by Alex Henderson | January 27, 2023
Countless economists have warned that if the United States were to default on its debt obligations, a major financial crisis could result — one with international implications. But if members of Congress don’t come to some type of agreement on the debt ceiling, that could happen.
Journalist Russell Berman discusses that possibility in an article published by The Atlantic on January 27. Berman warns that the situation is dire, and that Democrats are hoping that the less extreme House Republicans can have a positive effect.
“Early this summer,” Berman writes, “the federal government will, in all likelihood, exhaust the ‘extraordinary measures' it is now employing to keep paying the nation’s bills. As the country careens toward that fiscal abyss, Congress will face a now-familiar stalemate: Republicans will refuse to raise the debt ceiling unless Democrats agree to cut spending. Democrats will balk. Markets will slide — perhaps precipitously — and the economy will swiftly turn south."
Berman continues, “When that moment arrives, the most important people in Washington won’t be those who work in the White House, or even the party leaders who occupy the Capitol’s most palatial offices. They will be the House Republicans who sit closest to the political center: the so-called moderates. The GOP’s majority is narrow enough that any five Republicans could dash Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s plan to demand a ransom for . . .
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