National Debt-Ceiling – The US’s Political Game of Chicken

Last week the Democrats and Republicans came to an ‘arrangement’ (an ‘agreement’ might be the impolitic term to use) to defer the resolution of the 2021 National Debt-Ceiling crisis by two months until second week in December. This means that they effectively increased the Debt-Ceiling sufficiently to bridge that “gap” of time. The problem itself is not really solved at all, it is just “kicking the can down the road” as almost everyone in the media is stating.

However, while Kicking-The-Can-Down-The-Road (KTCDTR) is a very typical political strategy for dealing with an issue that cannot be forced by one side because they control sufficient votes in both houses of Congress or they don’t have sufficient bi-partisan support to pass their decision. Since the Republicans chose what they see as a politically good strategy to improve their 2022 election campaign prospects, the Democrats cannot easily get approval for increase the Debt-Ceiling. It doesn’t matter that this is a pretty standard item to get approved with bi-partisan support, the Republicans see advantages for them to provide none. This is what politicians do.

While the deferral to December is a described as KTCDTR, a more appropriate analogy for the current maneuver is a game of “Chicken”. Whichever party or sub-group of politicians is trying to gain some advantage(s) in negotiations on the Debt-Ceiling issue, the strategy is basically playing “Chicken”. Whoever blinks, jumps, or calls uncle first loses. Sometimes no one ‘blinks’ and there is no winner and the public receives the “prize” which results from not getting the issue resolved. The “prizes” in the past from not passing Debt-Ceiling increases have not been good for the US or the public. So, the game of Chicken is still very much the right context to consider in the current crisis or the Christmas present crisis that is now to be anticipated.

The Democrats’ problem and thus President Biden’s is that without a couple of Republicans providing support in the Senate, they can’t just pass the increase which has been the standard and very simple solution. The Republicans have pushed the Democrats to the brink and believe they have a win-win situation. No matter what happens, it will be Biden’s and the Democrats fault for whatever happens.

Now, there is a solution for the Democrats, particularly for President Biden which solves their problem. It is a fairly easy solution in fact. That the counter to the Republican’s strategy is easy means that the leaders and members of both parties have done a bad job of problem-solving. The Republicans picked a strategy which is trivial to counter and turn the table on them. The Democrats haven’t been able to solve the problem the Republicans created which doesn’t speak well to their political skills either.

Someone is going to ask, “Well what is the solution, bright guy?” And the answer is that just look at the game. It is a game of Chicken. So that should provide a sufficient context to let you find any of the rather self-evident three solutions that are available. With a little savvy strategic planning, a very beneficial strategy can be had. Whether anyone in the Democratic party can find one of the solutions, we will have to wait and see; but they did not find it the first time around and have had to defer the game of Chicken until December.

Perhaps the solution isn’t so obvious to politicians or political operatives. They may not have mind-sets that are amenable to this type of problem-solving, if any type. Politicians nor their advisers may be all that experienced in strategic problem-analysis or solving. If their obstacle to finding a solution is their deficiencies in the skill-set, competencies, and knowledge for problem-solving methodologies then they may have to resort to the basic method that businesses sometimes use when they are unable to figure out how to solve a problem facing their business; hiring a consultant(s) that can lay out the options and even recommended a particular strategy.