On debt-ceiling brinksmanship
If you haven't noticed, neither I, nor Trevor, nor anyone have written about the LOOMING ECONOMIC CATASTROPHE OHMYGODWHYAREN'TYOURUNNINGAROUNDINPANIC.
Ahem.
The fact of the matter is: I have no control over this. You have no control over this. This is a case where we just have to throw up a silent prayer and trust those whom we done brung to the dance. And that's Joe Biden and the Democrats.
As others have posted in the comments, the usual suspects are losing their shpadoinkles. WHY DOESN'T BIDEN DO THIS? WHY DOESN'T BIDEN DO THAT?! MAGIC TIME!!!
The fact of the matter is this: Kevin McCarthy and his sullen band of misfits don't have a strong hand. McCarthy is being buffeted by two sides: the extreme right wing of his party which can take away his speakership at any moment, and the money-people who would rather not see their fortunes become toilet paper.
Now, let's be frank: It could very well be that the moneybags no longer have the influence over the Republican Party that they once had. Forget about "this isn't your daddy's Lincoln." This isn't even your older cousin's GOP from 2004. The precipitate nature with which this party has degenerated is going to fill tomes and volumes over the following decades.
I'm not sanguine that Joe Biden won't have to pull a rabbit out of his hat, and do something like "mint the coin" or go full 14th Amendment. This is the degeneracy of the Republican Party. Too many of its members are perfectly willing to cut off their noses to spite their faces, and crash the world's economy if they are unable to punish the most vulnerable in our commonwealth. That's the depth of their pathology.
But that's the thing. I have no control over this. Neither do you. No amount of kvetching on social media will move the needle one way or the other. This is very much a case of the powers and principalities bickering among themselves, and we mere mortals unable to affect the outcome of that argument.
Yesterday I wrote about having "enough". This is a corollary. Knowing when to fight, and when fighting will produce no results. We elected Joe Biden and Democrats to hold the line. We elected them to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em. From my perch on the outside, we are nowhere near folding. As I said, any blame for a deleterious result will land squarely on the GOP's head. The debt ceiling was raised twice during Donald Trump's regime when Paul Ryan and the Republicans controlled both House and Senate, with no muss and no fuss. McCarthy saying anything to the contrary just shows what a shitbird he is. And it was raised once when Nancy Pelosi and Democrats oversaw the House. Anything to the contrary of those facts is simply spin. McCarthy is no defender of fiscal prudence; he made a deal with the devil to gain a title, and that devil is now making him pay. It simply shows the paucity of McCarthy's character that he gave up his soul to gain what he thought was the world.
The House GOP is going far further than they went in 2011 under Barack Obama. And I think this is because they know they have a very finite shelf life. Polling shows that no one is impressed with its performance, and will most likely get swept away in 2024. This is its one chance to exact a pound of flesh. But, as the tweet which heads this piece shows, this will be a momentary blip. Anything they gain this time around will be swept away when Democrats retake control. They are a dying race, and they know it.
Worrying will do neither you nor I any good. We must be patient, and strategize as to what to do if the worst happens. This is what it means to live in interesting times.
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