On Tuesday, House Democrats approved a continuing resolution (CR) stopggp spending bill and debt ceiling suspension bill on a party-line vote.
Democrats are the only responsible governing party, keeping the federal government operating past the end of the fiscal year on September 30, and doing their constitutionally prescribed duty to honor the full faith and credit of the debts incurred by the United States to prevent a catastrophic default on the U.S. debt for the first time in history.
The Sedition Party is a domestic terrorist organization hellbent on blowing up the U.S. and world economy with fiscal terrorism, resulting in increased unemployment and economic hardship, and economic chaos. The Sedition Party is purposefully trying to harm Americans, and this is how the feckless media should be reporting it.
The House Democrats came to America’s rescue. But in the Senate, there is still the antiquated Jim Crow relic filibuster rule that the Sedition Party and the “Grim Reaper of Democracy,” Mitch McConnell, uses as a weapon of mass destruction against America. And they are aided and abetted by at least two (maybe more) Democratic Senators who are appeasers of the Sedition Party’s war against American democracy. This situation cannot continue, and will come to a crisis situation in the next two weeks.
Roll Call reports, House passes stopgap funding, debt ceiling suspension bill:
The House passed a catchall budget package Tuesday that’s intended to avoid a partial government shutdown and debt limit crisis, but it seems likely to come back for a do-over once the Senate works its will.
The stopgap funding bill, which passed on a 220-211 party-line vote, would extend federal agency budget authority through Dec. 3 and provide nearly $35 billion in aid to disaster victims and relocation assistance Afghan refugees who helped the U.S. government during two decades of war.
The package advanced after a few hours of drama earlier in the day over an initial decision to grant Israel’s $1 billion request for air defense system funds. Progressive Democrats opposed to Israel’s military response to rocket attacks launched by Palestinian groups from the Gaza Strip in May forced party leaders to strip the money.
GOP lawmakers backed the Israeli defense funds, as well as much of the underlying package that remained intact. But they rebuked Democrats for adding language that would suspend the statutory debt limit through Dec. 16, 2022, or beyond the midterm elections.
GOP lawmakers backed the Israeli defense funds, as well as much of the underlying package that remained intact. But the [Sedition Party] rebuked Democrats for adding language that would suspend the statutory debt limit through Dec. 16, 2022, or beyond the midterm elections.
“This one decision could force us into an unnecessary and costly government shutdown, and other critical programs in this bill could be left behind,” House Appropriations Committee ranking member Kay Granger, R-Texas, told the Rules Committee on Tuesday.
Excuse me? Democrats doing their constitutionally prescribed duty to honor the full faith and credit of the debts incurred by the United States to prevent a catastrophic default on the U.S. debt for the first time in history is the reason that these domestic terrorists are using as an excuse to blow up the U.S. and world economy, and harm American citizens? This is like the serial killer who calls the cops and tells them “stop me before I kill again!“
[The “Grim Reaper of Democracy”], Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has argued for months that despite years of bipartisan negotiations on the debt limit, Democrats should go at it alone this year since they are using the partisan budget reconciliation process to enact their fiscal priorities without GOP input.
“Republican leaders used the same fast-track process to get around the Senate’s 60-vote legislative filibuster for their 2017 tax bill and unsuccessfully tried to use it to repeal and replace the 2010 health care law when they were in the majority,” which is the U.S. debt incurred that we must now raise the debt ceiling to prevent a default on the U.S. debt. This is like the dinner guest who orders the most expensive items on the menu and orders the most expensive wine, and then skips out when the bill comes due, sticking everyone else at the table with the bill. Republicans have always been deadbeats.
Moody’s Analytics on Tuesday warned Congress against exacerbating uncertainty on a debt limit suspension, saying that if a bill isn’t enacted before the Treasury Department runs out of cash and borrowing room “the resulting chaos in global financial markets will be difficult to bear.”
