on it. Every month the Treasury has to release a statement showing how much we’ve spent, how much tax revenue we took in, projected bond sales over the next month, and the amount the debt ceiling needs to be increased. The statement has to be signed by the president of the United States.

This gets Republicans off the hook from ever having to play a hostage game they can’t win, but it forces the president to put his name to a monthly statement showing just how rapidly he’s building up debt and turning America into the next Greece. It would be harmless campaign fodder for 2014 (good for Republicans), and would also prevent any further market-panicking showdowns (also good for Republicans). As a bonus, it would also be good for the country. What’s not to like?

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

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