On Tuesday’s edition of the Newell Normand Show, he took up the practical and political implications of what has seemingly become a never-ending debate about raising the nation’s debt ceiling.
Newell began the segment by laying out some of the dire warnings from U.S. Secretary of Treasure Janet Yellen. She’s been urging Republicans and Democrats to find common political ground and raise the nation’s debt ceiling or face the consequences of America defaulting on its debts which she said would be a “catastrophe,” with a painful recession in the U.S. that could reverberate globally.
Joining Newell on Tuesday was Guy Williams, CEO and president of Gulf Coast Banks and Trust. Williams tried to put Yellen’s comments in perspective.
“Many of the things that she said are exactly accurate. Some stretch the bounds of credibility. One is if you don’t raise the debt ceiling, the government has to live within its means. That’s absolutely correct. It’s the same thing if your family is sitting down and somebody got laid off or you got a cut in hours. Now you have to cut your expenses. It does not follow that you have to default on the debt because most of us have been through a situation in our lives at one or more times that we had to cut expenses, but we didn’t choose to skip the rent or the mortgage payment,” Williams told Newell.
Williams didn’t downplay the importance of the need to address the U.S. debt ceiling. He says it’s a positive sign that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Biden will be meeting on Wednesday to discuss the debt ceiling. Williams says he hopes a long-term solution can eventually emerge one day.
“It’s a longer-term that does need to be seriously addressed rather than just something to scream about for a month or two because the Congressional Budget Office, which is the neutral arbiter, said overtime we’re on track to spend about 23% of GDP in government spending but to collect only about 19.5 (percent) so you have a big gap between expenses and revenue,” said Williams.
Currently, the U.S. is carrying more than $31 billion in debt.
Listen to the entire conversation, including the politics that can be expected in this latest round of debt ceiling debate:
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