Balkinization  

Tuesday, May 02, 2023

With debt standoff, libertarianism hits the ceiling

Andrew Koppelman

House Republicans, who refuse to raise the debt ceiling without a spending freeze, have persuaded themselves (ignoring their own economists) that defaulting on the national debt might not produce a catastrophic depression.  Here, as with climate change, wishful thinking has led them to delusion.  The wish that begot the thinking is the notion that reducing the size and scope of government will make us freer.

I just published a critical history of libertarianism. The ideas that undergird Republicans’ demands are the ones I warn about in my book: apocalyptic pessimism about government, irresponsible vagueness about what will take its place.  The book aims to be a kind of Narcan for the many who have consumed toxic levels of libertarian ideas.  The debt standoff shows its urgency.

I elaborate in a new column at The Hill.


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