Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At this point, Bidem should simply announce that the faith and credit of the United States is IN the Constitution, and as President he is honoring the US debt and credit, and simply ignore the House.

+1 The global economy cannot be trusted to this idiot and his merry band of cultists.

Not only is the GOP unlawfully, unconstitutionally threatening the faith and credit of the United States, they are also causing uncertainty that is undermining the US by creating the conditions for a massive currency switch to the BRICS exchanges.

They are not threatening that. Refusing to borrow more money is not the same as not making debt payments.

It is when you cannot make debt payments and other spending required by law without borrowing.

+1 This is ridiculous.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Deficiency of leadership" describes this administration perfectly.

So Manchin became a Republican to try to make fiscal conservatism a thing after they went MAGA? I can't believe anyone listens to this clown.

He's running in WV. He has to make a bunch of noise about being independent. Biden will ignore him, as he should.

Anonymous wrote:"Deficiency of leadership" describes this administration perfectly.

So Manchin became a Republican to try to make fiscal conservatism a thing after they went MAGA? I can't believe anyone listens to this clown.

The debt ceiling is about paying the bills for money already spent, IE the money Trump and The GOP ran up over the past 5 years before Biden and during Biden's first year to date.

If this really wants to get solved, they should eliminate the stupid law and undo both the Trump tax cuts and the GWBush tax cuts.

Cutting discretionary spending that the GOP and Dems approved over the last 90 years does nothing to impact the issue.

Anonymous wrote:Why is the debt ceiling even a thing? Not paying our debts is explicitly prohibited by the Constitution.

Can someone explain?

Recommend signing up for historian Heather Cox Richardson’s daily sneed summaries with historical context for major news items.


April 19, 2023
HEATHER COX RICHARDSON
APR 20


The debt ceiling crisis has brought the difference between Biden Democrats and the modern Republican Party into sharp relief.

The debt ceiling is not about future spending; future spending is debated when Congress takes up the budget. The debt ceiling is a curious holdover from the past, when Congress actually wanted to enable the government to be flexible in its borrowing rather than holding the financial reins too tightly. In the era of World War I, when the country needed to raise a lot of money fast, Congress stopped passing specific revenue measures and instead set a cap on how much money the government could borrow through all of the different instruments it used.

Beginning in the 1980s, though, Republicans began to use the debt ceiling as a political cudgel because if it is not raised when Congress spends more than it has the ability to repay, the country will default on its debts. Republicans focused on cutting taxes, initially promising that tax cuts would not require any cuts to services because they would nurture the economy so effectively that tax revenues would increase despite the cuts. Immediately, though, both deficits—the difference between what the government spends and what it takes in—and the debt, which is the total sum that the government owes, ballooned.

That skyrocketing debt means that Congress repeatedly has to increase the amount that the Treasury borrows to pay the country’s bills. That is, it must lift the debt ceiling. Congress has raised the debt ceiling more than 100 times since it first went into effect, including 18 times under Ronald Reagan as well as 3 times under former president Donald Trump.

The United States has never defaulted on its debt. When Republicans threatened to push a debt crisis in late 2021, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that a default “could trigger a spike in interest rates, a steep drop in stock prices, and other financial turmoil. Our current economic recovery would reverse into recession, with billions of dollars of growth and millions of jobs lost.” It would jeopardize the status of the U.S. dollar as the international reserve currency. Financial services firm Moody's Analytics warned that a default would cost up to 6 million jobs, create an unemployment rate of nearly 9%, and wipe out $15 trillion in household wealth.

Now House Republicans under speaker Kevin McCarthy are insisting they will force the country into default unless Biden and the Democrats abandon their legislative program and do what the Republicans want. And what they want is to enact a drastic version of the Republican platform of the past 40 years. Today, McCarthy introduced a 320-page measure that would address the deficit and growing debt by drastic cuts to government programs across the board.

It is largely a wish list of right-wing demands such as a repeal of key measures of the Inflation Reduction Act, including those addressing climate change and funding the Internal Revenue Service; additional requirements to qualify for benefit programs; and getting rid of the program to forgive certain student debt. It would lift the debt ceiling only for a year, meaning the government would be right back to negotiating over it almost immediately.

