#Debt Negotiations

[fishdonald]

[odinsblog]

Just so we are all really clear: Republicans are using the manufactured debt ceiling “crisis” as a bargaining chip, threatening to blow up the U.S. (and world?) economy unless Biden caves in to cutting things like food benefits for women, children, the poor and the working poor. Got it? That’s their deal—either eviscerate the social safety net, or economy go boom!

No doubt, a lot of liberals are pressuring Biden to acquiesce, because 1) the economy will absolutely positively go boom! and 2) because they will blame Biden if the economy crashes

BUT..! Here’s the thing: If Biden does cave in and give Republicans even a little bit of what they are demanding, I fuckn promise you that in October and November of next year, Republican ads are going to be like: “Vote for Trump! Remember how Biden cut food benefits for women and children? Trump won’t do that”

And it will not matter how many 8k high quality videos you have showing that it was really Republicans who took the economy hostage and demanded those cuts. By time the general election rolls around in ‘24, Republicans will be airing ChatGPT AI political ads where it looks like Biden was the one asking for all the cuts to SNAP and demanding ridiculously harder work requirements

Believe that!!

Did you even see those ignorant charlatans eating from Trump’s hands on CNN?? These are bomb throwers. They enjoy blowing up the economy, especially when it hurts poor people! You cannot in good faith make any policy decision about what to do based off of what Republican voters “might think” when it’s election time! They don’t “think” AT ALL, and even if they did, they still do not care! They’re unscrupulous deplorables. They will always always always find a way to blame Biden and the Democrats, no matter what, so Biden may as well go on and do what’s right while he can, and try actually fighting against these cartoonishly evil Republicans

AND..! Do I even need to remind anyone what happens when you cave in to bullies?? If Biden caves now, then Republicans will bully every Democrat from here on out, and the programs they take hostage next time will be Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid

Caving in to the whims of Kevin pickme! McCarthy and Marjorie Traitor Greene is bad politics, and it will only get worse in the future if Biden folds now

[yuri-for-businesswomen]

i think they should just give every single person a one time payment of 100.000 $ (or rather the local adjusted equivalent) and see where it goes. they say that will just lead to inflation but i know that economics are a scam so i feel like we should just try it

[blueskittlesart]

shut up i just got an assignment to write an informational comic about anything i want. am i. have i died and gone to heaven

[kp777]

Progressives Condemn Biden-GOP Debt Ceiling Deal as 'Cruel and Shortsighted'

By Jake Johnson

Common Dreams

May 28, 2023

Update:

The text of the legislation, titled the , is now available here.

Earlier:

Progressive economists and advocates warned that the tentative debt ceiling agreement reached Saturday by the White House and Republican leaders would needlessly gash nutrition aid, rental assistance, education programs, and more—all while making it easier for the wealthy to avoid taxes.

The deal, which now must win the support of both chambers of Congress, reportedly includes two years of caps on non-military federal spending, sparing a Pentagon budget replete with staggering waste and abuse.

The Associated Pressreported that the deal "would hold spending flat for 2024 and increase it by 1% for 2025," not keeping pace with inflation.

The agreement would also impose new work requirements on some recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) while scaling back recently approved IRS funding, a gift to rich tax cheats.

In exchange for the spending cuts and work requirements, Republican leaders have agreed to lift the debt ceiling until January 1, 2025—a tradeoff that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is pitching as a victory to his caucus, which includes far-right members who have demanded more aggressive austerity.

President Joe Biden, for his part, called the deal "a compromise, which means not everyone gets what they want."

"After inflation eats its share, flat funding will result in fewer households accessing rental assistance, fewer kids in Head Start, and fewer services for seniors."

Lindsay Owens, executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative, said in a statement Saturday night that "this is a punishing deal made worse only by the fact that there was no reason for President Biden to negotiate with Speaker McCarthy over whether or not the United States government should pay its bills," alluding to the president's executive authority.

"After inflation eats its share, flat funding will result in fewer households accessing rental assistance, fewer kids in Head Start, and fewer services for seniors," said Owens. "The deal represents the worst of conservative budget ideology; it cuts investments in workers and families, adds onerous and wasteful new hurdles for families in need of support, and protects the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations from paying their fair share in taxes."

The agreement comes days before the U.S. is, according to the Treasury Department, set to run out of money to pay its obligations, imperiling Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid payments and potentially hurling the entire global economy into chaos.

House Republicans have leveraged those alarming possibilities to secure painful federal spending cuts and aid program changes that could leave more people hungry, sick, and unable to afford housing, critics said.

"For no real reason at all, hungry people are set to lose food while tax cheats get a free pass," wrote Angela Hanks, chief of programs at Demos.

While legislative text has not yet been released, the deal would reportedly impose work requirements on adult SNAP recipients without dependents up to the age of 54, increasing the current age limit of 49. Policy analysts and anti-hunger activists have long decried SNAP time limits and work requirements as immoral and ineffective at boosting employment. (Most adult SNAP recipients already work.)

"The SNAP changes are nominally extending work requirements to ages 50 to 54. In reality, especially as the new rule is implemented, this is just an indiscriminate cull of a bunch of 50- to 54-year-olds from SNAP who won't realize there are new forms they need to fill out," said Matt Bruenig, founder of the People's Policy Project.

Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, wrote on Twitter that the agreement is "cruel and shortsighted," pointing to the work requirements and real-term cuts to rental assistance "during an already worsening homelessness crisis."

"House Rs held our nation's lowest-income people hostage in exchange for lifting the debt ceiling," Yentel continued. "The debt ceiling 'deal' could lead to tens of thousands of families losing rental assistance... Expanding ineffective work requirements and putting time limits on food assistance adds salt to the wound, further harming some of the lowest-income and most marginalized people in our country."