Note: Republicans in control of the House in 2011 held the debt ceiling hostage for their extortion ransom demand of “budget sequestration.” The debt ceiling crisis of 2011 sparked the most volatile week for financial markets since the 2008 crisis, with the stock market trending significantly downward. The credit-rating agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded the credit rating of the United States government for the first time in the country’s history. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimated that the delay in raising the debt ceiling increased government borrowing costs by $1.3 billion in 2011 and also pointed to unestimated higher costs in later years.
“The U.S. and global economies, which still have a long way to go to recover from the recession caused by the pandemic, will descend back into recession,” Moody’s Chief Economist Mark Zandi and Assistant Director Bernard Yaros wrote.
House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer acknowledged earlier in the day that the Senate could make changes and send the package back to the House. The procedural hurdles along the way could put final passage pretty close to the deadline; without a presidential signature on the continuing resolution, starting Oct. 1 the federal government would begin a partial shutdown. Dozens of agencies would have to furlough workers and require others to work without pay.
[If] lawmakers can’t reach agreement on the debt limit before the Treasury Department runs out of borrowing authority, the federal government would only be able to pay its bills each day using existing cash. That could put Social Security checks, pay for federal employees and dozens of other financial obligations at risk.
Treasury has said Congress needs to act sometime next month; Wrightson ICAP, a private investment advisory firm, said this week the drop-dead deadline was likely Oct. 25 or 26.
[T]he stopgap funding bill would provide $28.6 billion to help state and local governments recover from natural disasters, including $10 billion to cover agricultural losses from 2020 and 2021 weather events, nearly $6 billion for Army Corps of Engineers flood control projects, $5 billion for housing and economic development projects and $2.6 billion for highway repairs, among other items.
The measure would separately put more cash into the Federal Emergency Management’s disaster relief fund on Oct.1. As of Aug. 31, the agency estimated an end-of-September balance of $36.4 billion; the CR would increase that figure to more than $55 billion.
At least one Senate Republican, John Kennedy from hurricane-battered Louisiana, said Monday he might be inclined to support a package that contains disaster aid.
But House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, also a Louisiana Republican, pointed out the FEMA funds in a notice to fellow Republicans that nonetheless urged them to vote “no” on the combined package.
Will at least 10 Republican senators perform their constitutionally prescribed duty and raise the federal debt ceiling, avoiding a defaut on the U.S. debt? This is the bet that Democrats are making. (Why Democrats still believe that Republicans will do the right thing after a seditious insurrection is beyond comprehension).
But domestic terrorist Mitch McConnell insists that no one in the Sedition Party will vote to raise the federal debt ceiling, promising to filibuster their constitutionally prescribed duty to honor the full faith and credit of the debts incurred by the United States. GOP warns McConnell won’t blink on debt cliff:
Republicans are warning that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) won’t blink as Congress barrels toward dual fiscal debt-shutdown cliffs, with massive economic consequences.
[As] the collision course draws closer, McConnell, even while predicting that there won’t be a default, is showing no signs of swerving.
Republican senators stress that McConnell isn’t bluffing, saying they’ve seen no signs from him behind the scenes that he’s second-guessing the hard-line strategy or preparing to bargain with Democrats. McConnell has used closed-door caucus meetings to privately pitch GOP senators on opposing a debt ceiling increase.
“He’s been very clear about it. And he certainly has expressed his hope that we would all do that,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) about opposing the debt hike. “I think they’re on their own.”
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) added that McConnell “is not bluffing.”
“On this issue I think Sen. McConnell is going to be like that Missouri mule when it sits down in the mud and refuses to budge,” Kennedy said.
Democrats could raise the nation’s borrowing limit without GOP support if they included it in the $3.5 trillion spending bill because they are using budget reconciliation, which allows them to avoid a filibuster. But that has drawbacks, including that there’s no guarantee Democrats could have the bill ready in time to line up with the debt ceiling. Potential fallback for debt ceiling fraught with complications.
