Shutting Down the Government for Fun and Political Profit

[LFC]

McCarthy is now trying to obscure the fact that if Republicans get control they'll most definitely hold the government hostage unless they get their way. Is it any wonder they love the likes of Orban and Putin? Those fascists are their kind of people!

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) did some backpedaling Wednesday evening as his and his colleagues’ threats about the debt ceiling and cutting Medicare and Social Security have begun to draw attention.

“I’m kind of surprised because all I hear, really, mostly, is abortion and January 6, is what I’m hearing from the left almost exclusively, but today they’re up in arms about something you told Punchbowl regarding entitlement programs and the debt ceiling — that you would use debt ceiling negotiations to somehow rein in Social Security or Medicare?” lobs excessively amenable CNBC host Joe Kernen.

McCarthy told Punchbowl News earlier this week that he would not “predetermine” anything in terms of cuts to the major programs, and that he wouldn’t lift the debt ceiling without a “change” to the administration’s “current behavior.”

“I never mentioned Social Security and Medicare,” McCarthy responded on CNBC, adding that Republicans want to “strengthen Social Security and Medicare.”

“So the question was, would you just raise the debt ceiling without having a discussion — not about entitlements — but about our spending behavior right now,” he continued. “And my question would be, we have to change our behavior, we can’t continue down this path — I don’t think anybody would think they would just go about giving this administration a blank check. So yes, I know that the debt ceiling needs to be raised, but I also know I’m gonna strengthen Social Security and Medicare.”

“I never brought them up,” he repeated. “That is where the Democrats continue to try to put something else out there.”

In fact, to the chagrin of many Democratic supporters, it has decidedly not been the Democrats circulating the narrative that Republicans plan to hold the debt ceiling hostage to extract cuts to Medicare and Social Security. It’s McCarthy’s own party.

House Republicans, many of whom are poised to control major committees if their party flips the lower chamber, were candid about their intentions in a recent Bloomberg Government article. And months before that, an influential group of House Republicans had already published a “blueprint” detailing their intention to raise the eligibility age for both programs, to make Medicare more means-tested and to redirect some taxes that fund Social Security to other, private alternatives.

While both McCarthy and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) insist that these changes are merely “strengthening” the programs and not cutting them, their policy prescriptions are in black and white.

And it’s telling, even in this clean-up interview, that McCarthy does not back away from the debt ceiling threat, though he veils it in disingenuous claims of fiscal responsibility.

[goldenvalley]

Oct 21, 2022 14:04:16 GMT LFC said:

McCarthy is now trying to obscure the fact that if Republicans get control they'll most definitely hold the government hostage unless they get their way. Is it any wonder they love the likes of Orban and Putin? Those fascists are their kind of people!

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) did some backpedaling Wednesday evening as his and his colleagues’ threats about the debt ceiling and cutting Medicare and Social Security have begun to draw attention.

“I’m kind of surprised because all I hear, really, mostly, is abortion and January 6, is what I’m hearing from the left almost exclusively, but today they’re up in arms about something you told Punchbowl regarding entitlement programs and the debt ceiling — that you would use debt ceiling negotiations to somehow rein in Social Security or Medicare?” lobs excessively amenable CNBC host Joe Kernen.

McCarthy told Punchbowl News earlier this week that he would not “predetermine” anything in terms of cuts to the major programs, and that he wouldn’t lift the debt ceiling without a “change” to the administration’s “current behavior.”

“I never mentioned Social Security and Medicare,” McCarthy responded on CNBC, adding that Republicans want to “strengthen Social Security and Medicare.”

“So the question was, would you just raise the debt ceiling without having a discussion — not about entitlements — but about our spending behavior right now,” he continued. “And my question would be, we have to change our behavior, we can’t continue down this path — I don’t think anybody would think they would just go about giving this administration a blank check. So yes, I know that the debt ceiling needs to be raised, but I also know I’m gonna strengthen Social Security and Medicare.”

“I never brought them up,” he repeated. “That is where the Democrats continue to try to put something else out there.”

In fact, to the chagrin of many Democratic supporters, it has decidedly not been the Democrats circulating the narrative that Republicans plan to hold the debt ceiling hostage to extract cuts to Medicare and Social Security. It’s McCarthy’s own party.

House Republicans, many of whom are poised to control major committees if their party flips the lower chamber, were candid about their intentions in a recent Bloomberg Government article. And months before that, an influential group of House Republicans had already published a “blueprint” detailing their intention to raise the eligibility age for both programs, to make Medicare more means-tested and to redirect some taxes that fund Social Security to other, private alternatives.