Read more.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Mike Luckovich

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

June 2, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JUN 3, 2023

Three years ago today, on June 2, 2020, days after then–Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for nearly nine minutes, Martha Raddatz of ABC snapped the famous and chilling photograph of law enforcement officers in camouflage, their names and units hidden, standing in rows on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Mr. Floyd’s murder sparked protests across the country, and Trump used those protests as a pretext to crack down on his opponents. Just the day before, after a call with Russian president Vladimir Putin, Trump told state governors on a phone call: “You have to dominate. If you don’t dominate, you’re wasting your time.... You’ve got to arrest people, you have to track people, you have to put them in jail for 10 years and you’ll never see this stuff again.” Then he used a massive police presence wielding tear gas, rubber bullets, and flash-bang explosives to clear peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters from Lafayette Square across from the White House. Tonight, President Joe Biden addressed the nation from the Oval Office to emphasize that democracy depends on bipartisanship.” [W]hen I ran for President,” he began, “I was told the days of bipartisanship were over and that Democrats and Republicans could no longer work together. But I refused to believe that, because America can never give in to that way of thinking…. [T]he only way American democracy can function is through compromise and consensus, and that’s what I worked to do as your President…to forge a bipartisan agreement where it’s possible and where it’s needed.” While he noted that he has signed more than 350 bipartisan laws in his time in office, his major focus today was on the bipartisan budget agreement passed by the House and Senate after months of wrangling to get House Republicans to agree to lift the debt ceiling. Biden will sign it tomorrow, averting the nation’s first-ever default. Biden characterized those threatening to force the U.S. into default as “extreme voices,” who were willing to cause a catastrophe. The economy, which continues to add jobs at a cracking pace—another 339,000 in May, according to the numbers released today by the U.S. Bureau of Labor—would have been thrown into recession. As many as 8 million Americans would have lost their jobs, retirement savings would have been decimated, borrowing for everything from mortgages to government funding would have become much more expensive, and “America’s standing as the most trusted, reliable financial partner in the world would have been shattered.” “It would have taken years to climb out of that hole,” he said. But the extremists were sidelined, and the House Republicans and the White House reached an agreement. Biden went out of his way to praise House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and his team, saying that the two negotiating teams “were able to get along and get things done. We were straightforward with one another, completely honest with one another, and respectful with one another. Both sides operated in good faith. Both sides kept their word.” This was not entirely true—McCarthy constantly attacked Biden in the media—but Biden was hammering on the image of bipartisanship. Yesterday, Jonathan Lemire, Adam Cancryn, and Jennifer Haberkorn of Politico reported that Biden and his team plan to make the case for reelection on their ability to negotiate deals that get things done for the American people, acting as the “adults in the room” in contrast to Republican extremists. The budget deal that led to the suspension of the debt ceiling is a major illustration of that position. Biden also praised House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), claiming that “[t]hey acted responsibly and put the good of the country ahead of politics.” The solution to the debt ceiling crisis is a major victory for Biden’s team not only because it happened, but also because it leaves Biden’s key priorities intact, not least because they are popular and Republicans did not want to go into 2024 having demanded unpopular cuts. Biden noted that the measure will cut spending as Republicans wanted (although not necessarily through the measures they insisted on adding), but reiterated that it is the Republican Party that has been on a spending spree. “We’re all on a much more fiscally responsible course than the one I inherited when I took office,” Biden said. “When I came to office, the deficit had increased every year the previous four years. And nearly $8 trillion was added to the national debt in the last administration,” while the deficit fell by $1.7 trillion in his first two years in office. Biden laid out that the deal protects his reworking of the U.S. economy to support ordinary Americans. It protects Social Security and Medicare, as well as healthcare and veterans’ services. It protects the investments in the economy that have enabled the country to add more than 13 million new jobs, including 800,000 jobs in manufacturing. It protects investments in addressing climate change. Finally, Biden vowed to make the wealthy—those who earn more than $400,000 a year—pay their fair share in taxes. “I know bipartisanship is hard and unity is hard,” he concluded, “but we can never stop trying, because in moments like this one—the ones we just faced, where the American economy and the world economy is at risk of collapsing—there is no other way. “No matter how tough our politics gets, we need to see each other not as adversaries, but as fellow Americans. Treat each other with dignity and respect. To join forces as Americans to stop shouting, lower the temperature, and work together to pursue progress, secure prosperity, and keep the promise of America for everybody.” What a difference three years can make.

—

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[otherpeoplescreativity]

Because I had to look this up again today:

If you are in the USA, you can forward phishing scam text messages to these folks in our government. They will then do their thing. I always hope that my forward contains the final piece of the puzzle that a Reginald Shoe type needs in order to go shut down the actual sender and whatever "get rich quick via our handy Fraud-O-Matic kit" seller provided the script kiddie supplies.

[characcoon]

why did my brain only register that we're on month 8 now

[themthistles]

if kpop idols actually unionize that industry will be popped like a bubble and i personally welcome it

[fishdonald]

Expert Alternatives of Bankruptcy in Calgary, Edmonton, AB

Discover bankruptcy alternatives for effective debt relief in Calgary, Lloydminster &Toronto Region. Explore our solutions to regain financial stability.

[odinsblog]

Republican hostage demands include:

Increasing and not cutting the defense budget, nor the Border Patrol budget

Cut funding to the following programs and agencies by 51 percent: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Social Security Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, Veteran’s Assistance Program, Health and Human Services, Department of Education, Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Justice Department, the State Department, the Department of Transportation, NASA, the Labor Department, and more (source)

Rescind any student loan relief and make borrowers pay back any payments that were paused or recently forgiven

Defund the IRS so that it cannot go after wealthy tax evaders

New, harsher work requirements for Medicaid recipients

Raise the work retirement age for people enrolled in the SNAP, from 50 to 55 years old

More stringent work requirements for food stamp recipients

Deregulation of drilling and mining permitting

Repeal any tax breaks that encouraged using renewable energy sources

Pledges to increase domestic production of oil and other fossil fuels

In short, the Republican demands to raise the debt ceiling is a manufactured crisis. It’s yet another GOP wish list to attack poor people by eviscerating the social safety net, while simultaneously deregulating big businesses and defunding the government agencies that could hold polluters and exploiters accountable

