They're having a fight these days in Washington about paying the nation's bills. It's not about new bills. It's about paying the bills that have already been put on the national credit card. Twenty-five percent of that debt was racked up in the last four years under Donald Trump. No matter. Republicans are horrified by the amount of money their country borrows. Joe Biden is trying to resolve the issue. Jennifer Rubin writes:
For starters, Biden never said he wouldn’t negotiate with Republicans. He never said a debt ceiling bill had to pass before negotiations commenced. For months, he said that he would not negotiate over the debt ceiling but he would talk about spending cuts. He insisted Republicans put forth their own budget — as he did — to lay out the parties’ contrasting visions. Only when McCarthy brought up and passed a spending bill did the president agree to serious negotiations.
The White House insists Republicans moved toward the president in finally passing a spending plan. (The president’s aides pointed to a similar negotiation in 2011 for simultaneous budget negotiations before the debt ceiling was finally raised.) Certainly, the White House did flush out Republicans, although the latter voted on a spending plan, not a complete budget, which would have demonstrated the full extent of the GOP’s fiscal irresponsibility.
But there has been no deal and it's crunch time on June 1st. There are some who say Biden should simply ignore the Republicans and claim they must, under the 14th Amendment, pay their bills:
That, however, includes significant risks, including the loss of support among the usual suspects, notably Sens. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.). White House aides point out that a legal challenge over the 14th Amendment would be inevitable, and while the legal battle played out, the markets would be in turmoil. Indeed, the White House detected some troubling movement in the bond markets recently, though that calmed down once reports of constructive negotiations emerged.
Biden has some wiggle room. He can play good cop and bad cop:
While his emissaries talk to Republicans (who now understand their outlandish budget cuts aren’t happening), a discharge position, a proposal to invoke the 14th Amendment and pressure the 18 Republicans from districts Biden won in 2020 can ensure that Biden need not give away much. That gives him the best chance to avoid imperiling a stunning economic recovery or rewarding Republicans for their temper tantrum.
Time will tell whether that strategy will work.
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8 comments:
This seems like an annual Washington ritual' a bit like the tulip festival in Ottawa or the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The only problem is that both sides in Washington appear too stupid to realize that playing around with matches can be dangerous. If someone misses a step in the ritual dance, they could default. And to be honest, I get the feeling that some of those Republicans who are not playing with a full deck may think theatre is real life.
I do not think that any of the main protagonists in this farce realize just how damaging their posturing is to the US international image. President Biden was scheduled to visit Papua New Guinea(the first ever visit by a US president) and attend a Quad meeting in Sydney Australia but cancelled both because of the "spring ritual. Form what I can gather both host nations are deeply offended and some commentators in Australia see this as evidencing the value the USA puts on its "allies". At least one Australian commentator was also a bit annoyed that they had wasted 22 million dollars on security for the non-appearing pres. I doubt that Mohammad bin Salman or Narendra Modi are really impressed at being stood up.
China is jeering and I would not be surprised if a lot of South-East nations are taking note. Of what value are the words of a president who cannot even keep his country from financial default? For that matter, do they want closer ties with a country that may go into semi-paralysis just when they may need help?
The few real diplomats who remain in the State Department after the Trump purge must be pounding their heads against the wall.
The whole ritual is a suicide dance, jrk. It does the U.S. -- and the world -- no good.
Accepting Republican demands will also cause "troubling movement in the bond markets," so market reaction is irrelevant. For generations, Republicans have set record deficits while in office, then used the debt to curtail spending while out of office. Time to get off the merry-go-round and invoke 14A.
At some point that will have to be done, Cap. The jury is out on whether or not it will be done this time around.
Totally off topic but what the hegk Arcdie.
I have been reading a number of blogs written in English by non-native speakers and find it has been increasing my vocabulary. I was totally unaware of "indurate" - to harden or milden -- moderate. I was completely ignorant of the fact that I could commit an act of profanation.
I originally ran into this years ago when my boss, a Syrian with a degree in English, used a word in some memo that should have existed but does not in modern English. He countered my objection to the word by pointing to it in one of the lesser OEDs. He was right and the word had been in common use up to the 18th C. I wish I could remember the word.
I just ran into another creative use of English: "The USA is an invasive country".
jrk's comment:
"playing around with matches can be dangerous. "
is even more applicable to the last decade of NATO frolics that precipitated the current game of nuclear chicken.
I agree, PoV. All of this is very combustible.
Freudian slips, jrk. They reveal what is at the heart of the matter.
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