While both McCarthy and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) insist that these changes are merely “strengthening” the programs and not cutting them, their policy prescriptions are in black and white.

And it’s telling, even in this clean-up interview, that McCarthy does not back away from the debt ceiling threat, though he veils it in disingenuous claims of fiscal responsibility.

Privatize Social Security in some way and bury Medicare recipients in paperwork so they give up...Republican dreams come true.  

[LFC]

Taking the government hostage in exchange for shredding the social safety net, so they can pay for their tax cuts for the rich (or maybe new tax cuts for the rich), is still their plan.

Pre-election, Republican lawmakers baffled political observers with their candor: they openly spoke about their plans, should they flip the House, to demand cuts to Medicare and Social Security in exchange for not sending the United States careening into default on its debts.

Perhaps it should come as no surprise then that they’re now doubling down on the plan after the election has largely passed and the chips fell as they did.

Sen. John Thune (R-SD), a top member of Republican leadership, told Bloomberg in a recent interview that Republicans want to take the debt ceiling hostage in exchange for cuts to Social Security and other similar programs.

“There’s a set of solutions there that we really need to take on if we’re going to get serious about making these programs sustainable and getting this debt bomb at a manageable level before it’s too late,” he said.

“Typically, I think there’s been a pretty broad bipartisan understanding that default’s not an option,” he added, playing down the potentially catastrophic implications of his party’s brinkmanship. “But at the same time I think there’s an understanding that this does create an opportunity especially if the pressure’s on one side to deliver that outcome.”

Thune specifically named his interest in considering increasing the Social Security retirement age, and broadly suggested that he’d like to explore changes across the board.

Republican leadership in the House has likewise indicated its interest in the plan, also cloaking it in the language of fiscal responsibility.

Interesting how Thune is all about raising the full retirement age for Social Security up from age 67, an age where a number of people are already at or beyond their ability to work, but no word about his own cushy government retirement plan that he didn't have to pay into.

[LFC]

Here we go! Qevin sold any wiggle room on this to get the gavel so the GOP is now the party of shutdown.

The looming standoff over the debt limit has been telegraphed for months. And now, just days into the new Congress, it has arrived.

Republicans have made their intentions clear since at least October: Take the debt limit hostage as a bargaining chip, demanding cuts to programs the party has long sought to slash, such as Medicare and Social Security.

The White House has repeatedly said it won’t play ball, and did so again after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned the U.S. would hit the debt limit Thursday, and that her department would begin “extraordinary measures” to continue to fulfill the U.S.’s obligations. “There is going to be no negotiation over it,” White House Press Secretary Karinne Jean-Pierre said. “This is something that must get done.”

Yet Republicans, having captured their hostage, were not keen to take no for an answer.

“When President Biden says he’s just going to refuse to negotiate with Republicans on any concessions, I don’t think that’s right either,” said Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) in an interview with ABC This Week on Sunday.

“I want our side to negotiate with the Democrats in good faith,” he said later in the interview. “But President Biden has to also negotiate. He can’t say he refuses to negotiate.”

Republicans have periodically taken the debt ceiling hostage as a bargaining chip, threatening the full faith and credit of the U.S. and raising the possibility that a government on which the world’s economy relies might default on its debt. To justify such a maneuver, Republicans habitually conflate the budgeting process — in which Congress decides what it will spend money on — with the debt ceiling, which allows the administration to borrow money to cover expenses largely made up of funds Congress has already appropriated.

Bacon, a McCarthy ally in his recent speakership fight, leaned into that conflation, telling ABC that “the mission we’ve given is to control reckless spending, which has been not the only contributor but one of the main contributors to inflation.”

The hope, for Republicans, is that Americans will share their party’s seeming confusion about just what is going on here. Rep. James Comer (R-KY) went there too, claiming in a separate interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper Sunday that “Republicans were elected with a mandate from the American people in the midterm elections. We campaigned on the fact that we were going to be serious about spending cuts. So, the Senate is going to have to recognize the fact that we’re not going to budge until we see meaningful reform with respect to spending.” 

[LFC]

Qevin thinks this is a good idea. As things shut down good luck on keeping the Biden classified document nearly non-story up front and desperately trying to spin it as the same as Trump's actual theft, lies, and obstruction. Instead it will be a steady drip of cuts to things people actually want that will dominate the news.