👉🏿 https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/heres-whats-in-the-gop-bill-to-lift-the-u-s-debt-limit

👉🏿 https://www.dataforprogress.org/blog/2022/12/12/voters-want-congress-to-raise-the-debt-ceiling-and-protect-social-programs

👉🏿 https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/debt-ceiling-house-republicans-bill-limit-save-grow-act/

[communist-hatsunemiku]

speaking of credit card debt, watch out for companies called things like "Accreddited Debt Relief". they offer to consolidate your debt and get you a lower monthly payment, which they will do. the catch is, they basically let all of your debt go into default, and your credit score is TRASHED for years to come.

[myrfing]

american coming of age is wanting to kill yourself over medical debt

[kp777]

Patriotic Millionaires

via Common Dreams

May 25, 2023

WASHINGTON - Yesterday, reports emerged that President Biden may agree to roll back $10 billion in IRS funding as part of a deal with Republicans to raise the debt limit.

In response, Morris Pearl, the Chair of the Patriotic Millionaires and a former managing director at BlackRock, Inc., released the following statement:

"A debt ceiling agreement that cuts IRS funding would be an embarrassing disgrace for both the GOP and President Biden.

House Republicans have been holding the global economy hostage because they claim that the federal debt is too big. But at the first opportunity, they are happy to scrap most of their cuts to limit the ability of the IRS to go after wealthy tax cheats, a move that would actually increase the debt by $120 billion.

The mask is off. This deal proves that the one thing the modern GOP cares about more than anything else is making sure rich people don’t have to pay taxes.

But we can’t blame the GOP for the fact that President Biden put this on the table in the first place. As Biden himself said many times, the agency desperately needs these funds to crack down on wealthy tax cheats and ensure that rich people start paying what we rightfully owe the country in taxes.

Biden shouldn’t be negotiating with McCarthy and his cronies in the first place over paying for things that we’ve already bought in the budget that was approved last year – you cannot negotiate with economic terrorists. To give into their demands over IRS funding at the eleventh hour is simply beyond the pale.

There is still time, albeit not much, for Biden to come to his senses and back out of this disgraceful IRS rollback. Agreeing to IRS funding cuts as a bargaining chip in debt ceiling negotiations would be an enormous stain on Biden’s legacy. If he wants to protect his reputation and our country, he should refuse to budge an inch on the debt ceiling and use his constitutional authority under the 14th Amendment to bypass this entire manufactured crisis."

The Patriotic Millionaires is a group of high-net worth Americans who share a profound concern about the destabilizing level of inequality in America. Our work centers on the two things that matter most in a capitalist democracy: power and money. Our goal is to ensure that the country's political economy is structured to meet the needs of regular Americans, rather than just millionaires. We focus on three "first" principles: a highly progressive tax system, a livable minimum wage, and equal political representation for all citizens.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Biden’s steady hand.June 1, 2023

ROBERT B. HUBBELL

JUN 1, 2023

         On Wednesday, the House passed a budget bill that suspends the debt ceiling through January 2025. The bill passed with support from 149 Republicans and 165 Democrats. It will take days to untangle the sundry motivations for votes against the bill, especially on the Democratic side of the House. But the primary reason for Republican unhappiness is clear. As Presidential candidate Tim Scott (R-SC) said, the deal “gives Biden an open checkbook”—an assessment shared by the NYTimes. See NYTimes, The Big Part of the Debt Ceiling Deal Congress Isn’t Talking About.

         Per the Times, the bill not only suspends the debt ceiling (i.e., there is no debt ceiling through 2025) but also mandates future spending on bills expected to be passed over the next several months. The cost of those future bills is unknown but may exceed $500 million, reducing the GOP’s targeted deficit reduction from $4.8 trillion to $1 trillion (over a decade). The Times writes,

[T]he agreement struck by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Biden will require Congress to authorize much more spending as part of a second set of bills expected to pass in coming months.

