The U.S. government is worried about the budget, but lawmakers don't really have to because "they have a printing press and they keep printing it away," says former Texas Rep. Ron Paul.
"We have to change a whole bunch of attitudes and one attitude is that governments are different than we as individuals," Paul said Wednesday during an appearance on Newsmax's "Carl Higbie FRONTLINE."
"There's a lot of things we're not allowed to do: lie, cheat, and steal, and defraud people. Government shouldn't be allowed to do it, so the people should be claiming that we demand a refund. But they don't allow us to do this, and it's amazing.
"They're worrying a lot about the budget right now; but they don't really have to because they have a printing press, and they keep printing it away. We need to demand and deserve a refund because it's all waste. We shouldn't be involved in that. If we lived in a free society — no, what if we just lived with the Constitution — we wouldn't have this malarkey. This just wouldn't happen, but we've been too complacent. The people got very complacent during COVID lockdown. Finally, the people woke up. But there still needs to be a lot more waking up, and right now there's this great debate on the budget. I don't think it's going to result in very much because they said, 'Well, we can't default; we can't default.' We default all the time. Every day we default by passing out money with less value. So we pay our debts this way, and the government gets away with political murder."
If the government's legal borrowing limit of $31.4 trillion is not raised or suspended in the next few weeks, the result could be financial havoc. If the government can't borrow money to keep paying its bills for an extended period, there could be millions of job losses, businesses left bankrupt, crashes piling up across financial markets, and lasting economic pain. The damage would be financial, but the cause would be political, a breakdown between Republicans and Democrats, rather than a problem with the underlying health of the U.S. economy.
Republican lawmakers want spending cuts in return for raising the debt limit, saying the budget's current path is unsustainable. Biden and congressional Democrats want to raise the debt limit without any conditions, saying any choices about spending should be a separate discussion rather than an excuse for holding the government "hostage."
Biden has said he won't negotiate about the debt limit, but he is willing to discuss government spending with McCarthy. White House officials say he plans to tell congressional leaders at next week's meeting that the U.S. must avoid a historic default — but also begin separately to put together a fiscal 2024 budget.
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Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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