A weekly roundup of cartoons and context, collected from a range of sources by Star Tribune Opinion's Mike Thompson. This week's subject: The debt ceiling.

By Mike Thompson

May 19, 2023 at 10:45PM

Musings:

Political cartoons rely on hyperbole to make a point, yet it's hard to exaggerate the damage that would result from the United States defaulting on its debt.

Right now, Congressional Republicans and the White House are at loggerheads over raising the nation's debt ceiling; in other words, Washington can't agree to borrow more money to pay our nation's bills. This is necessary because we've borrowed right up to our legally mandated limit, the so-called debt ceiling. Never mind that the appropriate time to discuss what to spend and what to cut is during budget negotiations, Republicans are now insisting on severe spending cuts in exchange for their support in raising the debt ceiling.

Since January, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has been resorting to "extraordinary measures" to keep the country financially afloat but predicts that the nation could enter default as early as June.

How worried should you be? Here's how the experts describe the situation:

"We're watching a slow-moving trainwreck collide with a dumpster fire." — Isaac Boltansky, director of policy research at Bandwidth Technologies International Group
"The act of holding the full faith and credit of the United States hostage is the economic equivalent of aiming a nuclear missile at the American (and world) economies and demanding concessions. It's not a bargaining tactic. It's a terrorist tactic." — Former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich
"If Congress fails to increase the debt limit, it would cause severe hardship to American families, harm our global leadership position, and raise questions about our ability to defend our national security interests." — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen
"The risk and threat of default is a risk (of) economic catastrophe for all Americans." — Gene Sperling, senior economic adviser to President Biden

When comments from the experts surpass the hyperbole of political cartoons, we're in deep trouble.

Comic relief:

America's late-night comedians have honed in on the debt ceiling impasse:

"Everyone wants to chip in [to help pay off the nation's debt]. Today President Biden said he was going to have a garage sale, but his garage is a crime scene."
— Jimmy Fallon, "The Tonight Show"
"House Republicans are refusing [to raise the debt ceiling] in order to leverage the standoff to extract major spending cuts … that's like a husband saying 'honey, we're spending too much on entertainment. So either we cancel one of our streaming services, or I shove your grandpa into the river.' "
— Stephen Colbert, "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert"

Ways and Memes:

Even before the latest debt ceiling scrap, Americans were over Washington politics, budgets and spending in general, as these memes demonstrate:

Come back next week for another collection of cartoons, comments and funny stuff.