And, of course, attacking Social Security and Medicare always plays well. [/snark]

We’ve been waiting to hear what secret agreements now-Speaker Kevin McCarthy had to make with the Freedom Caucus to become speaker. Yesterday we learned one key condition. McCarthy agreed to pursue something called “prioritization” as part of their plan to push debt default later this year. On its face, prioritization is a scheme by which the U.S. government will simply stop doing various functions — food and safety, Medicaid, roads, school lunches, air traffic control, border security — to prioritize only debt interest payments and likely Social Security and the military. In other words, there’s no need to default on the debt, the argument goes. You basically just default on the U.S. government.

In addition to the reality of having a big chunk of economy shut down because the U.S. government stops functioning, there’s a basic problem with this “plan.” We’ve been through this idea back in 2011. The U.S. government isn’t equipped technologically to pay some bills and not others on the fly. The U.S. government makes millions of payments every day. It also probably wouldn’t avoid the kind of financial crisis that full default would. And finally, this would only happen if the Senate passed such a “prioritization” bill and President Biden signed it. Obviously those things aren’t going to happen.

This gets us to the real gist of the matter. The Post calls this an “emergency plan for breaching the debt limit.” But it’s not. It can’t work. It couldn’t pass into law even if it could work. This isn’t actually a plan to avoid default. It’s a messaging plan aimed at being able to blame the White House for the federal debt default and the ensuing financial crisis after it happens. House Republicans want to be able to say, we offered this prioritization plan and you rejected it so obviously this is on you.

The real import of this revelation is that it shows how serious House Republicans are not simply about threatening a U.S. debt default but actually forcing a default. That’s the real story. They got McCarthy to agree to put in place the plan, really a messaging plan, that assumes they will force the country to default on its debts later this year.

[LFC]

Let's raise the Social Security Full Retirement Age because people WANT to work longer and get less money! Yes, a Georgia Republican actually made that claim out loud, and not one of the 20 snapperiest of snapperheads.

Republican Rep. Rick Allen of Georgia said on Jan. 12 that the way to handle problems with Social Security and to increase wealth is for people to work longer and retire later. Allen said that his constituents have told him that that is exactly what they want to do.

As seen in a video released by the organization, Allen is asked in a hallway in Congress by a staffer with Social Security Works, an advocacy group whose mission is to protect and expand Social Security, "How do you guys plan on cutting Social Security this Congress?" Allen replies, "We're not going to cut Social Security."

The staffer then asks about "raising the age of retirement."

"You know, uh, it's interesting that you ask that question," Allen says. "People come up to me, they actually want to work longer." The staffer prompts, "So that's on the table, you're saying?" and Allen responds: "Well, you know, if people want to work longer, maybe you need to give them incentive to do it. That's the way to solve every one of these problems, by the way, and actually grow wealth at the same time." Pointing to his head, Allen concludes, "It just takes that right there."

Here's the reality of when people begin taking their Social Security benefits.

As for this inane quote, "Well, you know, if people want to work longer, maybe you need to give them incentive to do it. That's the way to solve every one of these problems, by the way, and actually grow wealth at the same time.", Well there is an incentive to work longer and not take your benefits until age 70. It's called the delayed retirement credit. At age 70 this dipshit should know that which means he's a liar, he has no idea what he's talking about, he personally took his benefits earlier even while still "working" (as much as any Rep, especially Republican, actually works), or some combination of all of these.

[goldenvalley]

Thanks for posting that graph.  It clarifies the matter greatly.  

[indy]

Jan 17, 2023 15:42:19 GMT LFC said:

Here we go! Qevin sold any wiggle room on this to get the gavel so the GOP is now the party of shutdown.

The looming standoff over the debt limit has been telegraphed for months. And now, just days into the new Congress, it has arrived.

Republicans have made their intentions clear since at least October: Take the debt limit hostage as a bargaining chip, demanding cuts to programs the party has long sought to slash, such as Medicare and Social Security.

The White House has repeatedly said it won’t play ball, and did so again after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned the U.S. would hit the debt limit Thursday, and that her department would begin “extraordinary measures” to continue to fulfill the U.S.’s obligations. “There is going to be no negotiation over it,” White House Press Secretary Karinne Jean-Pierre said. “This is something that must get done.”

Yet Republicans, having captured their hostage, were not keen to take no for an answer.

“When President Biden says he’s just going to refuse to negotiate with Republicans on any concessions, I don’t think that’s right either,” said Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) in an interview with ABC This Week on Sunday.

“I want our side to negotiate with the Democrats in good faith,” he said later in the interview. “But President Biden has to also negotiate. He can’t say he refuses to negotiate.”

