Economists are praying these House Republicans will 'save' America from the 'fiscal abyss': report

27 January 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 the debt ceiling. They will have to decide whether to stand with him or join with Democrats to avert a first-ever default on the nation’s debt.”

The “so-called” part is important. The “moderates” that Berman is referring to are conservatives, but they are moderate compared to far-right MAGA members of the House like Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. They are moderate conservatives and aren’t ultra-MAGA.

Former Rep. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania said of such House Republicans, “Those guys will be called on to save the day.”

“Dent is talking about Republicans such as Representative Don Bacon of Nebraska, whose Omaha district voted for Joe Biden over Donald Trump in 2020,” Berman explains. “Bacon is a leader of the faction of Republicans hoping to serve as a counterweight to the House Freedom Caucus and the far-right hardliners.”

Read The Atlantic’s full article at this link.

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