In Defense of Thomas Massie

Not being there, I don’t know for sure whether I would vote for the “Big Beautiful Bill.” But, to be honest, I suspect I would, despite major reservations, because the alternative is a complete stalling of Trump’s agenda. Politics, being a team sport, often means doing things for the team despite having major reservations. 

But with that said, and perhaps admitting that I suspect that I am a wuss when the chips are down, I am very glad that Representative Thomas Massie is in Congress and that he refuses to bend to the will of his caucus. 

Somebody has to stand up and tell the truth, and if every Republican were Massie, the United States would be in much better hands, and we wouldn’t be in the mess we are right now. 

One of the great frustrations I have when discussing politics with moderates is not that they disagree with me, nor even that they find Trump’s bull-in-a-china-shop style so off-putting that they reject his arguments out of hand; it’s that they are blind to how screwed we are unless radical changes are made very soon. 

For decades, the United States has enjoyed a privileged position in the world economy, and one that has created an illusion that will soon be broken. The fact that the dollar has been the world’s reserve currency has allowed us to borrow essentially unlimited amounts of money without paying significant interest rates, and the result has been that the U.S. government has borrowed so much from the rest of the world that our deficit and debt burden have become unsustainable. 

The tipping point came during the COVID pandemic, when the government borrowed and printed so much money that inflation and interest rates began to spike–it turned out that our ability to borrow without consequence was not without limits. The country now spends more on interest on the debt than it does on defense, and literally has to borrow from investors today in order to pay interest on debt sold in recent years. 

Over the past few years, the US government has been shedding its top-tier bond rating, with the latest blow happening last Friday as Moody’s downgraded the US. As you can see, the interest rate on 10-year bonds has essentially quintupled since 2020 (with some fluctuations), and every tick up adds to the cost of borrowing. 

The U.S. government is spending far more than it takes in as revenue, causing ever-rising debt — and there is no sign that will change anytime soon.

The big picture: Those facts are well-known to anybody who has taken a cursory look at the government’s books. But Moody’s decision to downgrade the U.S. credit rating Friday is the latest reminder that this precarious fiscal standing comes with real risks.

• Moody’s — the last of the three major raters to downgrade the U.S. from its once-pristine credit rating — is acknowledging that U.S. policymakers may have less room to maneuver in future recessions or crises, in light of the massive existing pile of debt.
• It is one more sign that an era in which the U.S. government could borrow seemingly limitless amounts, without experiencing the cost of higher interest rates and inflation, may have come to an end.

Zoom out: Ratings from firms like Moody’s help determine how much companies, municipalities, and even sovereign nations must pay to borrow money.

• The downgrade implies that the U.S. government is a bigger credit risk than it seemed, which in theory could make some investors demand higher interest payments to buy government bonds.
• That would ripple through into higher borrowing costs across the economy, including for home and auto loans.

Worse, we keep borrowing multiple trillions of dollars a year, ensuring that the debt/GDP ratio will worsen. It brings to mind the observation that one becomes bankrupt slowly, then all at once. You can stretch out the time it takes for collapse, but the collapse will come eventually. 

More succinctly: what can’t go on forever won’t.

Massie is one of the few voices in Washington who doesn’t just make a nod to that fact and then move on. He recognizes that the time to address a looming crisis is before, not after it happens. And the hour is late already. 

It is indisputably true that Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” does nothing to change the trajectory of the country’s finances, and just as true that the reason it doesn’t is that it is politically difficult or even politically suicidal for most politicians to vote to do what it would take to address the crisis. 

Après moi, le déluge. 

I sure wish Trump would blast the New York Republicans blocking repeal of insane Inflation Reduction Act subsidies as much as he blasts Massie for saying no to them https://t.co/JzTG1i2neD

— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) May 20, 2025

It is easy to attack Massie for not being a team player or not understanding the compromises that must be made to move the ball forward. Indeed, you can’t die on every hill. The laws of biology suggest that you can only do so once unless you are Jesus Christ, so it’s best to pick that hill with care. 

But saving the country is a pretty good hill to die on, and Massie is right to urge his colleagues to join him. 

Unfortunately, it won’t happen. Republicans can’t even muster the votes to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act or limit the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction that only benefits Blue states. All those DOGE cuts? They will disappear as well. 

Even if Massie is not going to come out of this fight a winner, I refuse to make fun of him or applaud those attacking him for the sin of being right.