Republicans have periodically taken the debt ceiling hostage as a bargaining chip, threatening the full faith and credit of the U.S. and raising the possibility that a government on which the world’s economy relies might default on its debt. To justify such a maneuver, Republicans habitually conflate the budgeting process — in which Congress decides what it will spend money on — with the debt ceiling, which allows the administration to borrow money to cover expenses largely made up of funds Congress has already appropriated.

Bacon, a McCarthy ally in his recent speakership fight, leaned into that conflation, telling ABC that “the mission we’ve given is to control reckless spending, which has been not the only contributor but one of the main contributors to inflation.”

The hope, for Republicans, is that Americans will share their party’s seeming confusion about just what is going on here. Rep. James Comer (R-KY) went there too, claiming in a separate interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper Sunday that “Republicans were elected with a mandate from the American people in the midterm elections. We campaigned on the fact that we were going to be serious about spending cuts. So, the Senate is going to have to recognize the fact that we’re not going to budge until we see meaningful reform with respect to spending.” 

Of course, lost in all this nonsense is the fact that the negotiations already took place when the money was allocated to be spent. That negotiation passed the house, senate and was signed by the president. Everybody was on board. So when he says "I want our side to negotiate with the Democrats in good faith", what he really means is he wants a do-over...or else.

[LFC]

Vox has a list of things Biden might be able to do to keep the government open, including the infamous trillion dollar coin idea. Bold hostage taking mine.

On Friday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen sent a note to congressional leadership with a message that you do not want to hear from the official charged with running America’s finances: Because of yet another fight over raising the nation’s statutory debt limit, the Treasury Department would need to begin using “extraordinary measures” to keep paying the country’s bills. If lawmakers did not act to raise the ceiling, those measures could be exhausted by early June, leaving the US in a state of default.

The ceiling, a legal limit on how much outstanding debt the federal government can hold, sparked standoffs between the Democratic White House and Senate and the GOP House in 2011, and again in 2013, and is now set to unfold yet again. The Republican House rebels who voted against Kevin McCarthy in the speaker election over a dozen times finally forced a promise to never pass a “clean” debt ceiling increase (that is, one without spending cuts attached) in exchange for their votes. On Monday, the majority adopted new rules that will make it more difficult to increase the debt limit and make it easier for Republicans to insist that raising the ceiling will need to come with spending cuts.

Breaching the ceiling and violating what Yellen called the “full faith and credit of the United States” would be almost incomprehensibly bad. Beth Ann Bovino, chief US economist at Standard and Poor’s, was hardly alone in 2017 when she predicted that “the impact of a default by the U.S. government on its debts would be worse than the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, devastating markets and the economy.”

And yet America keeps running this apocalyptic Groundhog Day, one that, thanks to Yellen’s letter, now comes with a countdown clock. Luckily, there is a way out of the dilemma: ending the debt ceiling once and for all. The best way to do this is through legislation, but given the stranglehold of Republican hardliners in the House, that looks impossible. The administration couldn’t raise the debt ceiling on its own, but experts have floated a few options for the president to consider to avert a crisis. None of these are free from risk, and all would likely spark considerable litigation that could in turn cause market turmoil. But all would be preferable to defaulting on US debt.

[LFC]

We may soon find out if there are even a small number of patriotic Republicans in the House or if they're all nihilists, nihilist curious, or nihilist cowering.

Kevin McCarthy won the House speaker job in part by making himself a hostage of Republican hardliners, pledging high-stakes confrontations on issues like funding the government and preventing a debt ceiling breach. And he can use his power over the House agenda to make good on that promise, blocking bills on these topics from even coming to a vote unless conservatives get what they want.

But Democrats and GOP moderates have one weird trick they could use to stop him: the discharge petition.

This procedure was crafted to allow a majority of the House to force action on a bill that the speaker or key committees aren’t holding a House floor vote on. For instance, if McCarthy won’t allow a vote on a “clean” debt ceiling increase bill, 218 members of the House can sign a discharge petition forcing such a vote — and, since that’s a majority, that bill would likely then pass. Once a vacant Democratic seat in blue territory is filled in a special election next month, only five Republicans would have to join 213 Democrats to make a discharge petition succeed.

There are various procedural and timing technicalities that could complicate this if it had to happen right before a debt ceiling or government shutdown deadline. But in theory, it could happen, if a mere handful of Republican members want it to.

The real problem, of course, is politics — because there are many political reasons that even moderate Republicans would be reluctant to take this step.

[LFC]

The House Republican bomb throwers have no idea what they're doing and likely don't care. (In full due to paywall.)

