The land of the free

Without getting into the specifics of the US debt ceiling crisis, this is an appalling state of affairs from two perspectives.


Firstly, ideological differences about big government versus small government, though important and worth debating -should never be allowed to get in the way of balancing budgets. Regardless of whether you think the State should do a lot, or do a little, it seems obvious that it must pay its way. Day-to-day expenses should not be paid for by borrowing.


Unlike Ireland, where a bank and budget implosion has caused us to borrow heavily in recent years, the Americans seem to simply be indecisive. They want the State to pay for things, but they don't want to pay the state for doing them. Whatever economic efficiencies may be achieved from tweaking the model of economic governance in the US, they will not compensate the state for having to borrow on the markets to fund a lifestyle deficit.


Personally, I think it is outrageous that the richest people in America can get away with contributing so little, but whether or not the books are to be balanced by cuts or taxes is unimportant beside the crucial task of balancing them.


Secondly, the divisions over this philosophical issue are not only crippling the US' ability to balance its books, but in recent weeks it has been shown, that both sides of this absurdly overheated discussion are willing to bring the country to the brink (seemingly beyond the brink) of chaos simply to win the argument. This is not about economics. Economics is about tweaking governance to try and achieve the greatest prosperity. This artificial crisis, has been created to serve bitter political ends without regard to the economic consequences.


Watching this completely reckless argument, one can't help but feel the decline of America, and recognise that it is (mostly) self-imposed. Friends of the United States must watch on in acute embarassment at this abject failure to complete one of the most basic tasks of any democracy -to agree a budget. You would be aghast to see this in the most turbulent banana republic, but in democracy's greatest champion it's unthinkable.


The state's services must be paid for; when they named it the land of the free, they did not mean there's no charge.