Fast Flash: Biden Could Blow-Up McCarthy-GOP by Tomorrow
A fast hitter of the type that pledges will get starting Feb 1st:
As most know, the debt ceiling must be lifted by Thursday in order to allow the government to function normally. A large slice of the American public doesn’t know that the debt ceiling doesn’t “raise spending.” It provides for payment of money already spent, much of it by the Trump administration. There is no logical reason not to pass it. But far-right lawmakers in the House seem to want to make a statement and refuse to pass it until some programs are cut.
That statement and those cuts come with catastrophic risks. From NBC News:
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., issued a joint statement Friday warning that a “default forced by extreme MAGA Republicans could plunge the country into a deep recession.” They added: “Democrats want to move quickly to pass legislation addressing the debt limit so there is no chance of risking a catastrophic default.”
The operative words above are “extreme MAGA Republicans” versus experienced and savvy Joe Biden and the Democrats.
Those extreme MAGA Republicans negotiated with McCarthy during the battle for the Speakership. They got his promise to both hold the line on debt ceiling negotiations and an ability to recall McCarthy on a motion presented by a tiny few GOP House Members.
McCarthy is stuck. Even though the “debt ceiling” is to pay for programs already set and budgeted, the “extremes” want extreme cuts that the President and Senate have dismissed out of hand. The American public does know what “default” means.
Oh, what to do? Well, there is a means to go around McCarthy and get a vote. Again, from NBC News:
Lawmakers have discussed using a “discharge petition” if necessary. It requires a faction of House Republicans to end-run a speaker of their party — an extremely rare occurrence — and team up with Democrats to force a floor vote. If a majority of lawmakers sign it, the bill can proceed to a vote in the chamber.
Biden can seek out ten to twenty moderate Republicans, Republicans that won a district that Biden also won, and negotiate around McCarthy, effectively making his Speakership irrelevant. Biden can say to these Republicans, “I’ll give you just enough to say you did something (Nothing important), and you get to say that you alone in the GOP prevented a catastrophe because some “extreme MAGA Republicans” held the House hostage, leading to default, downgrade in credit, and risk economic stability.
Despite the debt ceiling hitting Thursday. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin says that she could keep the lights on using the dark arts that financial savants understand, but it won’t prevent the U.S. credit rating from being downgraded again, the loss of billions with people out of work, and then, again, that “recession” thing.
Can Biden do this? If any president has the legislative knowledge and experience to do it, it’s Biden. If any Congressional caucus has more to lose for being held hostage by conservatives so extreme that developed planets throughout the galaxy know the name “Boebert” and prefer that she stay here… a long time.
My god, it would be one of the coolest and most deeply penetrating inter-party moves in recent memory. It would cause feuds so divisive that they might forget to investigate this Biden guy that just brained them in the parking lot.
It’s possible. Right, Joe?
Kevin? How’re you doing?
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