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The Debt Ceiling and the GOP's Perverse Logical Conclusion: Burn it All Down [1]

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Date: 2023-05-21

The GOP's Goal

Are McCarthy and the other GOP debt ceiling house “negotiators” more like ransom seekers holding the debt ceiling and the world economy hostage, or like terrorists who would be happy to blow everything up? Answer, they are more like terrorists who’s logical aim is to blow up the economy and harm Biden in the process.

This is a major difference between 2011 and now. In 2011, the GOP were more like hostage takers. They held the debt ceiling hostage and then “freed the hostage” by negotiating a package of concessions from Obama. But it turned out that the US economy continued its slow recovery at the time, and Obama wasn't really hurt politically by what happened in 2011 and then he got easily reelected in 2012. This type of result will not suffice for today’s GOP — they can see at the moment that Biden will likely roll to reelection like Obama did, assuming any reasonable modest continued upward economic trajectory. They need to hurt Biden if they want to win — they know that bullshit impeachment proceedings a-la Clinton won't really hurt Biden (though they still may try), and they know that simply extracting performatively cruel and stupid “concessions” a-la Obama won’t really hurt Biden either. Thus, the GOP’s gotta do something different if it really wants to hurt Biden and win the Presidency back in 2024.

By this perverse logic, the GOP now pretty clearly now believes the 2011 hostage taking was not enough, and now more extreme measures are necessary. So they have morphed from hostage takers to terrorists. They have no intent of ever coming to a deal on the debt ceiling because their goal is default. They want to blow up the economy — they want US treasuries to be worthless, for people not to get paid, for banks to hoard cash, and subsequently for the American public to get angry and to blame Washington. They want people to suffer, and to impose blame, because that is how to hurt Biden. They want to sow misery and terror to achieve their goal, they are terrorists.

I assume Biden and his crew have some inkling that the GOP’s end-goal is no deal and default, and I really hope they are working like hell on a 14th Amendment strategy. It will not likely be sufficient to try and assign blame to the GOP for any default even if Biden tries a 14th Amendment strategy and is foiled by a partisan Supreme Court (because, among other reasons, the press sucks and is seemingly ready to “both sides” this country straight into Hell). Biden needs to actually avert default using the 14th Amendment (or by minting a coin, or why not try both?). Otherwise the terrorists win. There is no negotiating his way out of this.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/21/2170542/-The-Debt-Ceiling-and-the-GOP-s-Perverse-Logical-Conclusion-Burn-it-All-Down

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