Tag Archive: debt ceiling

President Biden handles the debt ceiling brilliantly

President Biden may have just saved the country

With the U.S. House of Representatives having passed a bill on Wednesday night to suspend the nation’s debt ceiling, and the U.S. Senate passing the bill late last night, it is now all but certain that a historic Republican-caused default on the U.S. debt has been averted. President Joe Biden is expected to sign the bill at any time, and to address the nation this evening. While there is plenty of credit to go around, President Biden deserves the most praise for the extreme competence, professionalism and political savvy with which he has handled the issue.

Here is Biden’s statement after Wednesday’sj House vote, with emphasis added:

Tonight, the House took a critical step forward to prevent a first-ever default and protect our country’s hard-earned and historic economic recovery. This budget agreement is a bipartisan compromise. Neither side got everything it wanted. That’s the responsibility of governing. I want to thank Speaker McCarthy and his team for negotiating in good faith, as well as Leader Jeffries for his leadership.
This agreement is good news for the American people and the American economy. It protects key priorities and accomplishments from the past two years, including historic investments that are creating good jobs across the country. And, it honors my commitment to safeguard Americans’ health care and protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. It protects critical programs that millions of hardworking families, students, and veterans count on.

We’re headed for the Republican Default

America is quickly running out of this

The United States government may default on its debt obligations as soon as next Thursday, June 1, unless Congress agrees to legislation raising the debt ceiling, at least temporarily, before then. Today, however, U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is sending House lawmakers home early for a long Memorial Day recess, seemingly uncaring about the debt ceiling crisis. That comes after Republicans, “led” (and we use the term loosely) by Speaker McCarthy, took America hostage by demanding that, in return for even talking about raising the debt ceiling so that we can pay for past spending, the government make huge cuts in veterans’ benefits, environmental protection, student loan forgiveness and other crucial areas in future spending. If a default happens, therefore, it is squarely the fault of Congressional Republicans.

The future spending that Republicans are trying to cut with a chainsaw is known as the budget, and is something that gets debated every year in a separate process. However, Republicans have tried to conflate the debt ceiling with the budget, and are now walking away from paying America’s bills, both literally by walking out of talks last week and now leaving Washington, and figuratively by making such extreme demands that cannot possibly be met. It appears at this point that Republicans want to blow up America’s (and possibly the world’s) economy, our stock market, our job market, our ability to pay Social Security and interest on Treasury bonds, and more. If so, the Republicans’ goal seems to be to create chaos and blame President Joe Biden, in a desperate attempt that they hope might lead to their reelection (see the book The Shock Doctrine for a discussion of this strategy).

Imagine trying to do this in your own life. Try telling American Express or MasterCard that you refuse to pay your credit card bills for past spending until you and your family can come up with a solution for controlling your household’s future spending. Try telling that to your mortgage company, or your utility company, or your phone or cable TV company.

Nevertheless, President Biden has bent over backwards to meet with Republicans and hold negotiations over the debt ceiling, discussing their extreme proposals, even though America’s debt is a solemn obligation over which he should not have to bargain. President Biden has made offers (to the consternation of many Democrats) to bridge the gap with Republicans, including tightening work requirements for individuals receiving federal aid. Thus far, however, the Republicans have shown no real movement in these talks, and indeed, some Republicans appear to be urging McCarthy not to compromise with the Democrats at all.

Make no mistake, therefore: any default by the United States at this time will be a Republican Default, and they must be made to own the political consequences.

Photo by Ervins Strauhmanis, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/rjPYTl

President Biden vs. Republicans: debt ceiling PR battle forming

Debt ceiling D-Day is June 1

We’ve been following the looming debt ceiling crisis since January. At that time, the U.S. federal debt ceiling, limited by law, was reached, and the government began to take so-called “extraordinary measures” to keep things running as is without going into default. However, the problem has not been solved, and it is rapidly coming to a head. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says that if Congress doesn’t pass a law extending the debt limit by June 1, the “extraordinary measures” will run out and we will begin to go into default. That could cause catastrophic economic results, including a deep recession, a stock market crash, a spike in interest rates, and the government’s inability to send out Social Security checks, or make interest payments on Treasury bonds.

Some people say the Republicans want to blow up the U.S. economy this way. The theory is that the Republicans, who number in the minority, can only take back the White House and full control of Congress via this big gamble of (1) crashing the economy and (2) blaming President Joe Biden and the Democrats for the crash. To that end, Republicans are holding the debt ceiling, which is the bill that must be paid for past spending, hostage to budget demands for massive cuts in future spending for veterans, the environment, renewable energy, student loan forgiveness and other crucial items, even though these are two completely separate legislative processes. Republicans may think they can get away with such hostage-taking in part because the mainstream media notoriously play the “both sides at fault” game, or even worse, may be more inclined falsely to blame President Biden for the current crisis and its possible consequences.

What President Biden and Democrats need to say on the debt ceiling

Speaker Pelosi and Leader Schumer, Jan. 2019

Once again, with a Democratic president in the White House, Republicans are playing a dangerous game of chicken with America’s debt ceiling. The GOP did this under President Barack Obama in 2011 as well. This article from the Brookings Institution lays out some of the possible scary consequences of a U.S. debt default, including:

–A deep recession
–A big drop in the stock market
–Higher interest rates
–Failure to pay Social Security and Medicare recipients
–Failure to pay our U.S. Treasury obligations

The pain of such a failure likely would be felt by every American family, and America’s place as the go-to safe harbor for foreign investment and the go-to currency (and thus, our influence in the world) could be jeopardized. Once again, therefore, Republicans correctly need to be blamed for this crisis of their making. But to get there, and solve the crisis, there is something that President Joe Biden and leading Democrats should be saying:

The Republicans are The Walking Dead

 

The Republican Party is acting a lot like the zombie “walkers” in the tv series “The Walking Dead.” Check out the similarities: