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What I would like Biden to do with the debt limit 'negotiations' [1]

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Date: 2023-05-18

There have been reports that President Biden has been attempting to work out a deal with the lunatics in the House GOP over the debt limit. As Dartagnan notes, Paul Krugman thinks Biden may have blown it already by agreeing to negotiate at all.

Now, I’m not going to claim any special insight here or inside knowledge. I’m going to describe a scenario where Biden uses these negotiations to do something very different. It will blow up the media narrative that he MUST find a way to make concessions to the Republicans, for… reasons.

Look — everyone knows that Republicans can’t be trusted to make a deal — McCarthy can’t even promise to get enough votes to pass anything because his caucus has people who just want to see things burn. (That includes GOP Senators, too.) They won’t specify what they want to cut because they want Biden to take the blame for all the consequences. They just repeat mindless blather that spending is out of control, that we can’t afford to pay for anything, and so on. It's the old Two Santas scam.

So, here’s what I’d like to think Biden is considering. Go into negotiations, and see what McCarthy will accept in order to not blow up the debt. Get him to spell out what he will agree to — and then announce it.

But don’t stop there.

Take it, and show just how many people it will hurt. Show what programs will be cut back or canceled. Explain in graphic terms just how bad it will be. David Firestone laid out in The NY Times just how cruel the Republican’s demands are:

emphasis added

As Firestone points out, work requirements don’t actually get people back to work — what they do is deny people benefits. Millions of Americans will be worse off if Biden accepts McCarthy’s demands: families with children, people with disabilities, the elderly, people with health issues, veterans. It’s not an exaggeration to say people will die from these cuts. But wait — that’s not all. Digby quotes Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post to explain all of the other havoc that would be wreaked by Republican demands.

Biden needs to remind everyone that this is coming from a party that could have done all of this when they controlled both chambers of Congress and the White House under Trump if they really believed this was what was best for the country. Instead what they did was pass massive tax cuts for the rich — and that was about the only thing they accomplished. They exploded the deficit and never blinked at raising the debt limit when it was their watch. They promised investment in infrastructure but never delivered; Biden has — and they want to roll it back.

(And let’s not forget The Elephant in the Room.)

Biden needs make these points and then bring the hammer down with plain talk. Here’s how I would put it to the American people:

I sat down with the leaders of the Republican Party to negotiate, but not over the debt limit. I have explained what their demands would mean. If they want to negotiate over the new budget coming up, that’s fine. That’s what we are supposed to do and what we used to do on a bipartisan basis. I won’t say there weren't tough debates and real disagreements, but in the end we carried out our constitutional responsibilities and did our duty to the country. No one threatened to shut down the government if they didn’t get what they wanted — until recently. Republicans are giving us two choices: We either make drastic cuts that will hurt millions of Americans and betray everyone who trusts us to do what’s best for the country, or they will refuse to pay our country’s bills and create economic disaster. This would be bad not just for us, but for everyone else around the world who counts on America to honor its obligations. The debt limit is about signing off to pay the bills for things that we already agreed to fund, things voters sent us here to Washington to do. They were debated in Congress, voted on, and signed into law. Republicans are now demanding what they didn't have the votes in Congress to do when the budget was passed, and what they didn't dare do when they had the power to do it. They want power but they don’t want responsibility. My administration has seen America make a strong recovery from the pandemic. Job creation has never been better. We are trying to lift people up, instead of waiting for wealth to trickle down. We are at long last making investments in America to rebuild crumbling roads and bridges. We are investing in clean energy that will make us stronger as a nation and set an example for the rest of a world threatened by climate change. And we’re doing all this without raising taxes on anyone making less than $400,000 a year. The demands of the Republicans over the debt limit would put a halt to all of this. Here’s the deal: no deal. No deal with people who would put the full faith and credit of the United States at risk. No deal with people who would inflict misery on millions of Americans who need a helping hand, not the back of the hand. No deal with people who are trying to bypass the will of the people to enact their extremist agenda. No deal with people whose demands will never be satisfied, who won’t even promise to honor the deals worked out by their own leaders. As the President of the United States, as the President of all Americans regardless of party, I have no choice but to reject their demands. I have sworn to uphold the Constitution as the supreme law of the land, and that includes the 14th amendment which says “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law , including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.” The debt limit was never more than a gimmick enacted to allow politicians to say they were voting for fiscal prudence, but never used as a partisan weapon until recently. It is unconstitutional and it is time to declare it null and void. I am therefore directing the Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen to take all necessary steps to insure the United States honors its debts and pays its bills. Thank you all. God bless our troops and God bless America.

Now I would be surprised if Biden actually did this — but there’s a growing momentum to do something very like this. There will never be a better time; McCarthy is a figurehead of a Speaker, hostage to his own extremists. Republicans everywhere are embracing toxic policies and passing terrible laws that are making them unpopular with voters. I’d like to think Biden is using negotiations to spin out enough rope for Republicans to hang themselves.

The press would, of course, call this unprecedented, confrontational, divisive — and would relish every minute of it. The Very Serious People would express concern that this might be unconstitutional, and would be taking America into unexplored country. Republicans would scream bloody murder, threaten impeachment, and pretty much do what they’ve been doing all along — only harder.

But you know what? I’d prefer that to unilateral surrender to hostage takers. I’d like to see a confrontation now, on our terms for once. I’d like Democrats to act like real Democrats and stop trying to appease the unappeasable deplorables who are the GOP unbound.

I don’t know what will happen, but this wouldn't be the worst time for Dark Brandon to show up. The Republican Party has already declared de facto insurrection by other means while they prepare to seize power in 2024. No woman’s womb will be safe, no child’s gender will go unquestioned, no books will be safe from the self-appointed censors, no one can be assured that they will be able to love the people they love, and Republicans will do it claiming God is on their side. And if that’s not enough, they’ll have guns everywhere.

Fasten your seatbelts. We’re going to find out how it turns out very shortly.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/18/2169886/-What-I-would-like-Biden-to-do-with-the-debt-limit-negotiations

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