Led by speaker Kevin McCarthy, House Republicans passed a bill that would chop spending while agreeing to raise the debt ceiling. Keep in mind that the “debt ceiling” is not authorizing any new spending, it is just paying for spending that was already approved by Congress. In other words, should we pay our bills or not?
This legislation agrees to pay our bills — in exchange for slashing spending on numerous programs (except defense, of course). And “slashing spending” would be just that. By some estimates, non-defense discretionary spending would be cut by 22% across the board. (That figure doesn’t come from some lefty blog, that is according to the Office of Management and Budget.)
On the bright side, between the Senate and a presidential veto, this bill has a snowball’s chance in hell of being made into law. On the dark side, the United States government just took a step closer to default.
Goodbye legislation, hello ransom notes.
If you’re confused amid McCarthy’s talk of fiscal responsibility and negotiating in good faith, don’t be. All that is going on is that Republicans are trying to force the country to adopt their extreme right-wing fiscal plans or else they will blow up the economy.
Given the current makeup of Republicans in Congress, it is a very real possibility that the party’s extremists and complicit moderates will drive the United States to default, which will lead to global economic calamity.
This is not a compromise or negotiation situation, this is trying to reason with extremists who have economic explosives strapped to their body.