The debt ceiling battle on Capitol Hill is pitting corporate America against congressional Republicans in a test for business groups that have historically aligned with GOP lawmakers on economic issues. Debt ceiling fight pits corporate America against Republicans:
The stakes are high in the standoff between Democrats and Republicans. Defaulting on the debt — or even coming dangerously close to doing so — could undermine the nation’s credit rating and upend the global financial system, posing a major risk to company stock prices and corporate bonds.
“The United States of America defaulting on its obligations is not an option; we are counting on Congress to take the necessary steps to address the debt limit,” said Neil Bradley, executive vice president and chief policy officer at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s largest corporate lobbying group.
[T]he risky strategy pits Republicans against corporate America, whose leaders are urging Congress to raise or suspend the debt limit as soon as possible given the likely financial turmoil that would ensue.
A coalition of groups representing investment firms and banks, including Morgan Stanley and Bank of America, warned congressional leaders in a letter last week that a default would damage the nation’s credit, make it harder to pay down debt and pummel financial markets that rely on U.S. Treasury bonds.
“Defaulting on our existing obligations would be irresponsible and do irreparable harm to the U.S. economy and taxpayers,” the groups wrote.
The Business Roundtable, which represents the CEOs of some of the nation’s largest companies, separately sounded the alarm that a default would saddle the federal government and private companies with significantly higher borrowing costs.
“Failure to lift the U.S. federal debt limit to meet U.S. obligations would produce an otherwise avoidable crisis and pose unacceptable risk to the nation’s economic growth, job creation and financial markets,” Business Roundtable CEO Joshua Bolten and Walmart CEO Doug McMillon wrote in a letter to congressional leaders.
Republican opposition to raising the debt limit underscores the divide between GOP lawmakers and corporate America that has only grown in recent years.
Even so, a Politico and Morning Consult poll suggests that Americans would blame the only responsible governing party, and less so the Sedition Party domestic terrorists who actually blew up the economy by filibustering the debt ceiling in the Senate and causing defaulting on the U.S. debt. This country has a serious problem with Stockholm syndrome: “a psychological response which occurs when hostages or abuse victims bond with their captors or abusers. This psychological connection develops over the course of the days, weeks, months, or even years of captivity or abuse.”
Since the Great Depression, Republicans have been causing economic failures for which Democrats have to clean up their mess. Americans then turn on their Democratic rescuers by returning the people who caused the economic failure back in power, rewarding their Republican abusers. Wash, rinse, repeat. Americans never learn.
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Finally, Greg Sargent makes an argument I have been making for years – just end the insanity of the debt ceiling. Take away the GQP’s means of taking the country hostage and demanding ransom every time a Democrat is in the white House. “Kill the debt limit now, Democrats. If you don’t, here’s what will happen.”, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/09/22/mcconnell-democrats-end-debt-limit/
Back in 2011, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell famously described the debt limit as a “hostage that’s worth ransoming.”
The Kentucky Republican meant that the threat of financial Armageddon from the United States defaulting on its debts was a useful weapon for Republicans to extort concessions from Democratic presidents, as Republicans tried to do to Barack Obama, with some success.
Here’s a prediction: If Republicans take control of the Senate, McConnell will again decide that the debt limit is a “hostage that’s worth ransoming.”
Only this time, the target will be President Biden. And if McConnell miraculously doesn’t end up doing this in 2023, Republicans will rerun this playbook some other time in the near future.
Democrats should take this moment to end the debt limit once and for all, to spare themselves — or, more accurately, the country — from having to go through this ever again. They know what will happen if they do not do this, because Republicans have already shown us.
Taking the debt limit hostage isn’t quite what Republicans are doing right now. McConnell is threatening to withhold GOP support for a debt limit suspension, which Democrats want to pass in their short-term bill funding the government. He insists Democrats must raise the debt limit alone by simple majority in the reconciliation process.
But because Democrats control the Senate and do have the reconciliation option, McConnell isn’t in a position to extract concessions. That will change if he again controls the Senate.
