To Win the Speakership, Kevin McCarthy Had To Promise To Cut Spending. Good.

After 15 failed attempts, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R–Calif.) finally secured the House speakership. Many worry that the concessions McCarthy made to secure his victory—especially commitments to restrain government spending—make the upcoming prospect of raising the debt ceiling perilous. Indeed, some fear that Republicans will refuse to raise the limit if it isn’t paired with restraints on spending.

These worries fail to consider the potential financial danger the U.S. will eventually face if government debt continues to balloon unrestrained.

Government spending is enormous, and so is the debt, which is now close to 100 percent of GDP. And it’s still growing. Meanwhile, thanks to higher interest rates, the cost of borrowing money to pay for government’s everyday spending—much of it on activities better left to the states or to the private sector—is growing rapidly. This debt-servicing cost is a risk on top of the growth of the debt itself.

Every dollar spent by government is a dollar’s worth of resources drained away from the private sector, from household consumption, and from private businesses. When paid for with taxes, government spends with some semblance of responsibility because it’s not running up a credit card bill to be handed to future generations. But use of the debt credit card encourages spending that a responsible government would avoid. Far too many resources are sucked from the private sector into the public sector, reducing investment, innovation, and growth. Some restrain on deficit financing is necessary.

Enter the debt ceiling, which caps the amount of debt Uncle Sam can accumulate. When it was instituted some 80 years ago, it was intended to act as a break on congression