According to a report in Bloomberg News, there’s an increasing push among House Republicans to pass some kind of short-term “clean” debt ceiling bill. It would likely be a “suspension” of the debt ceiling rather than raising it. For these purposes, however, same difference. As we noted yesterday, the governing idea seems to be to time a debt-ceiling crisis to Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year. This would combine both a debt default cliff and a government shut down cliff on one big fiscal Armageddon day.

There are two goals to this. One is to add pressure by bundling all the bad, scary things into a single day (though I’m not sure that actually places more pressure on the White House) and also to make it a date certain. Currently, the Treasury is doing all these accounting tricks, juggling things in the air, also dealing with the uncertainty of just when tax revenues come in. It’s very hard to know just when the big moment comes and the Treasury doesn’t necessarily have a strong interest in telling the House just when that happens. If you’re planning a showdown you want to know exactly when showdown day is. This would provide that certainty for House Republicans. It would definitely come exactly on Sept. 30.

One problem here though is that House Republicans need the Senate and the White House to go along with this. It’s a bill. It has to pass the Senate and be signed by the President. The House GOP clearly doesn’t think they’ve got their ducks in a row yet for their confrontation. It’s not totally clear why Democrats or the White House want to help with that. Bloomberg quotes one of the radicals saying he wouldn’t vote for an extension unless the Democrats agreed to at least some of the demands now. That’s clearly a non-starter. It’s Republicans asking for this extension. Beggars can’t be choosers.

So how does that work exactly? I think we see why this is happening. Republicans don’t have their footing and they’re asking for more time to get their footing. Democrats don’t have much incentive to give them that extra time. GOP radicals don’t seem interested or willing either. So it may not be possible to do this without a significant amount of Democratic votes. That’s also anathema for the House GOP radicals. And to get Democratic votes they’d need to give Democrats some incentive.

Add to this the report that at their Wednesday lunch House GOP leaders held a tutorial for members about how a debt default differs from a government shutdown. One could reasonably say you should know the difference before you run for a House seat. And that’s true. But if you look at all the different things happening here what it seems is that there’s some force within the caucus which is trying to say: Let’s slow this down. Let’s make sure we all know just what we’re getting into before there’s no going back. Yet no one quite wants to say what that force or faction or member of the leadership is.

It’s worth remembering that the White House is not saying it won’t negotiate. The Congress has to pass a budget each year. The House is now under Republican control. So House, Senate and White House need to hash out something they can all agree on. That’s a negotiation. What the White House is saying is that they’re not going to let putting a gun to the country’s head be a part of that negotiation. That’s not negotiation. That’s extortion. Democrats should make that point more crystal clear.

[goldenvalley]

Jan 30, 2023 17:42:44 GMT LFC said:

The House Republican bomb throwers have no idea what they're doing and likely don't care. (In full due to paywall.)

I heard an interview with John Boehner's press secretary.  He said much the same thing.  Back in 2011, the Reps had specific things they wanted to cut and walked into negotiations with them.  He says he sees no sign of this and says these folks don't appear to want anything other than media attention for being extreme and willing to risk it all.

[LFC]

Qevin really has no ideas what he's doing. He's just going to do the flounder dance for the next two years. Apparently Republicans don't really want to do what they've spent months saying they want to do, but he refuses to tell us what they actually want to do.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said on Sunday that cuts to Medicare and Social Security are “off the table” as his party seeks to win a concession from the Biden administration in exchange for raising the debt limit.

His statement comes after Republicans have indicated for months that they will take the debt limit hostage until spending cuts are made to the government budget, and after some Republicans have indicated Medicare and Social Security are prime choices for the chopping block.

“Let’s take those off the table,” McCarthy told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” when asked if he was considering any reductions to Social Security and Medicare.

“If you read our commitment to America, all we talk about is strengthening Medicare and Social Security,” he added.

Over the last several months, some Republicans repeatedly stated that they will hold the debt ceiling hostage to demand cuts to Medicare and Social Security. So McCarthy’s promise that cuts to those programs are “off the table” seems to walk back those plans.

But the comments left room for ambiguity, with McCarthy continuing to talk about Republican plans for the programs, which, he suggested, may be implemented through separate legislation. Asked by host Margaret Brennan what he meant by strengthen, McCarthy avoided the question and pivoted to casting Democrats as spendthrifts.

“What I’m talking about Social Security, Medicare, you keep that to the side,” he said. “What I want to look at is they’ve increased spending by 30%, $400 billion in four years.”

Following McCarthy’s remarks, the White House quickly rebuked McCarthy’s rhetoric that the GOP wants to “strengthen” the two government programs, arguing that the comments did not represent a shift in Republicans’ plans to slash spending on programs like Medicare and Social Security.