[Democrats] are rightly demanding that Republicans help them suspend [the debt ceiling].
McConnell keeps saying that Democrats must do this by themselves, but in reality, Republicans are doing something much worse: They are threatening to filibuster. They will block Democrats from doing what Republicans say they want (i.e., to deal with it themselves) in, say, a clean vote, all to force them to do so in reconciliation, to throw wrenches into that process.
Instead of trying to shame Republicans into doing the right thing — which is like speaking to them in the Vulcan language, given that on this matter, the exercise of power is all they really understand — Democrats should put the debt limit out of its misery.
There are various ways to do this. One would be to suspend the filibuster, if only for this purpose, and simply repeal the debt limit.
Another way, suggested by Georgetown law professor David Super, would be to use reconciliation to pass something by simple majority tying the debt limit to whatever is needed to cover the national debt at any given moment, effectively nullifying it. It’s not clear whether that would pass the parliamentarian’s muster, but it’s worth trying.
[T]here is only one answer to the sort of bad faith: A hard procedural punch in the teeth. If the only language McConnell understands is power, take the weaponry out of his hands, once and for all.
The takeaway from these opinions:
Take away the weapons of mass destruction from the “Grim Reaper of Democracy,” the domestic terrorist Mitch McConnell.
Second, The Post’s Jennifer Rubin in a pair of opinions adds:
“More evidence that talking to Republicans is useless”, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/09/23/more-evidence-that-talking-republicans-is-useless/
Republicans have proved at every turn that they are not merely incapable of governing but are determined to cause havoc and real harm to America — from the refusal to create a Jan. 6 commission, to their assault on voting rights, to their obstruction on raising the debt ceiling.
More examples of their destructiveness arrived on Wednesday. The Post reports that two former treasury secretaries who served under Republican presidents, Henry Paulson and Steven Mnuchin, “held private discussions this month with Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).” The former secretaries and Yellen essentially pleaded with McConnell to vote to lift the debt ceiling rather than wreck the economy. It was no go. The Post quotes former Democratic treasury secretary Lawrence H. Summers as saying, “Reality is not a partisan thing. Raising the debt limit is acknowledging reality, not making a partisan choice.” Well, that is quaint.
[R]epublicans routinely operate in a parallel universe, in which the fun-house mirror of right-wing media reshapes reality to fit its MAGA agenda. The least effective strategies with Republicans is to appeal to their sense of patriotism or shame them into doing the “right thing.” Republicans operate on a singular principle: Whatever helps them retain or accumulate power, they will do, no matter what the harm to America.
[L]ike Charlie Brown and the football, however, Democrats have not ceased their efforts to work across the aisle with Republicans. It does them no good.
[I] do not know how many times Republicans must prove to Democrats that the GOP will refuse to help the country if there is any chance it might annoy the disgraced former president or the MAGA base. It does not matter what the arguments on the merits might be. It does not matter how grave the damage to the country (e.g., violent insurrection). We have never before seen this sort of institutional nihilism.
The solution to a party utterly devoid of patriotism or conscience is twofold. First, voters who want a governable democracy must throw them out up and down the ballot. Second, Senate Democrats must take away the filibuster, a weapon Republicans routinely use to hobble our democracy and are now using to threaten its financial well-being.
[An] irrational and dangerous movement that took over the GOP holds the Senate and the country hostage. The question now is whether Democrats have the nerve to disarm political opponents willing to blow up our democracy and economy.
In a follow-up opinion Rubin writes “As the GOP renounces democratic governance, the rationale to keep the filibuster is evaporating” , https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/09/22/gop-renounces-democratic-governance-rationale-keep-filibuster-is-evaporating/
Mitch McConnell’s logic (only the majority is responsible for the debt ceiling) is another new “rule” that has never existed before — an effort to shirk responsibility for keeping the country running. Even “reasonable” Republicans such as Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) won’t raise the debt limit to pay for spending already passed by Congress — including by Republicans. This is a declaration of total, unbridled obstruction.
