Matt Gaetz Admits Republicans Are Holding America “Hostage” Over Debt Ceiling

Authored by newrepublic.com and submitted by thenewrepublic

“’Let me kill over 100,000 manufacturing jobs – mostly in red states – or I’ll force America to default on bills we racked up and trigger a recession,’ is the opposite of a compelling message,” Andrew Bates, White House deputy press secretary, summarized in a memo last month.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy maintains that repealing provisions like tax credits for clean energy projects would “end the green giveaways for companies that distort the market and waste taxpayers’ money.” Meanwhile, he and other Republicans are not only trying to whittle away the IRA, but manipulate the already biased toward fossil fuels market even further. They’ve advanced provisions like mandating the administration approve of new fossil fuel projects and conduct more sales for federal land drilling. Republicans are also trying to accomplish “permitting reform” which, for them, means making it easier to skimp out on environmental regulation and push through fossil fuel projects easier. And of course, they are still concerned with keeping fossil fuel subsidies—even while big oil companies have reaped in massive profits while jacking up gas prices for everyone else.

Most fanatical is the assumption undergirding Republicans’ targeting of the clean energy projects: that cutting them would lead to meaningful savings. Besides the hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars that clean energy initiatives have already brought to America, it also sets precedent for what it truly means to “save,” and what we are trying to “save.”

MurphHodgkins on May 23rd, 2023 at 20:42 UTC »

his “conservative colleagues for the most part support Limit, Save, Grow, and they don’t feel like we should negotiate with our hostage.”

Literally calling the American people and economy their Hostage.

BlotchComics on May 23rd, 2023 at 20:35 UTC »

If the economy tanks, red areas will probably be hit the worst...

Unfortunately the brainwashing in those areas will make the residents blame the democrats for the problem.

Quexana on May 23rd, 2023 at 20:34 UTC »

They're gonna kill the hostage anyways.