Surprise, Surprise: Republicans Are Planning to Hold the Debt Ceiling Hostage—Again

Authored by newrepublic.com and submitted by Powerful_Raccoon_141
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Like Scott and Johnson before him, Thune is speaking quite openly. Time is ticking down to extend the debt limit; the current deadline is December 16. With that less than three weeks away, Republicans see an opportunity to force a round of hostage negotiations. Default could be economically catastrophic—just the threat of default can be costly. Republicans have suggested that any number of changes could be put on the table, including raising the retirement age to 70.

But these ideas are politically unpopular, hence the debt ceiling brinkmanship; there’d be no countenancing these radical moves absent an extortion attempt at a delicate moment. For Republicans, it is a return to familiar—and consequential—cynicism: They know the risks of default, and they don’t care. At the same time, for Democrats, it’s a wake-up call that’s already rung several times without being properly answered: The debt ceiling is a dangerous political prop, consistently used by Republicans in bad-faith ways, and it needs to be either raised so high that it won’t be an issue for years or abolished altogether.

Unfortunately, Democrats are overly concerned about the political optics of such a move—that it would label them as reckless spenders and provide a gift to Republicans, who are radical but try to present themselves as practical. (The GOP has adopted an Orwellian set of claims about the programs, claiming, as Scott did, that all they really want to do is “strengthen” and “shore up” the program.) Lacking the political courage to do what’s right, Democrats will have to white-knuckle it, hoping that there are enough Republicans in the House and Senate to get a deal done before the December 16 deadline. And then, some months from now, they’ll get to do it all over again.

CaptainNoBoat on December 1st, 2022 at 14:08 UTC »

This needs to be explained every time Republicans try to gaslight America about the issue:

First off, this is debt we already owe, and is accumulated over long periods of time.

the fiscal impacts of policies enacted during one administration do not end when the next president is sworn in, and increasing the debt limit allows the government to pay bills incurred as a result of both past Republican and Democratic policies.”

The national debt rose $7.8 trillion under Trump, and Trump-era policies continue to add to it today.

“We're still spending some covid relief [funds] that President Trump signed into law,” Goldwein said. “We dramatically increased defense and nondefense discretionary spending under President Trump’s watch, with bipartisan support, and we're still losing revenue from the tax cuts.”

Historically, since 1917, the debt ceiling has been raised over 90 times in the past century, including 18 times under Reagan, 7 times under Bush, and 3 times under Trump.

The issue has not even been contentious until the last couple of decades, where Republicans realized threatening to send the country into catastrophe might be a fun thing to play around with.

People like McCarthy will offer ridiculous claims such as the 2019 extension of the debt ceiling "paid for everything in the Trump administration, plus seven months of this Biden administration.” , but that's ludicrous:

“The government pays for things by collecting taxes, borrowing, printing money, and occasionally selling assets. Suspending the debt ceiling doesn’t pay for anything; it just allows the government to continue to borrow.”

Republicans, the party of "fiscal responsibility" are threatening to default the country and hurt millions of Americans, along with the global economy, so that they can leverage political optics for Fox News and slash social programs. It's disgusting.

Saxamaphooone on December 1st, 2022 at 13:28 UTC »

They apparently don’t realize how many people they will piss off, including their own voters, if they touch Medicare and social security.

AssumeItsSarcastic on December 1st, 2022 at 13:26 UTC »

Just get rid of this damn thing already. Yeah Republicans are going to say Democrats just spent a gazillion dollars, but they'll say that anyway. And the only people listening to them would listen to them anyway.