The GOP insists the Democrats can raise the debt ceiling in a reconciliation package (which looks iffy). But why should they? Instead of letting Republicans off the hook, Democrats should change the filibuster rules. The filibuster is supposed to promote compromise and debate; Republicans are incapable of either and have announced their intention to do great harm through pure obstruction.
Republicans have proudly announced that they have no interest in governing and intend to operate to the detriment of the country (whether on the Jan. 6 commission or on raising the debt limit). Since Republicans refuse to govern responsibly,
Democrats must. To accomplish that and to protect the country from harm, they must able to operate on 50 Senate votes, plus the vice president. The Republicans who have renounced their obligation to work on the country’s behalf cannot be permitted to hold the country hostage on the debt, on voting rights or on anything else. That is an argument that even Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) would find difficult to reject.
It is time to take Republicans at their word and hold them accountable for their blatant efforts to undermine America’s democracy and economy. The media must do it. Voters must do it. And Democrats now have the perfect opening to do the same by dispensing with the filibuster.
The Washington Post makes the case against the Domestic Terrorists in the Sedition Party.
First, Paul Waldman: “This is what a broken system looks like”, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/09/22/this-is-what-broken-system-looks-like/
The CR must now pass the Senate, where not only will Republicans not vote for it, but they will filibuster it so that it dies.
The Post reports that former Republican treasury secretaries Steven Mnuchin and Hank Paulson recently held private discussions with current Secretary Janet L. Yellen and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), essentially begging McConnell not to create catastrophe by blocking a debt limit increase. Unfortunately, their intervention “did not resolve the matter and the U.S. is now racing toward a massive fiscal cliff with no clear resolution at hand.”
A Moody’s Analytics report found that a showdown over the debt ceiling would cost “up to 6 million jobs, wipe out as much as $15 trillion in household wealth, and send the unemployment rate surging to roughly 9 percent from around 5 percent,” as The Post puts it. The report’s authors called the potential consequences “cataclysmic,” saying it could be as bad as the Great Recession.
When Morning Consult and Politico asked Americans whom they would blame if the United States defaulted on its debt, 33 percent said they’d blame Democrats, 42 percent said they’d blame both parties equally, and only 16 percent said they’d blame Republicans.
[T]his is madness.
That poll result represents something critical to understanding what’s happening right now. In order for government to operate in this insane way, you need two conditions. First, you need a massive lack of accountability, in which the most cynical actors know they can do just about whatever they want, no matter how damaging, without fear of suffering any political consequences.
Second, you need a party bound by no limits of responsibility or morality, a party perfectly happy to create crises, confusion and suffering if they think it will benefit them.
And that’s exactly what we have.
[A]nd if you think that poll has little meaning because the issue isn’t something most people think about, that’s exactly the point. If what the average voter thinks is Default sounds bad; Democrats are in charge; ergo it would probably be their fault, or at least the fault of “Washington,” that’s precisely what liberates Republicans to be as reckless as they like.
Their entire political strategy, from Washington down to every corner of the country, is to ensure that they never face accountability for what they do. That’s what ties the debt ceiling crisis to what’s happening in the states.
[R]epublicans are happy for the system to remain broken, unresponsive and unable to perform basic functions without spinning toward disaster. They watch with glee as a small number of Democrats refuse to end the filibuster, leaving the power of sabotage in McConnell’s hands. They know that the worse things get, the better it is for them. The public doesn’t have a fine-grained understanding of what goes on in Congress or why things happen the way they do, so chaos and dysfunction will hurt the party in power.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Democrats can make some simple changes that would allow government to function. They can nix the filibuster, then pass laws ensuring that voters get representation. They can effectively nullify or eliminate the debt ceiling so there are no more default crises. That wouldn’t solve every problem, but it would go a long way toward making the system actually work.
But in order to do that, they have to put their foot down and say: Enough. This cannot go on. If they believe all their paeans to the wise and noble American people, they should believe that those people deserve better — and then have the courage to do something about it.