[¶]

Those future changes, which the White House is calling “agreed-upon adjustments,” and which many observers have called side deals or even gimmicks, would increase federal spending in unconventional ways and then direct that money into the part of the budget that the current bill cuts the deepest.

         And, as noted yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office published a report estimating that SNAP benefits would increase under the deal—deflating a key GOP talking point. As the Freedom Caucus began to absorb the CBO’s report, the number of Republicans voting against the bill—and McCarthy’s leadership—increased steadily throughout the day. See Politico, McCarthy tries to hold off last-minute rebellion over work requirements in debt deal.

         Per Politico,

House Republican leaders are trying to stave off another wave of GOP defections just hours before a final vote on a deal to avert a national default — this time over the work requirements for aid programs that Republican leaders have publicly touted as a win for their party.

The latest rebellion was spurred by a Congressional Budget Office report released Tuesday night that estimates spending on the food aid program that Republicans attempted to cut during the debt ceiling negotiations would actually increase under the agreement reached by Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden. That has set off a firestorm among conservative lawmakers — threatening a larger revolt within their fractious caucus hours before a final vote on the legislation to raise the debt ceiling and avoid a default.

         In the end, the House GOP could barely muster two-thirds of its caucus to pass a bill to save the nation from defaulting on its debt—despite a constitutional obligation to do so. McCarthy thus needed support from Democrats to pass the bill—although Democrats had a co-equal constitutional obligation to lift the debt ceiling. It is a fair characterization to say that Democrats “saved” Republicans from their inability to govern.

         But as readers noted yesterday in the Comments section of this newsletter, the passage of a bill to prevent default is not a “partisan” victory. It is a victory for the American people, who deserve nothing less from their representatives. Indeed, they deserve a heck of a lot more than staving off a default with two or three days to spare.

         So, what do these developments mean? The answer to that question is above my pay grade—I am not a political journalist, and I rely on analysis by others. But since it is too early for most of that analysis to be available, I will make a few blazingly obvious comments. In doing so, I don’t mean to reduce the bill's passage to “winners” and “losers.”

         With that throat-clearing and self-deprecation out of the way, here are my observations:

Joe Biden was disciplined and patient, even as Kevin McCarthy held daily whining sessions with a White House press corps eager for content.

Biden played a “long game” to benefit all Americans, while Republicans were focused on “owning the libs.” The former usually prevails over the latter.

Biden has a deep and talented team—a sign of Biden’s skillful leadership. Special credit goes to Shalanda Young, director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Incredibly, Biden negotiated a deal that suspends the debt ceiling until 2025. In the past, Congress has merely raised the debt ceiling by a specified amount.

Biden also averted a possible government shutdown in September 2023 by agreeing to a spending bill through January 2025.

Although it remains to be seen, Biden may have masterfully played all of us—including the media—by saying he would not negotiate the debt limit and acting coy on using the 14th Amendment. Both of those positions may have been designed to misdirect Republicans and the media about his ultimate strategy.

McCarthy could not secure 150 votes—about two-thirds of his caucus—to support the bill. While he survived, he is weakened. He needed sixty-nine Democratic votes to pass the first significant bill of his tenure. Those votes were not a sign of bipartisanship but a sign of maturity and discipline by Democrats.

Also weakened is the Freedom Caucus, which learned that it could not control McCarthy as it had hoped. The Freedom Caucus was exposed as a paper tiger unwilling to use its ability to call for a vote of “no confidence” on McCarthy.

Ron DeSantis entered the fray late and backed the losing Freedom Caucus. His political judgment is unerringly wrong. Even the impulsive and undisciplined Trump managed to stay quiet despite secretly hoping for a default.

         There is undoubtedly more that needs to be said, but the above observations stand out to me tonight. But the biggest takeaway is that all Americans can breathe easier because of Joe Biden’s steady hand.

Trump caught on tape admitting he took classified documents and understood that he could not disseminate them after leaving office.

