Washington and Its Debt, No Better Than Europe

If the performance of Europeans leaders in the euro crisis had been — and continues to be — distressing, one can say much the same about that of the United States Congress, confronted by an identical problem: a monstrous national debt. American elected officials have also shown irresponsibility and an inability to make decisions.

Over the past week, a super committee in Congress — six Democrats, six Republicans — was supposed to have imperatively proposed a series of measures to reduce the budget’s deficit (close to 9 percent of the gross domestic product) from a cumulative sum of $1.2 trillion over six years.

The bipartisan super committee was composed of an equal number of senators and members of the House of Representatives. It had extensive powers and exceptional terms to work under. It could have taken advantage of all the services of the U.S. government.

It should have turned in its plan on Nov. 21. The recommendations should have led to many firm budgetary commitments, binding the White House and Congress.

The committee has failed, unfortunately. It announced that it was unable to reach an agreement.

Worse, it failed for strictly ideological reasons. Several months from the November 2012 presidential election, needless to say during full electoral campaign time, the Republicans have shown a concrete dogmatism on the subject of taxation.

They want very much to conduct budget cuts in all programs, but they do not want the slightest increase in taxes. With a determination that makes the ayatollahs of Tehran seem compromising, the Republicans oppose that the richest of the rich Americans pour one more cent into the Treasury; against all logic, they refuse the suppression of even the slightest tax niche.

On their side, the elected Democrats, if they were more courageous, evolved little on the structural reforms that would assure the future financing of retirement and health.

In the case of the failure of the super committee, the law provides that automatic cuts in public expenditures of an equivalent sum, $1.2 trillion, will have a place in the federal budget from now until 2021. It stipulates that the defense budget will be the principal victim, at the level of $600 billion. But no cut will go into effect before 2013. Needless to say, nothing will happen before the 2012 vote.

The episode confirms the paralysis of the American political system and the weakness of Barack Obama, incapable of imposing himself on Congress. The episode also confirms that there is no morality in politics. The inability of 17 members of the EU Economic and Monetary Union to face their sovereign debt crisis threatens the euro with implosion, which, more than ever, transforms the dollar into a sound investment and permits America to finance its mountains of debt at a good price.