By Rolland Kidder

Though it has been almost 50 years ago, I can still vividly remember the last day of the 1975 session of the New York State legislature. It was in mid-December, and we had been in session for most of the year trying to deal with the bankruptcy of New York City.

Now, in December, the “chickens had come home to roost” for the State of New York itself. The banks had told us that unless we approved more revenue and cleaned up our balance sheet in Albany … there would be no more access to the credit markets for the State. It was “crunch time.”

Finally, it the middle of the night, after a lot of “arm-twisting” and “wheeling and dealing,” the state legislature approved (though without my vote I must admit) a tax hike to balance the budget. I can still hear the words of a legislator from Nassau County stating the words of wisdom which would carry the day. “Mr. Speaker,” he said, “I don’t like this bill nor, likely, does anyone in this room. However, we can’t let the State default. The Governor has given you a “bucket of water” to carry, and I have decided to carry my cupful.” The bill passed with few votes to spare.

Fast forward to what happened in Washington, D.C. on the first and second of June 2023. It was “crunch time,” and the credit of the United States was on the line. The approval of extending the national debt was needed. Through a lot of persuasion and “arm-twisting,” the debt extender was finally passed — yes, again, at the last minute and in the middle of the night. The toughest decisions in politics end up being put-off until, at last, there is no time left and a decision is required.

Though the bill passed in the House first, there were two people in the U.S. Senate who helped finally push it over the finish line. One was in that same room with me back in 1975 in Albany — the then newly elected Democratic Assemblyman from Brooklyn, Chuck Schumer. Schumer learned then, and it is still true today, that tough votes come at the end of tough negotiations when time is running out. This month, Schumer, as Majority Leader, had to lead the Senate in approving the bill which had passed the House. There could be no amendments to it, or it would fail to get to the President’s desk. He had to lead the charge on the floor to kill all hostile amendments so that the bill could be passed intact and sent to the White House.

There was another key person in the Senate who helped stave off debt default–and that was Minority Leader Mitch McConnel, a Republican. When negotiations bogged down, he called his old friend (now in the White House) Joe Biden and said: “If you want to get this done, reduce the number of people in the room.” And, so, at the end, it was just Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy with a couple of staff members from each side who hammered out the legislation which would ultimately pass.

Each side could take credit and each side also took its lumps…but the country was saved from default. It may not have been pretty, but it is the way politics usually works in a democracy. Often the big decisions are too tough to deal with until it is “crunch time.” In this case, the Nation was saved from default, and, perhaps, the ground was laid so that we can begin to move away from our addiction to increasing expenditures (often without commensurate revenue) and then borrowing the money to pay for it.

Rolland Kidder is a Stow resident and a former New York State Assembly member.