This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Community Corner

Debt Ceiling Debate: Who is at Fault?

Former New Jersey Secretary of State DeForest Soaries says the vitriolic debate is a reflection of a new, negative era of Republican leadership

“Compared to the Tea Party, Gov. Whitman was a Democrat,” said the Rev. Dr. DeForest Soaries Jr. when I interviewed him Monday about the federal budget debate for UrbanFaith.com

Soaries was New Jersey Secretary of State under Christine Todd Whitman and a two-time political appointee of George W. Bush. He is pastor of First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens in Somerset, and said he weaves instruction on financial responsibility and economic opportunity into every sermon he preaches.

He is also author of dfree: Breaking Free from Financial Slavery. The book and First Baptist's personal finance program were featured last fall in CNN’s Black in America “Almighty Debt” documentary. 

“I had no philosophical or ideological conflict working with the Republicans in New Jersey because, prior to Chris Christie, the Republicans in New Jersey were very moderate. In fact, the Republicans in North Jersey were actually more progressive than the Democrats in South Jersey,” said Soaries.

He was reacting to a federal budget fight that brought the United States to the brink of defaulting on its loans for the first time in history. President Obama and Republican congressional leaders reached an agreement Sunday night on a compromise to permit U.S. borrowing by the Treasury in exchange for more than $2 trillion in long-term spending cuts, The Huffington Post reported. The president signed the bill into law hours before before the deadline to extend the debt limit ran out.

Soaries wasn’t surprised Congress wrestled so violently over the issue. 

“Most of the legislation that’s passed in Washington goes through similar trauma and drama,” he said.

It was Tea Party Republicans who drew the spotlight to the debt ceiling, Soaries said, even though it had been raised twice as often under Republican leadership as it had been under Democratic leadership. The underlying conflict stems from differing perspectives on the proper role of government, he said.

Democrats generally believe that it is appropriate for government to sponsor programs that address human needs and don’t mind incurring debt to fund those programs. Republicans generally assume that the primary role of the federal government is defense and didn’t complain when President Bush borrowed more than $6 trillion, mostly to pay for war, said Soaries.

“When you have single-issue type zealotry in the legislative process, the word compromise is a bad word, and the legislative process requires compromise,” he said.

Find out what's happening in Toms Riverwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Soaries should know. As chairman of the bipartisan U.S. Election Assistance Commission, he was charged with correcting voting irregularities that were revealed in the 2000 presidential election. Every vote the commission took under his leadership was unanimous, he said. 

“We didn’t get into this mess overnight, and we’re not going to get out of it overnight. There ought to be a balanced, gradual strategy to repair the federal budget. … You can’t simply go to programs that support the most vulnerable, even if you agree that it’s inappropriate,” said Soaries.

“You cannot eliminate $14 trillion in debt in three months. You have to do it gradually because … there is a human story behind every item in the federal budget, and if you don’t balance your fiscal prudence with humane values, then you’ll do what my grandmother used to say: you’ll cut off your nose to spite your face,” he said.

What do you think? Are a new breed of Republicans in New Jersey and elsewhere more strident and uncompromising than in previous administrations or is their zealotry justified given the financial straights we're in both locally and nationally?

Find out what's happening in Toms Riverwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?