Debt Ceiling, 2023, Biden vs McCarthy

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Good luck!

With a June 1 deadline to raise the debt ceiling looming, Speaker Kevin McCarthy sent the GOP House home on May 25 for a long multi-day holiday to celebrate *Memorial Day. They will return on Tuesday, May 30. These are the games people play.

*Memorial Day… speaking of which, do you remember that time McCarthy tried to reduce veterans’ benefits by 25% on Memorial Day weekend? Yeah, that was just now.

Before their dismissal, Republicans warned they would only allow President Biden to raise the debt ceiling if he agreed to cut programs for veterans, health care, education, social service programs for older citizens and the disabled, and food assistance for the hungry, there was even talk of charging student loan recipients retroactive interest for the time loan repayment has been paused.

No mention was made regarding members of Congress and Trump associates who took PPP forgivable loans. Why not put them on a predatory loan repayment plan?

Meanwhile, Democrats in the house voted unanimously to do business as usual: raise the debt ceiling with no stipulations, ending the unnecessary drama. They needed five Republicans to join them, but there were none.

If the debt ceiling was not raised, the United States would go into default for the first time in history, which would send the global economy into a recession. Republicans appeared to revel in their power.

McCarthy’s motivation to destroy the economy:

1. To make President Biden look bad before the 2024 election, thinking he will be blamed for sending the world into recession.
2. To preserve the 2017 tax cut for the wealthy and corporations and to avoid subjecting them to audits.

Nice economy you have here. It’d be a shame if anything happened to it.

President Biden responded to the unscheduled time off by extending the deadline to June 05. He said he will not debate this normal government practice of raising the credit ceiling. It is not an opportunity to extort concessions from the working-class veterans, the retired, disabled, hungry children.

“McCarthy got Biden to negotiate on debt.”

Score a win for the GOP. That’s the spin.

Biden met with McCarthy anyway, and the news that came out yesterday was disappointing even with the knowledge of what was at stake. That was until it was clarified.
Who knew that despite sending everyone home, McCarthy was meeting with Biden? An agreement between two men, one great, one owned by a handful of clown-car passengers (Marge and Matt come to mind) whom he needed to appease to win the gavel on that fifteenth vote. It seems like yesterday.

Maybe today, with this agreement, McCarthy will end his gaslighting tour, on television and social media, a constant barrage of lies. Perhaps now he will shut the mallard up. (rhymes with duck) I can’t stand his face or his tone, and his words–I’ll say it- his voice is a trigger for my rage. Few reporters challenge his rhetoric. Most haven’t done enough homework to know what follow-up question to ask to expose his lies.

Last week it happened. In the halls of the Capitol Building just outside the House Chamber, standing amidst a group of correspondents, one fearless soul among them inquired, “will you consider raising taxes on the wealthiest 1%?” It is their failure to pay that created 25% of the deficit. (McCarthy has been blaming out-of-control spending by the Democratic leadership for the debt.)

When that journalist asked the taboo question. McCarthy zeroed in on the offender, sending a laser beam jolt via eye contact. A hush fell over the crowd. Then like Jack Nicholson in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, McCarthy burst into guttural laughter, and the Greek chorus behind him joined in. Hahaha. [They recall all the years they schemed and fought to gift the wealthy an insurmountable wealth gap] hahaha… [the photo of their celebration with Tim Ryan when that rate cut that gave an 8% tax bracket, and allowing special deductions like private jets and yachts, flashes into my mind]… hahaha. Then, like an orchestra after a tic of the conductor’s baton, silence resumed. McCarthy said, “NO. We will not raise taxes.” He turned his back on the reporter, (now a zombie).

That was… McCarthy should do standup comedy for hostages who have no choice but to laugh because he is not funny. He is slick, smarmy, and he cheats on his wife. He’s a shitty person.

Until the majority takes back the country, the tax burden will remain on the backs of working Americans, and the poor will continue to lose benefits. Hunger is irrelevant.

There is a scene in “Silence of the Lambs” when Clarice visits Hannibal Lecter in the penitentiary the second time. He sits shackled in a chair, facing a television on the other side of the bars. It is outside his reach. A televangelist sermon blasts on full volume; it is torture, the constant foghorn of preaching for dollars; it’s his punishment for coaxing the convict in the neighboring cell to hang himself.