“For years, congressional Republicans have advocated for slashing earned benefits using Washington code words like ‘strengthen,’ when their policies would privatize Medicare and Social Security, raise the retirement age, or cut benefits,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement. “House Republicans refuse to raise revenue from the wealthy, but insist they will ‘strengthen’ earned benefits programs.”

[goldenvalley]

Jan 30, 2023 21:01:01 GMT LFC said:

Qevin really has no ideas what he's doing. He's just going to do the flounder dance for the next two years. Apparently Republicans don't really want to do what they've spent months saying they want to do, but he refuses to tell us what they actually want to do.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said on Sunday that cuts to Medicare and Social Security are “off the table” as his party seeks to win a concession from the Biden administration in exchange for raising the debt limit.

His statement comes after Republicans have indicated for months that they will take the debt limit hostage until spending cuts are made to the government budget, and after some Republicans have indicated Medicare and Social Security are prime choices for the chopping block.

“Let’s take those off the table,” McCarthy told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” when asked if he was considering any reductions to Social Security and Medicare.

“If you read our commitment to America, all we talk about is strengthening Medicare and Social Security,” he added.

Over the last several months, some Republicans repeatedly stated that they will hold the debt ceiling hostage to demand cuts to Medicare and Social Security. So McCarthy’s promise that cuts to those programs are “off the table” seems to walk back those plans.

But the comments left room for ambiguity, with McCarthy continuing to talk about Republican plans for the programs, which, he suggested, may be implemented through separate legislation. Asked by host Margaret Brennan what he meant by strengthen, McCarthy avoided the question and pivoted to casting Democrats as spendthrifts.

“What I’m talking about Social Security, Medicare, you keep that to the side,” he said. “What I want to look at is they’ve increased spending by 30%, $400 billion in four years.”

Following McCarthy’s remarks, the White House quickly rebuked McCarthy’s rhetoric that the GOP wants to “strengthen” the two government programs, arguing that the comments did not represent a shift in Republicans’ plans to slash spending on programs like Medicare and Social Security.

“For years, congressional Republicans have advocated for slashing earned benefits using Washington code words like ‘strengthen,’ when their policies would privatize Medicare and Social Security, raise the retirement age, or cut benefits,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement. “House Republicans refuse to raise revenue from the wealthy, but insist they will ‘strengthen’ earned benefits programs.”

They want to be on Faux News and right wing social media.  They want to watch money rolling into their PACS so they can try to figure out how to put it to personal use.

[LFC]

This is what happens when you hand the utter nutters power. To all you Republicans who went along with the ever increasing bullshit over the past 30 years, you built this.

Jesse Lee
@jesselee46

There you have it…

@andrewrsorkin : “The question that I’d ask you is whether you think this debt ceiling is going to be used as a bargaining chip in a way that could turn dangerous?”

House GOP Budget Chair @reparrington : “I believe it will and I believe it has to.”

[goldenvalley]

Jan 31, 2023 19:03:47 GMT LFC said:

This is what happens when you hand the utter nutters power. To all you Republicans who went along with the ever increasing bullshit over the past 30 years, you built this.

Jesse Lee
@jesselee46

There you have it…

@andrewrsorkin : “The question that I’d ask you is whether you think this debt ceiling is going to be used as a bargaining chip in a way that could turn dangerous?”

House GOP Budget Chair @reparrington : “I believe it will and I believe it has to.”

They're in a war.  Hostage taking and killing of them is just part of it.  Chilling.

[pnwguy]

Putin is losing but has nukes. The House GOP is losing but has nukes. Both are crazy and unstable enough to use them.

[LFC]

Krugman said he and others believe that, despite denials from the Biden administration, will do whatever it takes to prevent government from defaulting, even minting a $1T coin.

We talked to economist and Times columnist Paul Krugman today in a TPM Inside Briefing. The full interview will be available for members tomorrow. But the biggest surprise for me came when we spoke about the debt ceiling. I think most of us assume that minting trillion dollars coins or invoking the 14th amendment amount to a kind of politics nerd fanfic — cool and probably the right thing to do but not at all things that are actually going to happen. Krugman told TPM he assumes that that’s exactly what will happen. They’ll deny it till the last moment. But if it comes down to the wire and the White House has to choose between default and one of several legal stratagems to save the full-faith-and-credit hostage from the House radicals’ firing squad they’ll do just that.

To be clear, he didn’t say he was sure or that it was guaranteed. But the fact that it’s his working assumption came as a pretty big surprise to me. He also points so much less discussed strategies as ones that may be more likely than boffo ideas like the trillion dollar coin.

