I will keep beating this drum until the dumbest fiscal crisis of our time is past: Kevin McCarthy is the reason we’re staring down the likelihood of a global recession. He is a feckless “leader” in name only and sold his soul to the MAGA fascists in his party to gain the position of Speaker of the House, and now he’ll lead the entire country into a hell entirely of his own making because he refuses to raise the debt limit.
This is not a both-sides issue. This happening is simply McCarthy’s decision to weaponize the debt ceiling, as only the Republicans do when there is a Democrat in the White House. Now they are demanding that the Biden Administration give into their absurdity, lest the United States defaults on its debt. Debt, I might add, we have already incurred! This is a simple procedural move to raise the debt limit the U.S. government is allowed to have in order to pay off the debts it has already taken on—debts that were in large part authorized by f-ing Congress, the same body now holding us hostage! It is maddening!
Here’s a fun fact to just drive the knife in. Donald Trump is responsible for 25% of the National Debt. I’m not kidding.
Joe Biden’s administration, on the other hand, is responsible for just 11% of the National Debt. Makes you wonder what this is really about. Actually, it doesn’t. We’re going to be explicit here because I’m sick of this being painted as a both-sides thing: The Republicans are using politics to mess with your lives and livelihoods. If we default on our national debt, the results will be catastrophic for the national and global economy. The default could come as soon as next week.
Joe Biden has nothing to do with the crisis around the default, despite Kevin McCarthy braying like a jackass to any publication that will publish whatever BS he’s spewing that it’s all Biden’s fault. The House’s job is extremely clear in the Constitution: they need to raise the debt limit. There is no asterisk there that says “unless you don’t like the President and you promised Marjorie Taylor Greene you’d terrorize the country as a way to get her vote for your House Speakership position.”
Unfortunately, when it comes to the GOP, Biden is the grownup in the room, so he’s done his best to broker a deal to avert a default because when man-babies are throwing tantrums, and a global recession is on the line, you can’t exactly ignore them, can you? Especially when next year is a Presidential election year, and a sexual abuser (as deemed liable by a civil jury) is the most likely GOP candidate because I genuinely think Biden loves this country and wants what’s best for it and nothing about what the Republicans are offering is good for any of us.
This means that the Biden administration is staring down the worst options of the Republican’s demands of “budget cuts” (which again, they never wanted when their guy was in the Oval Office) which means that some very good things for our society could be on the chopping block. Per The New York Times:
Administration officials are seeking to protect roughly $5 billion in funding for a program to develop the next generation of coronavirus vaccines and treatments. They are also looking to preserve more than $1 billion in funding for an initiative to offer free coronavirus shots to uninsured Americans, according to the officials.
The funds that the administration is using for the two programs have already been approved by Congress, but they are now potentially in jeopardy because Republicans are seeking to extract spending cuts from the Biden administration as a condition for raising the debt limit.
Yes, that’s right, the worst people imaginable got control of the House, and now things like avoiding a massive outbreak of the coronavirus and keeping on top of the next generation of coronavirus vaccines are now in jeopardy. Isn’t it awesome how every national election in this country has cataclysmic consequences every f-ing time?
Is your tinfoil hat pinging yet? Because it should be. If this seems like a grand Republican conspiracy to make the country worse leading up to an election year like I previously mentioned, well, you get a cookie because that’s what some people in charge think, too:
So, where do we stand? Is there any hope of avoiding a default? Well, let’s go with the doom and gloom, first. One bipartisan think tank has put the U.S. at an elevated risk for default. Thanks, Republicans! Per The New York Times:
The United States faces an “elevated risk” of running out of cash to pay its bills between June 2 and 13 if Congress does not raise or suspend the nation’s debt limit, according to an analysis released on Tuesday by the Bipartisan Policy Center, an influential think tank that carefully tracks federal spending.
The analysis underscores the growing possibility that the United States will default on its debt as soon as next week. It comes amid negotiations between the White House and Republicans in Congress to reach an agreement that would also lift the $31.4 trillion borrowing cap.
So, yeah, not great. There are some options, here. Biden for his part, keeps on meeting with McCarthy in the hopes that a deal can be struck. Keep in mind, the House GOP is not united. They barely passed the truly breathtakingly bad budget bill that they all knew would never pass in the Senate, let alone be signed by the President, so genuinely, they’ve tried one thing and are now looking at Biden and the other Democrats to solve the problem for them.
The threat of default is an assault on America, and anyone painting it as a “both sides” issue is either lying to you, deeply stupid, or at best, not to be trusted.
So, with that in mind, the country’s best hope to avoid a default obviously resides with the Democrats, who are united and do vote together. Dem Majority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is speaking out about the possibility of a bi-partisan agreement:
Are you tired yet? I’m tired. So the good news is, we potentially don’t need the MAGA-whackjobs to get whatever ghoulish, hateful political presents they want from McCarthy. The bad news is, June 1 is next Thursday, which is the earliest day the country could default. That means time is ticking and Kevin McCarthy can still ruin us all.
(featured image: Win McNamee/Getty Images)
