Law, Power, and Justice

Saturday 29 April 2023

Jim Clyburn says people are “on fire” for the Biden/Harris ticket.  On fire?  Seriously?  Consider the source.  The man who did the deal that helped put Joe Biden, one of the least popular candidates in the 2020 field, in office.  Establishment Democrats like Clyburn would have done anything, including creating an entirely anti-democratic process, to beat Bernie Sanders. 

Had Sanders won, the establishment would not have had:

• Resumption of drilling in the Artic
• Immigration policy that has barely changed since Trump.
• A refusal to prosecute the first coup in the history of the country.
• More money for the police
• Etc.

Republicans are threatening to force a default on the debt.  Lifting the debt limit, however, does not “authorize any new spending and in fact simply allows the U.S. to finance existing obligations.” (NYT) https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/27/us/politics/us-debt-ceiling.html

Defaulting would mean:

• Indefinite delay in social security checks for nearly 50 million older people.
• Monthly child tax credits for millions of families would be indefinitely delayed.
• Paychecks for troops would also be indefinitely delayed.
• Disrupting school lunch programs, Medicaid, and disaster relief.
• Unemployment would rise
• Millions of jobs could be lost
• Interest rates would spike increasing inflation
• Recession
• https://www.businessinsider.com/government-shutdown-how-it-would-impact-average-americans-2021-9

But, Republicans would like nothing better than to push the country over into economic disaster.  They think they will be the ones to pick up the pieces. 

Republicans could precipitate a “global financial catastrophie” by holding the debt ceiling hostage according to Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/18/gop-debt-ceiling-plan-financial-crisis-recession/”

She points out the absurdity of the Republicans arguing that they are holding the debt limit hostage in an act of fiscal restraint.

“Refusing to raise the debt limit is like going to a restaurant, ordering the lobster and a $500 bottle of wine, and then declaring yourself financially responsible because you skipped out on the check.”

The continues: “they might accidentally blow up every other financial market on Earth, too.”

“If we default on our debt obligations — or even come close to default — that raises the question of the riskiness of everything else investors buy and can send shockwaves of panic through every other market.”