“I think a lot of us are operating under the working assumption that the Biden people will deny up till the last minute that they’ll do any of the funny strategies. But then if push actually does come to shove they will. And they’ll mint the trillion dollar coin or they’ll invoke the constitution … There’s now a menagerie of different, exotic strategies that all have zero economic significance. They’re all about just exploiting the fine print in the law to avoid this. But if they can’t do that then it could be really bad.”

Krugman discusses a number of options. And it seems to be some of these lesser discussed options he sees as more likely.

Watch the whole exchange here.

The one that made me blink was the issuing of bonds with no maturity ("consuls") so they technically don't add to the debt but they add to the obligations. W...T...F? Frighteningly he said that lawyers are more likely to pull us out of the Republican-made mess than politicians or economists. More W...T...F?

Krugman: "I'm aware of at least, I think, six strategies that are all ridiculous. But the situation is ridiculous. At least one of them would probably do it."

[LFC]

Democrats have realized that they have a winning issue with the Republican threat to the debt ceiling. House GOPers are throwing out vague ideas but when they were called on their clear, long-standing support of Social Security and Medicare cuts they played the victims, but they backed away.

House Republicans have been adamant for some time now that they will hold the debt limit hostage and let the government default on its debt unless they get the budget cuts they want — which have long included major cuts to social programs like Medicare and Social Security.

After staunch criticism from President Biden and Democrats and after pretending the party doesn’t actually support cuts to the programs, House Republicans — including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) — conceded that cuts to Medicare and Social Security are “off the table.”

But Republicans control the House, so that means they get to produce a budget that shows what their priorities are. Needless to say they aren't too keen about saying them out loud. Meanwhile Democrats keep pushing them.

On Thursday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) once again called on Republicans to release their budget plan.

“Show us your plan,” Jeffries said to reporters during his weekly press conference. “What are you hiding from the American people?”

“We’re still waiting for extreme MAGA Republicans in the House to show us [their] plan,” Jeffries said. “How do you want to invest in building an economy for everyday Americans? How do you propose dealing with the challenges that you often talk about with respect to the deficit? Are you committed to undermining social security, Medicare and Medicaid?”

[snip]

“The House Republican budget plan is in the witness protection program,” Jeffries added. “It’s in hiding.”

[LFC]

Biden produced a budget and Democrats got behind it. They're using this to continue pressuring Republicans to be specific. Needless to say they don't want to say out loud what they're actually trying to do.

While Senate Democrats spent Thursday eager to applaud the President’s budget, they were equally keen to exploit the contrast and poke at Republicans for their struggles to produce their own list of economic priorities.

“This is the difficulty: They want to cut Medicare and Social Security and then they got embarrassed when we said so,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) told TPM. “And so now, they want to cut food assistance and Medicaid. But I imagine they will probably deny that — and so they’re not gonna put together a budget.”

House Republicans are reportedly groping for programs to cut to make good on their vows to slash spending, a more difficult task since President Joe Biden strong-armed Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) into taking cuts to Social Security and Medicare off the table.

They’re being advised by former Trump budget director Russel Vought, whose budget outline includes nearly halving funding to housing programs — and phasing out Section 8 vouchers — and nixing Medicaid Affordable Care Act expansions.

“I think they have a predicament which is that they are so beholden to extremism and to a little crew of creepy billionaires,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) told TPM, adding: “So they’re torn between their big donors and the public, and they’re trying to paper that over by getting something negotiated in secret and by holding a hand grenade to the economy.”

The debt ceiling, and Republicans’ hunger to use it as a bargaining chip, continues to loom in the background of the budget negotiations. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the government’s ability to pay its debts using extraordinary measures will be exhausted some time between July and September of this year. Much of the uncertainty is centered on revenue unpredictability, including income taxes this spring.

The two must-pass items are traveling down parallel tracks.

“I don’t think they have a realistic plan,” Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) told TPM of Republicans’ formulating of a budget. “The debt ceiling should not be part of it.”

[jackd]

Some day I hope the Democrats will insist that the debt ceiling is unconstitutional under Sec. 4 of the 14th Amendment and simply instruct the Treasurer to pay the debts. According to recent reports, even Lawrence Tribe now agrees that is appropriate although he didn't think so when Obama was confronted with the problem. If the Supreme Court were to disagree with that action, perhaps a modern day Andy Jackson could tell them to go pound sand. The debt ceiling is a weapon to which the Republicans are clearly not entitled and they should be forced to deal with the budget and appropriations in the first place; not after the fact.

