The Debt-Will Sanity Prevail?

President Biden is cutting short his long-planned G-7 meeting in Japan to return home to take part in talks on raising the national debt limit. Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, whose party created this unnecessary crisis, postured instead when he spoke about the Presidents’ trip, claiming that he should have stayed at home and taken care of the nation’s problems. This showed, yet again, the Republican Party’s short-sightedness and lack of understanding of America’s role in the global sphere.

Financial markets are already concerned about the possibility of a default despite the Presidents’ assurances that this will not happen. The far-right Republicans in Congress are cheering for default to happen. Some will not care if a depression results, with the credit rating of the nation, threatened and interest rates going up. They do not think it will hurt them but believe that Americans will blame the President instead

The Speaker knows he will need Democratic votes to get anything passed and has to walk a tight line to stay in office as his caucus cares little about defaults and a lot about deficits. They seem incapable of understanding that raising the debt ceiling just allows the government to pay for expenses already incurred and approved by a previous Congress. But why agree when you think you can hold the Democratic Administration hostage with demands to penalize the least able in our society?

President Biden presented his budget to the House earlier in the year and expected that he would negotiate with McCarthy over their differences. He has said that he will not do so over the debt ceiling. McCarthy has refused to present his budget but came up with a debt relief bill that stands no chance of passing the Senate. Indeed, now some members of his caucus are saying they will not allow the debt ceiling to be raised until their bill with its draconian cuts aimed at seniors, Medicaid recipients, students, and veterans is passed in the Senate.

In an unprecedented move, they also propose restricting Presidential rules and executive regulations: “This proposal is a step in the right direction toward restoring fiscal responsibility. It also puts limits on federal bureaucrats and the regulatory state by implementing the REINS Act, which requires a congressional vote for all new major rules and regulations.”

Going back to owning the libs and blaming the left, Congressman Goode of VA, one of those who opposed McCarthy, has said he now supports the speaker but believes the Democrats will sign their bill (the Limit Save Grow Act) to prevent a default. I would not bet on this!

This is truly a do-nothing Congress. The Republican members do not care to understand that this should be a formality. The debt limit was routinely raised three times under the former President (who boosted the total debt owed by trillions with his tax cuts for the wealthy.) Then, when necessary Federal spending during the pandemic raised the debt more, Republicans supported their President, as did Democrats, because this was in the national interest.

Now that we again have a divided government, it appears that Republicans can no longer think of the national interest but have been small and petty. They wish to compel the states to raise the age for work requirements for those on Medicaid, even though many who are on this program are already working- but at low-paying jobs with no benefits. The bill encourages states to slash benefits to their currently covered groups and make stricter eligibility for SNAP or food benefits, many of which help older adults and children. Some recipients may be chronically ill or disabled or have small children and have no way to pay for caregivers or daycare, so they can take on a job. The benefits in some Southern states are so truncated that single men and women without dependents, practically are excluded and need not bother to apply even if they have medical conditions that could qualify them in many other states. They propose cutting funds to hospitals that have a disproportionate share of poor patients and are in areas such as urban centers that provide service to residents, many of which are people of color and are sicker than those who have good access to health care.

Their proposals include attacking the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), yet again, even as enrollment showed that millions of people are now the beneficiaries of this much-needed healthcare legislation. What is their message to possible uninsured Americans–either die or incur such medical debt that you will spend your remaining days paying off medical bills?

The Republicans like to claim they support Veterans. However, the proposal which tries to hold the budget at 2022 levels includes a 22% cut in overall benefits for veterans. Although the Republicans claimed they would not touch spending for Medicare, Social Security, and the Military, holding at the previous levels does not take into consideration any increases in costs because of inflation or other costs of living, such as routine contractual raises for Federal employees. Cost of living increases such as in Social Security, which are also tied to the cost of living, would increase costs there. So, while they may claim that there are no cuts to Medicare or Social Security in their budget, by not factoring in the normal increases, they are decreasing benefits. Some economists think that to balance the budget in ten years without touching certain programs, most of the government would have to be shut down; that is, most of the governmental agencies that help run this country. Do Americans really want that?

They are also trying to roll back funding for legislation passed for some of President Biden’s signature programs on climate protection, funds for electric cars, and other measures to reduce the use of fossil fuels.

This must be the “Nero effect”- continuing to burn fossil fuels while the earth heats up! Way to go folks–touting irresponsible leadership all the way!

Following along with the whacky Jim Jordan and his sub-Committee on The Weaponization of Government, the radical right wants to roll back the monies in last year’s legislation that gave the Internal Revenue Service more money to hire internal staff, not agents, as he claims, but clerical staff to reduce the backlog of troublesome tax returns. Jordan claims the Democrats want more middle-class people to get tax audits. The Democrats have actually proposed that more people in the top bracket, who often pay little in taxes, considering their wealth, should get audited more frequently.

The Law-and-Order Party is also talking about defunding the FBI and the hearings this week that attempted to feature “whistle-blowers” were shown instead to be the opposite. Their so-called secret witnesses were people let go by the FBI after actions that made them lose their clearances and thus, their employment. It came to light that they were also recipients of funds after the FBI fired them from Kash Patel, a well-known flunky of the former president. So, Jordans’ big hearing and his explosive witnesses were debunked as they spoke. Jordan, in a disregard for House rules, refused to share his investigations with the Democrats on the Committee, claiming that his whistleblowers did not want to be outed prematurely.

Despite all of their rhetoric, the Republicans are finding out to their surprise, that there are not a lot of places to cut and still keep the government running. Perhaps they are trying to go back to the Reagan era when some bureaucrats wanted to defund government programs right and left and: Grover Norquist, who founded Americans for Tax Reform in 1985 at the urging of President Reagan, declared in 2001: “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.”

The continued thrust by Republicans to reduce taxes was ultimately to then not have enough money to support the Social Safety net that Americans have depended on for years. Workers paid into Social Security and Medicare funds for most of their working years. It is so very petty of Republicans to turn around and call these funds welfare; these are monies that the workers have earned and that the government has saved in trust for them. That is why they are called entitlements. Maybe the one-percenters don’t need these funds to retire, but most Americans do.

Many elected officials in the Senate are millionaires, but few in the House are that rich. I believe they must have older relatives who rely on government programs and wonder how they can be so negative about them when these still affect their own families.

So, will the teams find any breakthroughs? Will returning unspent COVID dollars to the Treasury be enough of a balm to soothe the savage souls on the right? Or will they demand blood money still and hostage scalps from the left? When did we become such a nation that cares little for our brothers and sisters, but sees only the roar of the dollar?

Will the Democrats on the left have their countering demands as they try to protect their constituents? How will the White House and the President get these issues resolved in ten short days as a bill to raise the debt ceiling must pass both Houses of Congress by June first?

Keep your fingers crossed that some sanity will prevail and we shall avoid default.

“Til next week -Peace!