One Last Job for John Boehner

摘要

In an interview shortly after he announced his intention to retire, Speaker of the House for a While Longer John Boehner said: "I don't want to leave my successor a dirty barn. So I want to clean the barn up a little bit before the next person gets there." If he's looking for a way to make the place more presentable, he could get the House to raise the debt ceiling. The U.S. government reached that limit in mid-March. Since then, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has employed "extraordinary measures" to borrow funds without breaching the ceiling. He now says that on Nov. 3 that game, too, will be up; the government will have insufficient funds to meet its obligations. This crisis, like the games of chicken focused on the debt ceiling in 2011 and 2013, is entirely manufactured. Congress has already passed the legislation that required the spending that resulted in the debt. Raising the debt ceiling simply allows the government to make good on its obligations.