#debt-ceiling

[tomluongo]

Pascal Najadi joins me for another go-round the world as we tackle why Biden had to end COVID-19 emergency measures, the lawsuit against Pfizer in NY court, as well as what went on with UBS and Credit Suisse back in March and the US domestic political situation. Show Notes US Government docs on Ukraine Labs Pascal's Testimony in Ottawa FDIC Insurance, Credit Suisse and the Day the Fed Killed Europe

[thatdiabolicalfeminist]

If you or anyone you care about is relying on:

Food stamps/SNAP/EBT

SSI/SSDI/social security

a tax refund not yet received as of May 2023

a government employee salary

Medicaid

Medicare

Pell grants that have not yet been disbursed

Or anything else paid out by the US federal government—

You need to be aware of what's happening with the debt ceiling!

Because any or all of the items listed above might not be funded right away in June 2023.

The US government is increasingly looking like it will run out of money on or around June 1st, and no one has yet made the rules about which bills WILL get paid when that happens.

The usual way the gov stops this from happening is being blocked by Republicans who insist they won't let the problem be fixed until programs keeping people alive are cut. (They won't cut corporate subsidies though.)

You and people you care about could be impacted by this.

Please save back any money you can, fill your prescriptions now, and look up news about the debt ceiling.

[liberalsarecool]

'Not paying for things you bought' is core Republican value. The party of the IOU.

Look at Reagan, Bush 41, Bush 43, and Trump.

[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

[porterdavis]

[commonsensecommentary]

“When one looks at economic sectors where liberals today predominate—education, Big Tech, social services, and government at all levels—it can perhaps be said that a belief in the efficacy and importance of milking taxpayers for every possible penny, silencing unbelievers, and refusing to provide provable results is a matter of enlightened self-interest because reductions in today’s out-of-control local, state, and federal spending would reduce their income and push them into less lucrative jobs.”

(Prepare for the screaming when Trump and the Republican majority start cutting government spending in 2025 / From my blog archive)

[akonoadham]

[gwydionmisha]

Now might be a good time to contact all your Congress Critters in both houses with support for a clean raise of the Debt Ceiling.  Shore up blue, castigate red.

If you can't safely contact them in person, here are some other options:

Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to the representative of your choice.

Here is one that will send your reps a fax: https://resist.bot/

[thoughtportal]

Debt Ceiling

[mysharona1987]

[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.

[tomluongo]

Vince Lanci (VBL) joins me for another conversation about what's right and wrong about current financial analysis. Vince and I make the case that it's important to remember everyone's background colors how they view markets and how difficult it is to retrain yourself to see things through a different frame. Show Notes: Twitter Conversation between Vince, Luke Gromen and Luongo Latest Fed H.4.1 Release (May 11th 2023) Vince's GoldFix Substack Lanci: Debt Default (or Deal) Could Revalue Gold Luongo: Podcast Episode #138 – Caitlin Long and Plumbing the Depths of the Eurodollar This Debt Ceiling Fight is Truly Different This Time

[thatdiabolicalfeminist]

Infuriating that American politicians are off for their long holiday weekend still refusing to fund the most basic, insufficient, miserly, ALREADY APPROVED safeguards for the poorest and most vulnerable living here...

over a fight to provide EVEN LESS in order to give extra money to oppressive corporations and maintain the richest military in history doing evil on an incomprehensible scale

[liberalsarecool]

The debt ceiling gives the shameless and intellectually dishonest too much power.

[odinsblog]

Imagine you and your Republican coworkers went out to a restaurant for lunch, ordered from the menu (you had the soup dejour, they had the most expensive lobster on the menu), and ate your meals

When the check comes, Republicans say they refuse to pay (for the meals they’ve already eaten!), UNLESS everyone agrees to starve the homeless and rob the poor the next time you eat here

That’s what is happening

I know that the hypocrisy and the cruelty is the point with Republicans, but it needs to be noted that they never had a problem with raising the debt limit when Trump was in the White House and blowing holes in the deficit to give tax cuts to billionaires

[porterdavis]