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Re: Today In Biden Land
Social Security and Medicare eligibility changes, spending caps, and safety-net work requirements are among the top priorities for key House Republicans who want to use next year’s debt-limit deadline to extract concessions from Democrats.
The four Republicans interested in serving as House Budget Committee chairman in the next Congress said in interviews that next year’s deadline to raise or suspend the debt ceiling is a point of leverage if their party can win control of the House in the November midterm elections.
The Republican position — which members are still formulating — could set the stage for an explosive standoff next year, reminiscent of the 2011 negotiations when the Tea Party wave of Republicans took on the Obama administration over spending.
[...]
“House Republicans are openly threatening to cause an economic catastrophe in order to realize their obsession with slashing Medicare and Social Security,” Henry Connelly, a Pelosi spokesman, said in a Tuesday statement to Bloomberg Government. “As House Republican leaders’ own words constantly reveal, dismantling the pillars of American seniors’ financial security is not a fringe view in the extreme MAGA House GOP, it is a broadly held obsession at the core of their legislative agenda.”
Smith said Republicans will focus on “protecting and preserving” Social Security and Medicare, but he declined to say specifically if he supports the RSC proposal to raise the eligibility age. He said broadly that Republicans would find “innovative ways to drive down the cost of health care.”
https://about.bgov.com/news/entitlem...bt-limit-deal/
So the plan seems to be to threaten to default on the national debt (which would cause a financial meltdown that would make 2008 look like nothing and take a decade or two to recover from and permanently raise interest rates/debt repayments for Americans after that) unless they get entitlement cuts. And I can guarantee if they're successful the next time they're in power they'll use the fiscal headroom generated by the cuts to enact a gigantic tax cut for the top one percent.
The problem is that unlike with previous attempts to blow up the global economy (it really would be seriously bad, google what happens if the USA defaults on its debt) this time there are enough crazies in the House to actually shoot the hostage. If Trump comes out in favour of forcing default, and he would because it would be tied round Biden's neck as voters don't understand policy, there will be enough MAGA nutcases in the House after the midterms to do it. The Democrats need to have a plan to scrap the debt limit in the lame duck session or maybe just raise it by a googolplex or three. This is dangerous as hell. You have a nihilistic sociopath leading this cult who is in a world of hurt facing endless criminal charges and who is desperate to lash out at the people in power. This needs to be dealt with.
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Originally Posted by TIC
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