Tyler Durden:
After 8 years of bashing Republicans for using debt ceiling votes as leverage to try to force spending cuts, Democrats now seem intent upon doing pretty much the same thing, well, at least the ‘using the debt ceiling as leverage’ part. In fact, after repeatedly calling for a ‘clean’ debt ceiling vote (i.e. one without attached conditions) House minority leader Nancy Pelosi recently hinted, in her typical incoherent manner no less, that Democrats may now be looking into using the debt ceiling vote as leverage to thwart Trump’s forthcoming tax proposals.
“I don’t have any intention of lifting the debt ceiling to enable the Republicans to give another tax break to the wealthy in our country. To further exacerbate the challenge that is created when they have their trickle down economics.”
“The president keeps saying ‘the tax bill is moving through Congress,’ it doesn’t exist. It doesn’t exist. So you understand the frustration. It doesn’t exist. There is no tax bill moving through Congress.”
As Bloomberg points out, Democrats have been the key to passing ‘clean’ debt ceiling increases in the past but hypocrisy is not a concept that is well understood in Washington D.C.
It’s unclear how this would work in practice, but Democratic aides in both chambers said they are discussing possible strategies to tie the debt ceiling to blocking tax cuts.
Such an approach would be a significant change for Democrats, who have spent the past eight years arguing that debt ceiling increases should be free from conditions, and could further complicate efforts to raise the government’s borrowing authority when the current limit is reached later this year.
Democrats have been willing in the past to provide Republicans enough support on “clean” debt-ceiling measures to help make up for the loss of votes among conservatives, mostly in the House, who refuse to support them without deep cuts to domestic programs. Democrats were key to helping resolve the 2011 fight over the debt limit, a protracted standoff that contributed to S&P Global Ratings’ decision to downgrade the U.S. to AA+ to AAA.
Ironically, efforts to use the debt ceiling as leverage could, presumably for the first time ever, partially align the interests of Democrats with the most conservative voices in Congress, many of whom would have no problem shutting down the federal government for a while. After being singled out and blamed for the last government shutdown in 2013, the House Freedom Caucus undoubtedly welcomes Pelosi’s sudden support.
the demac-RATS are determened to drag america intoa hole to regain power i hope it backfires on them and blows the jackass sky high KA-BOOM like one of Wile-ie coyotes traps for the roadrunner
These Democrats are intent on wrecking the economy and the nation out of spite. Pure infantile, crybaby spite.
Curt, what your lifted spin omits is a rather profound difference in the 2013 ransom holding of Rs and what’s going on today.
Reminiscing that “I’m Only A Bill” ditty, bills go through a legislative process in order to become law and then signed by the President. Usually the party in power prevails and then you move on to another bill and albeit watered down with “pork”, “poison pills” etc, the law of the land remains law of the land. If a party wants to change or repeal that law, they need to regain power and then go through the legislation process to do so.
So far so good? Questions?
Now, what happened in 2013 was that although The Affordable Care Act passed both chambers of Congress, signed by The Executive Office, and even upheld by The Judicial Branch, Republicans were still content to repeal it. The problem was that they didn’t have the seat nor did they hold the WH to do so. So they refused to negotiate a budget and inflict pain on many Americans and damaged the standing of the country. That was the standoff of the 2013 budget ceiling raising brought to us by a quite bitter Republican Party.
Today, Ds aren’t trying to change laws they don’t like but rather are actually fighting a budget proposed by Trump (in other words, they are arguing a budget proposal which pertains to the budget increase argument rather than demanding something else and holding the country ransom). While you may agree with generous tax breaks for the wealthy, tax hikes for the middle class, dismantling of safety nets for the poor and damaging Medicare and Social Security which is pretty much the bulk of Trumps budget plan, that still makes for an entirely different argument than the fight of 2013.
With the understanding that most voters aren’t political analyst (squandering their time making a living, paying bills, running the kids to the dentist and Little League and the like) and can even buy into spin and rhetoric such as what you promote, the real issue will boil down what hits them squarely in the wallet.
I’d say it will take considerably more far fetched spin and cherry picking of reality to make that sale. Unfortunately though, you guys have seemed to tweak it to a science.
01/10/23 – Here’s how the House GOP majority will try to curb federal spending and taxes
(Six years later, and their dog will still chase an imaginary stick…)
You haven’t figured their game out yet, even after all the times that the stick proved to be imaginary?
Here’s what they always do, in a nutshell:
They cut taxes on the wealthiest, but fail to make significant spending cuts, because the really significant ones would suddenly wake up their hypnotized base.
The resultant escalating deficits are then piled on to the skyrocketing national debt, your own personal share of which is no less than that of the richest billionaire in the country.
At some point this will crash Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and a wide range of social and regulatory programs—all of which directly or indirectly benefit most Americans. But the richest don’t give a good goddamn, because they’re powerful and rich, and don’t need these programs. They need more hungry people who must work and serve in return for whatever crumbs fall from the high table.
Whatever negative consequences result from the repeating scam will always be blamed on their political opposition. They’ll always assert that they’ll never cut anything that matters to you, and they’ll always claim that every tax cut increases revenue.
Would that be the same “Pay-Go” Pelosi implemented and in place during the time that $20 trillion in debt was run up? Yeah, I think it was. How well did that work out? How well did Pelosi her drunk, wrinkled self adhere to it? Thus, here we are, once again wanting to just automatically raise a $31 trillion debt ceiling just so Democrats can exceed THAT limit first chance they get.
Yeah, how about some cuts? How about we cut funding to cities that violate federal immigration law and are sanctuary cities? Defund NPR; it’s nothing but leftist propaganda. Stop funding Palestinian terrorism. Stop subsidizing Chinese companies. Secure the border and stop spending $400 billion a year to subsidize illegal immigrants. Damn, there’s a list 500 miles long of unnecessary shit we don’t need that Democrats (and I’m sure some Republicans) load up spending bills with for the sole purpose of being able to steal from billions and billions of unaccountable tax dollars being thrown around.
Bush’s and Trump’s tax cuts were across the board and added almost a trillion apiece in revenue. Democrats think the only way to get money is to take (steal) it. They have no idea how the economy works, how money is earned or how to generate wealth.
Democrats don’t want to compromise on their agenda to utterly destroy our economy, our government and our nation.