America’s deficit must be addressed. But local businesses will lose sales and profits, and many of us will lose jobs too, if steep, unpopular cuts are made that House Republicans are insisting upon before agreeing to pay our nation’s bills.
Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi warns that the proposed cuts would lead to slow growth, job loss and a greater likelihood of recession.
Why? Because seniors and people with disabilities could miss Social Security payments. Veterans could lose benefits. Cuts to health care mean sicker employees who are less able to work. I could go on. All of these people will have less money to spend at local businesses.
And all of this has ripple effects, with Goldman Sachs economists predicting that nearly one-tenth of the U.S. economy would dry up. That’s a lot of lost sales, lost profit and lost jobs.
Meanwhile, default would downgrade our nation’s credit rating, leading to higher interest rates on mortgages, credit cards and loans generally. Higher interest on our national debt would even make it grow faster!
Notably, neither Republicans nor Democrats threatened not to pay U.S. bills unless deep, economy-crippling budget cuts were made when Donald Trump was president.
Yes, Sens. Mitt Romney and Mike Lee and Reps. John Curtis, Blake Moore, Burgess Owens and Chris Stewart should do something about the deficit. But blowing up the economy by refusing to pay our bills unless steep cuts are made is not a responsible route to a responsible budget.
Georgia Platts, South Jordan