[goldenvalley]

Mar 10, 2023 21:49:01 GMT LFC said:

Democrats have realized that they have a winning issue with the Republican threat to the debt ceiling. House GOPers are throwing out vague ideas but when they were called on their clear, long-standing support of Social Security and Medicare cuts they played the victims, but they backed away.

House Republicans have been adamant for some time now that they will hold the debt limit hostage and let the government default on its debt unless they get the budget cuts they want — which have long included major cuts to social programs like Medicare and Social Security.

After staunch criticism from President Biden and Democrats and after pretending the party doesn’t actually support cuts to the programs, House Republicans — including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) — conceded that cuts to Medicare and Social Security are “off the table.”

But Republicans control the House, so that means they get to produce a budget that shows what their priorities are. Needless to say they aren't too keen about saying them out loud. Meanwhile Democrats keep pushing them.

On Thursday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) once again called on Republicans to release their budget plan.

“Show us your plan,” Jeffries said to reporters during his weekly press conference. “What are you hiding from the American people?”

“We’re still waiting for extreme MAGA Republicans in the House to show us [their] plan,” Jeffries said. “How do you want to invest in building an economy for everyday Americans? How do you propose dealing with the challenges that you often talk about with respect to the deficit? Are you committed to undermining social security, Medicare and Medicaid?”

[snip]

“The House Republican budget plan is in the witness protection program,” Jeffries added. “It’s in hiding.”

Their plan is to screech about the debt ceiling.  And then when the budget time comes around they'll scream about proposed tax increase...but one thing they will never do in either situation is present an actual plan.

[LFC]

Mar 11, 2023 0:50:40 GMT goldenvalley said:

Their plan is to screech about the debt ceiling.  And then when the budget time comes around they'll scream about proposed tax increase...but one thing they will never do in either situation is present an actual plan.

Rinse, wash, repeat. It's the basics of the Two Santa Clause Theory. In addition to the general budget just look at how they handled the "conservative approach to healthcare." It turns out those empty pieces of paper Republicans waved around as their "plan" during the Obamacare vote really was their plan. That steaming pile that Paul Ryan sharted out was an embarrassment.

[LFC]

The Republican House bomb throwers, which is now most of them, are coalescing around at least some cuts that they'd agree to; almost every thing Democrats passed over the last two years. How reasonable of them.

Congress needs to pass a budget. It also needs to lift the debt ceiling. For months, the particulars of the coming clashes were fuzzy.

Those two must-pass items are on distinct, but parallel tracks, particularly as Republicans threaten to withhold their votes to lift the debt ceiling unless President Joe Biden forks over political concessions. The White House has insisted that the issues be handled separately, while Republicans struggle to coalesce their caucus behind the basic parameters of what those demands would be.

Now, at least one group of far-right lawmakers has decided to get some cuts on the record.

Reacting to Biden’s newly-released budget plan and continued staunch criticism from Democrats, the House Freedom Caucus released a one-page list of cuts on Friday, largely to spending Congress already allotted in 2022 for 2023. To unveil it, the far-right group held a press conference that was scant on details of the plan but heavy on grievances.

They have at least one backer in the Senate, the man with the crazy eyes who oversaw one of the biggest Medicare scams in history.

It’s already won the approval of at least one upper-chamber peer.

“Finally, a return to commonsense in Washington,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) tweeted Friday. “I fully support the House Freedom Caucus proposal.”

This is a good description.

The budget is essentially a ransom note: the one-pager opens with the vague promise that members of the House Freedom Caucus will “consider” voting to raise the debt ceiling if they get the demands below.

“To the extent that this is posturing for their own base, it’s fine — but to the extent that it’s read as a real set of demands that the administration has to move towards, it’s really dangerous,” J.W. Mason, a senior fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, told TPM.

[LFC]

House Republican rhetoric is about what you'd expect; batshit crazy and brimming with rage, spittle, and hyperbole.

Rep. Greg Murphy (R-NC) took particular umbrage at the President’s proposal concerning taxing unrealized capital gains, or a theoretical profit on an investment you haven’t yet sold.

“It’s like putting somebody in jail for a potential murder that they might do,” he said Friday.

“We have a situation where hardworking teachers and firefighters are paying a higher share of their income in taxation than billionaires who derive most of their income from unrealized capital gains,” Yellen responded, adding: “We’re suggesting a tax on individuals earning more than $100 million.”

Murphy pressed on with his metaphor.

“I’m not talking about the wealth of the person, I’m talking about the actual theory of attacking somebody before they’ve actually gained their money,” he said. “Again, it’s like putting somebody in prison before they’ve done the murder.”