Debt limit

(shush!)

 

Well, looks like McCarthy and Biden decided to kick the can. Oh well, that's what's supposed to happen in a functioning democracy. Guess my Social Security check won't be delayed after all.

 

My fantasy of eliminating the National Debt with a few dozen Trillion Dollar Coins has gone a'glimmering.

 

I hope not. In two years the majority might shift back.

 

The House Rules Committee has one GOP Freedom Caucus member who thinks he can scuttle the whole deal. Chip Roy got on the committee as one of the appointments McCarthy had to agree to in order to become Speaker. Behold the desperate need to get rid of the debt limit!

 

Well, the bill passed the House with bipartisan support and in spite of the best efforts of the Freedom Caucus and the Far Left. Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer both say it should pass in the Senate so I guess the crisis is averted.

 

Did the "Far Left" try to scuttle it the way people like Chip (Connor) Roy did? Yes, people at the extremes of both parties objected to it--a sign of quality, IMHO--but were they equal? I don't think so at all.

 

I understand that sentiment but anyone trying to stop the bill, Left or Right, put ideology before the current needs of the country and its people. That's unacceptable to me.

 

A longer term effect is that now it's clear that the Freedom Caucus doesn't have the leverage it thought it had.

 

Me, too. I don't like the idea of the nation's credit (and world economy) being held hostage. But I also recognize that the opposition controls one chamber of Congress. Thus, I am in favor of the deal, even though I think it stinks.

Almost twice as many people from one party voted against it compared to the other. There are important differences between the two sets of opposition. One side felt this was a heinous act, while the other felt it wasn't heinous enough.

 

I wanted to point out this sentence because it made me laugh out loud. My view is that it sums it all up in a nut shell. I really got the impression that the heinous actors wanted to crash our economy because they thought it would create a political advantage for them in 2024. That's a tough one to swallow. I hope that I'm wrong.

 

Interesting. The bill didn't raise the debt limit. It suspends it altogether through the next election. A step closer, perhaps, to killing it off permanently?

 

If a bill didn't/doesn't pass then I assume Biden would have just declared the debt limit suspended in order for him to not violate the 14 amendment. It would then go to the DC appellate court and then the Supreme Court? Assuming of course that the Republicans filed a lawsuit. I have no clue what the courts would decide?

 

Senate votes this evening and there's little doubt the bill will pass. Then Biden signs and my Social Security check arrives on time. 27 million Americans "of a certain age" receive a Social Security pension and as a group we tend to vote early and often. That's part of the problem of course.

 

As to what the President might have done, I really don't know. It's easy for me to sit here amidst my cats drinking an Arnold Palmer and argue for Trillion Dollar Coins but who knows what any such action would have on the bond markets where the Treasury must peddle heart stopping amounts of debt just to keep the Ship of State off the rocks.

 

Passed the Senate last night and goes to Biden today. After the next election maybe we can finally get rid of the stupid thing forever.

 

Set for signing on Saturday.

 

I don't know what the President might have done, or if it's even a real question. The actual Administration performance in this process, though, invokes terms like "competent". Brandon did pretty much the kind of job he was elected to do; it's a mystery to me why his approval rating is not higher than it is. Even though he's not the guy I would imagine as a President in hypothetical ideal world (that would be Warren. Or, you know, HRC.) The public keeps hanging on bogus issues like "charisma" or "age".

 

I agree with your premise that Biden is doing a very good, even a surprisingly very good job (and I expected him to do a good job). Now let me try to explain the age issue by relating this nightmare that keeps haunting me. Biden and Trump win their respective nominations. Trump gets indicted for obstruction of justice, mishandling classified documents, and espionage. He faces trial prior to the election. Biden has a heart attack and dies. Trump gets elected President and then gets sent to prison. There's no doubt in my mind that Trump would cling to power in such a situation, country be damned. The theoretical solution is impeachment and removal from office but I have little faith in the Republican party to do the right thing in that case.