Mathew completed his AP civics project during today's sessions. In his written policy paper, he addressed the debt ceiling bill passed by the House, and proposed amendments or alternatives to the bill in order to gain enough bipartisan support to make sure the US does not default on its obligations next month. We discussed both policy issues and political strategies that could be implemented to pressure members of Congress to compromise , noting the political cost to House members and the president in next year's elections(House and President) if a recession hurts the economy or interest rates dramatically rise as a result of a US default.
As his AP civics project, Matthew decided to write a hypothetical letter to a congressman concerning the current stalemate over raising the debt ceiling. We reviewed the provisions of the bill recently passed by the House, and discussed alternative proposals and how to implement other options to gain Congressional and presidential support in order to avoid a US government default . Matthew then began drafting his letter by explaining the severe consequences to the economy and the stock market if the US were to default on its obligations. We will complete this project during our final class on Friday.
