An Agreement Democrats Can Support

By Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz on Monday, August 01, 2011

Last night, President Obama announced a compromise agreement to prevent the United States from defaulting on its debt for the first time in history – an unprecedented event that would cause economic pain to families all across our country. But last night’s bipartisan agreement does more than avert a crisis – it guarantees that America will continue to honor its obligations to our seniors and the most vulnerable, and it lays out a path to balanced deficit reduction that will include revenue increases. So while no one got everything they wanted in this deal, this is a compromise that Democrats can support.

First and foremost, this agreement means that we won’t default on our debt for the first time in our nation’s history and it dispenses with the issue of the debt ceiling until 2013. Therefore, this agreement guarantees that Republicans cannot hold our economy hostage again over the next 18 months with the threat of a catastrophic default hanging over our heads. That’s a sharp contrast with Speaker Boehner’s bill, which would have left a cloud of uncertainty hanging over our economy with Republicans again trying to use the prospect of default to extract unacceptable cuts to critical programs like Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid.

In addition, the agreement announced by President Obama protects important investments in America’s future, including aid for college students. We can’t afford to stop investing in our future to balance America’s checkbook today, and this agreement makes sure we won’t. Similarly, it guarantees that Social Security, Medicare benefits, and Medicaid will not be gutted to pay for deficit reduction. Given Republicans’ apparent determination to end Medicare as we know it, that should come as a great relief to seniors across the country.

Finally, the agreement sets out a process by which America can get its fiscal house in order – not by balancing the budget on the backs of the middle class, but by coming to a balanced agreement that includes revenue-increasing tax reforms. President Obama has made it clear that the time for such reforms has come, and this agreement includes a powerful enforcement mechanism that will incentivize Republicans to join with Democrats to achieve a deficit reduction deal by the end of 2012.

Now, I’m sure that despite the many positive elements of this agreement, there are still those who would say that it’s just not good enough. Those people should know that the alternative at this late date would be default, from which catastrophic economic consequences would surely flow. There are no other deals on the table, and given Republicans’ intransigence, no other deals at this late date were possible. However, avoiding default, lifting the debt ceiling through 2012, eliminating the economic uncertainty that repeated fights over the debt ceiling would have caused, protecting Social Security,Medicare and Medicaid and putting in place an enforceable process for balanced deficit reduction with new tax revenues are all results that would not have come about if not for the leadership of President Obama and Democratic leaders and have resulted in an agreement that Democrats can be proud to support.