#biden debt ceiling

[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

[commonsensecommentary]

More debt. And more debt. And still more debt. Soon enough, America as we know it is dead.

[tomorrowusa]

Biden’s superpower is that he keeps getting opponents to underestimate him.

He called Putin’s bluff in Ukraine. And even before the invasion began the White House allowed the declassification of intelligence which revealed Russian plans to stage a fake incident (like the 1939 Gleiwitz incident) to justify Putin’s invasion.

Republicans went into the debt ceiling negotiations believing too much of their own propaganda about Biden. in the end, close to nobody is concluding that Speaker Kevin McCarthy came out ahead on this deal.  

Edward Luce wrote at The Financial Times (archived)...

Rarely in the history of fiscal brinkmanship has so much noise been made by so many Republicans with so little to show for it. The result is a win for Biden that prudence stops him from celebrating.

[ ... ]

McCarthy, along with many others, serially underestimates Biden. In spite of being owned by the nonagenarian Rupert Murdoch, Fox News and its imitators are obsessed with the octogenarian Biden’s alleged senility. “Republicans got outsmarted by a president who can’t find his pants,” tweeted Nancy Mace, a Republican lawmaker who said she will vote against the deal.

In practice, Biden played the game of chicken well. He took it seriously by flying home early from his Asian trip in mid-May. In the interests of stopping a default, he resisted the temptation to call his opponents pyromaniacs. Biden’s age and limited energy may even have helped. It is useful to have a calm temperament in the midst of a crisis.

In an age of superhero action films, having a calm and measured temperament is often overlooked as an advantage.

[thenib]

Jen Sorensen.

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

By Stephen Millies

Using the so-called debt limit as a club, congressional leaders are pushing for more attacks on the poor. Don’t expect Joe Biden to fight back. Only the people can stop Congress from cutting food stamps and other needed social programs. The AFL-CIO needs to call a new Solidarity Day to fight these vicious cutbacks.

[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

[factcheckdotorg]

Debt Ceiling Talks Go Down to the Wire — Again

The U.S. government will likely run out of money in early June unless Congress passes a bill to raise the debt limit. Here we look at the current state of negotiations and review how the past 10 debt limit disputes were resolved.

[memenewsdotcom]

Biden signs debt ceiling bill

[arizonaconservativegal]

I do not believe those two face lying crooks in the senate who opposed Joe's student debt because they opposed all his other stuff before the election and were bought off and voted to pass all his awful policies that continue to hurt the American people. A big fuck you to Manchin and Sinema.

What are you on about? They both voted to kill Biden's student loan plan

[odinsblog]

“One particularly maddening aspect of our current politics is that Democrats feel beholden to rules that Republicans feel entitled to burn. Democrats creatively interpret rules in ways that inevitably frustrate their ability to wield power, while Republicans creatively use their power to get around the rules.

Democrats invent constraints on themselves, ostensibly to restrict Republicans, while these same Republicans long ago decided to use maximal power to achieve their goals.” (source)

Why doesn’t Biden at least try using the 14th Amendment? Just for shits and giggles.

Seriously: does anyone believe that if their roles were reversed, Republicans wouldn’t be taking full advantage of the 14th Amendment??

If it fails, then so be it. People can accept a strategic loss if a genuine attempt was made, but refusing to even try feels a dereliction of duty at best, or a straight up betrayal at worst.

Yes, yes, we understand that Biden isn’t an all powerful dictator, but it feels unforgivably quisling to take the 14th Amendment completely off the table “because it might not work.”

All I know is, as the next general election approaches and the more outrageous Republican governors become, I’m not understanding why establishment Democrats continue placing sO much value in “norms and traditions.”

Republicans are trying to cut programs for the poor and obliterate the social safety net. Why is Biden so inured with “negotiating” with the party of white supremacy and fascism??

The stakes are high, and Republicans are shitting all over the Constitution—literally what have you got to lose??

[nodynasty4us]

Joe Biden, who first arrived in the Senate when McCarthy was 8 years old, ran circles around the Speaker.

Electoral-vote.com

[o-the-mts]

Sanders instead offered an alternative path for the Biden administration. “The fact of the matter is that this bill is totally unnecessary. The President has the authority and the ability to eliminate the debt ceiling today by invoking the 14th Amendment,” Sanders said. “I look forward to the day when he exercises this authority and puts an end, once and for all, to the outrageous actions of the extreme right-wing to hold our entire economy hostage in order to get what they want.” Sanders’s statement was refreshing—not just for its refusal to cave to the hostage situation that Republicans built but for its clarity in reiterating that while the latest episode of D.C. melodrama plays out, indeed, the health of the planet as we know it is “literally at stake.”

Bernie Sanders Says He Cannot “in Good Conscience” Vote for Debt Ceiling Bill | The New Republic

[davidnelsoncfa]

Running On Empty - Why a debt deal could be bad news for stocks

#Yellen needs to fill up the tank. When we get a deal Treasury will issue debt and add 600-$700B to the General Account. #SPY Stocks aren't going to like that #Trump #Biden #Treasury #SocialSecurity

By David Nelson, CFA  You’ve probably had this conversation with friends and family. It goes something like this. What happens to my 401k and other investments if Democrats and Republicans can’t come to a compromise over the debt ceiling? U.S. debt is a staggering 31.4 trillion and debt to GDP is at the highest levels since World War II. Unfortunately, rhetoric from both sides of the aisle has…

[joe-england]

Let's talk about Trump and debt ceiling 101....

"They are hoping that you're too ill-informed."