PURELY POLITICAL
The Debt Ceiling "Debate" was pure Kabuki Theatre. The audience knew exactly how it was going to turn out but applauded wildly at the end of the show anyhow.
Debt Ceiling “Crisis” versus Kabuki Theater
As “news”-casters on cable and broadcast stations, as well as uninformed note-takers (once referred to as “print journalists”) wailed about the dangers of the potential failure of our debt-ceiling talks, many turned off this unending stream of nonsense to tune into more meaningful brain fodder, such as Seinfeld reruns, or episodes of “Hoarders.”
One can compare these semi-annual congressional debt-limit confrontations with Kabuki, the classical Japanese theater pieces that feature elaborate costumes and a silent-movie-style of over-the-top dramatic performances that depend upon those costumes along with extravagant showmanship, and very little upon any kind of content to tell their story.
The outcomes of both are inevitable and pre-determined and are staged for the enjoyment and satisfaction of their audiences, who are amused and sometimes frightened but always comforted in the assurance that all will work out in the end.
In Japanese kabuki, for example, exaggerated faces and painted masks identify the feelings of the performers, who will hold poses for an extended period, making it clear to one and all the exact expression the actor is feeling and/or portraying.
In the U.S. Congress, a Republican male kabuki actor will wear a mask or makeup of masculinity, proudly displaying his manly budget-balancing stance against an evil smiley-faced free-spending Democrat. In between the two opposing lawmakers will be a “president” (“Tachiyaku,” in Japanese, the always well-meaning male lead in kabuki) who – if he’s a Democrat – confronts the tight-fisted Republican whose only goal is to steal cookies from poor children and push confined-to-a-wheelchair grandmas off steep cliffs to save a few Medicare bucks.
Nearby is the Democrat, wearing his white-hatted-hero mask, decrying the budget “cuts” that the evil good-for-nothing Republican Congressman is forcing his party to accede to.
If the President happens to be a Republican, the roles and plots are basically reversed, whereby the Democrat is the evildoer, and the Republican is Mr. Goodnik.
Just as you don’t have to speak or understand Japanese to follow the plot of kabuki, neither are you required to know anything about how the U.S. budget process works or is supposed to work to enjoy – after days, weeks, and even months of pearl clutching and deriding of the “desperate antics” of (add name of favourite villain) the show.
In the end, the two sides will come together, hold hands, and take their respective bows, as printed press note-takers and TV and Radio “news” readers deliver the results, spun based upon the audience to whom they are directing their conclusions.
During this “turmoil,” the financial marketeers play their part, sending various stocks skyward upon leaked “news” of an impending agreement, then causing them to plunge upon word of a failed “compromise.” Finally – just in the nick of time! – a deal will be made. It will be examined and, lo and behold, each side gave a little and took a little.
The stock market recovers, the country is saved, democracy prevails, and life (and the reckless spending) goes on.
There will be talk of “budget cuts” that “slash” spending for (name any one of thousands of useless and ineffective federal programs), and lamentations that a certain program (name any one of thousands of ineffective and useless federal programs) will be “gutted” or worse, eliminated (though that never actually happens). Grim-faced mainstream media talking-head opinionators will decry the “cuts” and will find some individual Republican (they’e always Republicans, aren’t they?) “budget-cutter” to shame for taking money from a poor widow and giving it to his rich friends.
On the other side (FOX Cable News, OAN, and a smattering of others), there’ll be talk of “giving in” and gutless “compromising,” etcetera.
But the spending will go on.
The U.S. official debt held by the public will soon exceed $32 trillion. A number too large to imagine, but one that represents nearly $100,000 for every U.S. resident, or $250,000 per average family.
We, as a country, are no longer “rich” by most historical standards. We’ve spent our inheritance and are now holding estate and garage sales for the artwork, furniture and knick-knacks.
The latest “deal” stuck by Biden, McCarthy, Schumer et al will add to that burgeoning and unsustainable deficit, but, hey, they’ve “saved” America’s credit rating.
If you really want to cry, visit the U.S. Treasury website (fiscaldata.treasury.gov) whereupon you’ll read that “The U.S. government has spent $3.61 trillion ($3,611,239,136,330.00) in [the first six months of] fiscal year 2023 to ensure the well-being of the people of the United States.” (Italics are mine.) The site goes on to report that “Compared to the federal spending of $3.35 trillion for the same [six-month] period last year (Oct 2021-Apr 2022) our federal spending has increased by $266 billion.”
Which is an increase of 8%.
The site is updated monthly.
Which also means, dear friends, that, in the Treasury’s own words, “In fiscal year 2022, the government spent $6.27 trillion, which was more than it collected (revenue), resulting in a deficit.”
The amount of the deficit isn’t delineated, so I had to go to a different site to find out how much the U.S. government collected.
The answer is it took in $4.9 trillion in fiscal year 2022 (minus $641.7 billion in tax refunds).
The deficit between input and output was roughly $1.3 trillion.
Despite the caterwauling and boasting by all parties concerning this year’s economic “near-calamity,” U.S. spending will exceed last year’s.
By a lot.
Again.
Oh, and you should know that total U.S. expenditures for fiscal year 2019 – the year before the Covid-19 pandemic appeared – amounted to $4.407 trillion.
And, more significantly, if we simply returned to fiscal year 2019’s spending pattern, we’d be posting a five-hundred-billion-dollar budget surplus in fiscal year 2023!
But sadly, in just three years, the U.S. has increased its yearly budget expenditures by some $1.8 trillion. All the excess “emergency” pandemic spending has been rolled into the new budget year.
This can only be called fiscal insanity.
But sanity could return. Speaker McCarthy is new at his job and so far he’s performed well. There is an election in less than 18 months and things could move in a positive direction.
Fingers crossed.
One simple entitlement reform would cut the deficit dramatically -- have the people who took out more than they put in repay at death to the extent possible. Medicaid has this provision. Why not Social Security and Medicare?