There are two things at work behind this demand. The first is that the Republicans are in such extraordinary disarray that they are unable to put forward a budget—which is part of the normal process of funding the government—because they are unable to agree on one that can get enough votes to pass the House. Different factions in the party want cuts that, even if they could get through the House, would never pass the Senate, and the farthest-right group of lawmakers have indicated they won’t agree to anything. With this grab-bag measure, McCarthy is trying to cover all his bases, but already some of his conference is torn that it goes too far…or not far enough.

That inability to get their way through normal political channels illustrates the larger story behind the Republicans' position: they want to destroy the government as it has existed since 1933, but since that government is actually quite popular, they cannot get the cuts they want by going through normal legislative procedures. Instead, they are trying to get their demands by holding the rest of us hostage. It is notable that while the Republicans are willing to slash education, food safety, and so on, they want to preserve the Trump tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations that cost the Treasury $2 trillion. Their stated concern for financial responsibility is also undermined by the reality that repealing the funding for the woefully understaffed IRS is expected to cost the Treasury $124 billion as wealthy tax cheats continue to avoid enforcement.

McCarthy is doubling down on his debt ceiling demands in part because the Republican base is wedded to Trump, which means the Republican Party is now wedded to Trump, and Trump insists that Republicans must use the debt ceiling to get what they want. Early hopes that they could run a Trump-like candidate without the Trump baggage—someone like Florida governor Ron DeSantis—are starting to fade. Today, Matt Dixon of NBC News reported that although the DeSantis team asked him to hold off on an endorsement, the co-chair of the Florida congressional delegation, Vern Buchanan, has endorsed Trump.

Buchanan said that Trump will “get our economy back on track,” including lowering taxes and “promoting America-first trade deals.” A former chair of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, Buchanan is one of the wealthiest members of Congress. He clearly continues to believe that the key to boosting the economy is more tax cuts and is willing to accept all the other pieces of another Trump presidency—Trump has recently called for vengeance against his enemies, replacing civil servants with his own loyalists, and attacking Mexico—so long as the United States government embraces the supply side economics the Republicans have advanced since 1981.

….

Opinion We will hold the country hostage until our demands are met — once we know them
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/04/21/republican-debt-ceiling-standoff-holdup-satire/

“Okay, what must be cut or we tear the whole place down? Entitlements? No! Well — military spending? Look, we can figure it all out later! The point is, we are serious! This is the process of serious people! Nothing says “We are serious about our demands” like “Kevin is rushing to determine what our demands are, and he is almost done!”

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is the debt ceiling even a thing? Not paying our debts is explicitly prohibited by the Constitution.

Can someone explain?

It seems to be a "thing" only when a Democrat is in the Oval Office. Republicans don't care about it when one of their guys is president. This is a fact that can be verified and no Republican can deny it.

Understood, but why are Democrats going along with this fiction. Why doesn't the Treasury Department just pay the damned bills?

Because Congress controls the pursestrings and the deficit spending, millionaire-tax-cutting, middle-class-destroying, fascist death cult controls Congress.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is the debt ceiling even a thing? Not paying our debts is explicitly prohibited by the Constitution.

Can someone explain?

It seems to be a "thing" only when a Democrat is in the Oval Office. Republicans don't care about it when one of their guys is president. This is a fact that can be verified and no Republican can deny it.

Understood, but why are Democrats going along with this fiction. Why doesn't the Treasury Department just pay the damned bills?

Anonymous wrote:Why is the debt ceiling even a thing? Not paying our debts is explicitly prohibited by the Constitution.

Can someone explain?

It seems to be a "thing" only when a Democrat is in the Oval Office. Republicans don't care about it when one of their guys is president. This is a fact that can be verified and no Republican can deny it.

Why is the debt ceiling even a thing? Not paying our debts is explicitly prohibited by the Constitution.

Can someone explain?

Are republicans on board with huge cuts to defense spending?

So manchin thinks biden should agree to cuts in Medicaid and SNAP?

Anonymous wrote:"Deficiency of leadership" describes this administration perfectly.

No Biden is doing a great job keeping people like yourself from destroying the country. We all saw what you all did and are doing now.

Anonymous wrote:"Deficiency of leadership" describes this administration perfectly.

Lol didn’t Joe Manchin vote for all the recent spending packages?

"Deficiency of leadership" describes this administration perfectly.