I feel like both the hanged prisoner in the cell next door, and the shackled Lecter when I hear McCarthy wax eloquent.

This comparison may sound melodramatic, but I have obstacles in my life that make everything the last straw. For example, my dentist turned me away after I had driven thirty-minutes for my six-month dental exam. I haven’t had one in two years. They rejected me, but sent me away with a prescription for a cold sore that formed during my drive to his office. (I blame McCarthy stress.)

Don’t get me started on my hours long challenge to fill a prescription and have insurance cover the cost. Meanwhile, the raw sore grew, doubling in size by the minute. Soon, my entire head became a balloon of a weeping puss, and the virus continued its migration down my throat, strangling me.

I choked out these words in the phone call, “Hello, insurance representative? Why do I need prior approval for a pill that I have a prescription for? Isn’t a prescription authorization? Are you saying the licensed medical professional has to ask you first if it’s okay to write the prescription?” While on hold, the sore still grew, until finally, my head exploded. I no longer require a dental exam. The man won.

I took artistic license with the retelling of that experience. It may be exaggerated. Every so often, I add these stories to see if anyone is still reading, and usually no one is. If you are, congratulations, you beat the odds.

I’ve veered off-topic… [scrolls to the top to confirm why I’m writing today.]

SOOOO, yesterday afternoon a tentative agreement was made that will prevent the world economy from being sucked into a vortex of chaos created by Kevin McCarthy.

McCarthy is claiming victory. Some of the bill gives the appearance that he came out unscathed. You can see by his spin that he got everything. He needs this bill to pass. Take his words with a grain of salt.
McCarthy’s letter proclaiming himself the negotiation’s victor.

The White House announcement is humbler. Again, you don’t celebrate before the vote is signed. To do so would be self sabotage. Still, Democrats are calling this an incredible win and proof of the President’s gift of negotiations.

— The debt ceiling raised $4 trillion, not to be revisited until 2025, at which point if we are not a union living the freedom of a majority ruled democracy- a power of the people, by the people, for the people, then we gave up too soon and are a weak, worn down a sad sack of humanity.
— Domestic programs will remain frozen, up 1% through 25. That sounds like a win, but adjusted for inflation, it is a cut.
— There will be a boost in defense spending: Veterans keep their benefits. (Do not give McCarthy the credit he asks for here.) Some vets’ care programs are increased. That lands under non-defense discretionary spending. The rest falls or stays unchanged.
— There are added job requirements on TANF and SNAP (The child welfare and food stamp program.) Work requirement increased from 50 to 54. Obviously, this is a concession.
— Energy permit changes- (allegedly minimal) the fight for the climate lost, for now, to the fossil fuel mafia. They will continue to destroy the planet, unencumbered by the EPA, while continuing to price gouging consumers.
— This one is the crux of the GOP priority – Reduction on recently allocated IRS money. It means there will be fewer audits for wealthy and corporate tax cheats.<—They keep their 2017 tax cut, the reason the deficit is high. Funding that would reduce the budget shortfall by helping the government collect more of the tax revenue it is owed.
— Student loan provisions:

• The bad news first, the administration’s plan to end forbearance, (the pause on student loan payments) goes to into law. This was already scheduled, but McCarthy is saying he did this. Let him.
  Theoretically, if there’s another emergency, forbearance could be reinstated.
• The good news is that President Biden’s student loan plan for giving $10,000 or $20,000 for Pell. Grant recipients will go through. That is a big win. That might be enough to get Gen-Z off their collective ass to vote in 2024.

McCarthy still has to get his party to agree to sign this package. The problem is they want their entire wish list or nothing. The rich lose nothing, but that’s not enough. They want to hurt the poor.

This is a long post. If you are at this point and forgot what you read, here is the synopsis:

Concessions are for those people already struggling. The GOP doesn’t care. We must vote them all out. We need to overcome gerrymandering to regain the House, and that means everyone must register, check twice, vote by mail, or early if possible, ask for a paper ballot.