         CNN broke a story on Wednesday that suggests special counsel Jack Smith may have Trump cornered in the Mar-a-Lago documents case. The story is here: CNN, EXCLUSIVE: Trump captured on tape talking about classified document he kept after leaving the White House.

         In short, as Trump was being interviewed by researchers for an autobiography by Mark Meadows, the former president acknowledged that he understood he could not share secret documents with persons not authorized to see them. Per CNN:

The recording indicates Trump understood he retained classified material after leaving the White House, according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation. On the recording, Trump’s comments suggest he would like to share the information but he’s aware of limitations on his ability post-presidency to declassify records, two of the sources said.

         Trump claimed possession of a classified document that undermined public statements by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley about the general’s alleged plans to attack Iran. Per CNN, General Milley testified before a grand jury convened by special prosecutor Jack Smith.

         It is possible that Trump was lying about having a battle plan created by Mark Milley to attack Iran—a fact that may be beside the point. Even in his lies about Milley, Trump acknowledged that he was still bound by classification rules that applied to national defense documents. Such a statement is an admission that contradicts Trump's public statement that documents were “automatically declassified” if he removed them from the White House.

         Legal commentators are predicting that the existence of the tape could be “game over” for Trump on charges of illegally retaining national defense documents.

         The tape's existence was not the only significant development on Wednesday relating to Trump's legal jeopardy. Read on!

Special counsel Jack Smith interviews Trump's election security expert.

         Disclosures about the Mar-a-Lago documents case suggest that Trump is in serious jeopardy and that an indictment may be coming this month. But a second disclosure shows that Jack Smith is not ignoring Trump's effort to prevent the peaceful transition of power.

         The NYTimes reported on Wednesday that Jack Smith has taken grand jury testimony from Christopher Krebs, a White House election security adviser who contradicted Trump's baseless claims that the 2020 election was marred by fraud. See NYTimes, Trump White House Aides Subpoenaed in Firing of Election Security Expert. (This article is accessible to all.)

         If Jack Smith is working to prove that Trump knew his claims of a rigged election were untrue, what better source than Trump's own election security adviser, Christopher Krebs? You may recall that Krebs described the 2020 election as “the most secure election” in US history. Trump promptly fired Krebs.

         Per the Times, Jack Smith is also investigating Trump’s use of the White House personnel office to fire any administration employees perceived as “disloyal” to Trump and hostile to his claims of a rigged election. Evidence that such firings were motivated by a desire to unlawfully remain in office could add to Jack Smith’s proof regarding Trump's state of mind.

         The report about Christopher Krebs's testimony suggests that Jack Smith is still investigating Trump for possible crimes relating to insurrection, election interference, obstruction, and defrauding the US—in addition to crimes relating to the Mar-a-Lago documents case. Both developments are encouraging, although the timing of charges is becoming increasingly fraught. Trump responded to the CNN report (above) by claiming that Smith is “interfering” in the 2024 election.

Concluding Thoughts.

         Remember when President Biden outsmarted congressional Republicans during the State of the Union address? Biden managed to trick Republicans into taking “off the table” cuts to Social Security and Medicare. That maneuver by Biden is a substantial part of the reason those programs were not part of the spending cuts in the debt ceiling bill.

         But Republicans haven’t given up the idea of cutting Social Security and Medicare. During an appearance this week, McCarthy proposed a “commission” to examine additional spending cuts he failed to negotiate as part of his deal with Biden. The “commission” proposal is a sop to unhappy Freedom Caucus members. But that is beside the point. In suggesting the commission, McCarthy also suggested that cuts to Social Security and Medicare should be back on the table. See Raw Story, McCarthy suggests new commission could look at Social Security and Medicare cuts.

         So, add to Biden’s negotiating accomplishments the protection of Social Security and Medicare through 2025. After that, it is up to us to ensure that Republicans never regain control Congress. If they do, McCarthy has revealed their true intentions. We must stop them. Biden’s steady hand has shown us the way—with seriousness of purpose and determination focused on helping all Americans.

[govtshutdown]

Calling it now, DOA.