Glenn Beck Commentary: Why the Debt Deal Is Bad News

Don’t be fooled. We’ve just been betrayed by Washington.

A deal on the debt ceiling is near and Washington still hasn’t gotten serious about the fundamentals. It hasn’t gotten serious about default. It certainly hasn’t gotten serious about the future. When Harry Reid hails a “bipartisan compromise” you know we’re doomed.

Republicans and Democrats have just negotiated away the future of our children behind closed doors. The big compromise on Capitol Hill features elaborate triggers, tranches, Hornswogglers, Snozzwangers, Super Duper Commissions that will make the Snozzberries taste like Snozeberries, and a whole bunch of other convoluted gibberish that will, no doubt, come with loopholes and create entire new bureaucracies. What it doesn't do is fix the problem.

The fact is Moody’s has already warned us that no one has put a plan on the table that comes close to solving our long-term problem. Moody’s will downgrade us. This could happen tomorrow, in six months or maybe a year from now, but at some point in the near future it’s
going to happen. And it’s going to hurt. So we must be prepared.

Imagine your credit card’s interest rates constantly rising. Imagine high inflation eating away at your savings accounts, retirement funds and salary -- if you’re lucky enough to have one these days. Imagine the interest rate on your mortgage rising and compounding until there was no hope of escaping debt. Imagine that fewer and fewer people are willing to lend you any money as your credit rating takes a dive.

Now imagine we’re talking about 15, 25, 100 trillion dollars and your Medicare, Social Security and Treasury bonds.

Those tanks and missiles Republicans say we need? No more. Those food stamps and green-energy boondoggles Democrats say we can’t live without? Forget it. We won’t be able to afford them. It won’t matter how many prime time speeches the president gives or how dangerous the
world gets. The unsustainable cost of irresponsible governance mean everyone loses.

And by everyone, I mean the whole world.

Remember the saying: as Greece goes so goes the world? The United States economy constitutes around 25 percent of the world’s GDP. What happens to global economy when we default? Everyone will feel it. After all, who’s going to send billions in weapons to Egypt’s military regime to help it quell the “democratic” Arab street when we can’t even pay the janitors at the IRS office space?

So what is the point of all the drama in Washington? As best as I can tell most politicians are scared stiff that they might have to have a substantive debate about the debt ceiling during the election season. Other than that, we’re back where we started.

For one, any promise of future cuts is as about as rock solid as a politician’s word. Experience has taught us every year some “unprecedented” emergency will require us to spend hundreds of
billions, if not trillions, we don’t have to “fix.” Mark my words, the war (I’m sorry … “kinetic military action”) that no one even understands in Libya will expand and then all the promises forgotten.

It’s true that seven or eight months ago Democrats were still saying we needed another stimulus package and calling for new spending. Now, we’re not just talking about whether to cut but about how much to cut.  And it's great news that Washington has made significant progress in moving the Balanced Budget Amendment -- the only real and lasting solution to this crisis. Nevertheless, the fact remains that this deal raises the debt limit by about $2.5 trillion dollars without making substantial and immediate cuts.

Congressman Jason Chaffetz, in fact, explained that the first year of spending cut is $7 billion and when you consider that we deficit spend $4 billion a day, the real savings in the first year of this deal covers only two days of spending.

Promises mean nothing in Washington. We need genuine, transformational reform and real spending cuts today, not a strategic Republican victory. The time for political expediency is over.

Isn’t it curious that when Democrats wanted to push through a $1 trillion stimulus plan that enriched every social engineering project in the country they got it done? Isn’t it amazing that Democrats had the willpower to ram through health unpopular Obamacare which changed
our entire health care system without any compromise whatsoever?

Why can’t Republicans find a similar backbone? Why can’t they fight for the people who elected them? Are you telling me they can't find significant waste and fraud in the Federal government right now?

The answer is simple.

You cannot spend more than you earn. You cannot run up the largest credit card bill in human history. You want more revenue? Stop chasing income earners overseas by threatening them with higher taxes, stop inflating their energy costs and stop punishing them with never-ending regulations. Mr President, put down your socialist mop! Stop with the Cloward and Piven floor wax.

And then balance the budget, cut back the spending and reform entitlements.