I want to spell out what all the talk about a “debt ceiling” really means.

Here’s what Republicans in Congress — under the leadership, if you can call it that, of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy — are doing:

Every year — through a normal, if often contentious, legislative process — Congress passes bills about how much the federal government can spend, on everything from paper clips to nuclear submarines.

Now Republicans are exploiting the so-called debt ceiling — an arbitrary and, frankly, stupid cap on how much the federal government can borrow — to extort cuts they could never hope to achieve legitimately.

And if their ransom demands are not met, Republicans say they won’t let the government make good on its existing obligations — every single one of which was already authorized by Congress.

Experts are clear that if the U.S. government can’t pay what it owes, the national and global economies will be thrown into crisis. Nearly two million jobs could be wiped out in a week. A default that goes on for months could wipe out 8 million jobs and $10 trillion in household wealth.

In other words, if Republicans cause the United States to default, the economic consequences — immediate and long-term, domestic and worldwide — would be catastrophic.

Is there any shred of civic mindedness, any notion of the greater good, any scrap of “do the right thing” somewhere inside Kevin McCarthy?

I don’t know, but this is too important not to try.

Join Public Citizen in a direct message for Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy:

Never mind the question of why you and your fellow Republicans are so bent on slashing programs that help everyday Americans in the first place. Congress authorized spending and now the United States must pay what it owes. No conditions. No ifs, ands, or buts. Stop holding the full faith and credit of the United States hostage. Stop threatening economic catastrophe. Stop it.

Click now to add your name.

Thanks for taking action.

For progress,

- Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen

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