‘D Day’ on Confederate Heroes Day

January 19 is Confederate Heroes Day in Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, Louisiana, and Florida where the population celebrates the insurrectionists who attempt to separate seditionist states from the United States. It’s also “D Day” or debt ceiling day, the date marking when the U.S. can no longer borrow money for its debts by issuing bonds. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that the administration will be forced to take “extraordinary measures” to keep the U.S. government from breaching its debt limit and going into default within five or six months.

Yellen said officials will now change some federal investments through technical maneuvers to buy time for congressional members who need to raise the debt limit, $31.4 trillion, in order to save the country’s economy. One measure is suspending new investments in the new investments in the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund and the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund until June 5, 2023, allowing the government to pay its other bills until then.

Although the U.S. has never defaulted on the debt and increased the ceiling 78 times, extremist Republicans from the Tea Party did come close to default in 2011. Republicans already have instructions for the Treasury Department if Biden doesn’t agree with their wishes, listing what debts will and won’t be paid. These are part of the agreement Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) made with the hard-right House Freedom Caucus to get their votes for the speakership. Some Republicans also consider lowering Medicare and Social Security benefits, possibly part of McCarthy’s deal. 

Republicans raised the debt limit three times for then-Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) who increased the debt by $7.8 trillion with GOP approval, the third-largest in history with only George W. Bush and Abraham Lincoln having larger increases while they paid for wars. The GOP also vastly lowered taxes for the wealthy and big business, $2 trillion loss of the $7.8 trillion addition to the debt limit. Now the current House GOP leaders plan to hold the country hostage until Democrats agree to lower spending for the safety net. Jacob Bogage explained:

“Federally backed debt is the backbone of domestic and global markets. A failure to make good on U.S. borrowing could set off panic on Wall Street and spark millions of job losses.”

If McCarthy sticks to the far-right Freedom Caucus policies, the situation could end up in court in a constitutional crisis. The U.S. Constitution states, “The validity of the public debt of the United States … shall not be questioned.” Some experts argue that the U.S. cannot default on debts already created and Congress cannot establish a debt limit. In an extreme solution, Biden could tell the U.S. Mint to create a $1 trillion platinum coin and deposit it into the Federal Reserve, making credit payments from this sum. The idea was considered during the 1921 debt ceiling but decided against it. Yellow called the idea a “gimmick.”

Republicans insist that Biden negotiate with them so they can get what they want; Biden refuses. DDT, responsible for almost one-fourth of the national debt, told Republicans to play “tough” and not budge on their demands. His reasoning is to reverse “almost everything” that Biden and the Democrats have accomplished—”a beautiful and joyous thing.”

Republicans cling to a false metaphor to justify their behavior, and McCarthy has repeated it for at least three months:

“If you gave your child a credit card and they kept hitting the limit, you wouldn’t just keep increasing it. You would sit down with them to identify where they are overspending and where they can change their behavior. It’s time for the federal government to do the same thing.”

His faulty rhetoric has caught on; House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) follows McCarthy’s lead. Yet at no time during DDT’s four years in the White House did any Republican mention credit cards. Or not raising the debt ceiling. Not increasing a credit card limit doesn’t mean that people can just default on current debts. Steve Benen wrote:

“The family that received the bill doesn’t get to tell the credit card company, ‘We’ll refuse to pay this bill unless you meet our demands and pay us a ransom.’”

In addition, not raising the debt limit doesn’t stop Republicans from introducing legislation to cut spending they don’t like. Republicans’ goal of not raising the debt limit largely occurs when the president is a Democrat; under a GOP president, the GOP has almost no problem with spending.

Robert Reich wrote about his involvement in raising the debt ceiling 28 years ago when Republicans refused to increase it until Bill Clinton agreed to sweeping spending cuts, welfare overhaul, restrictions on Medicare, and a balanced budget within seven years. Clinton agreed with his advisers to not negotiate, to not permit Republicans to hold the economy hostage. He called it “economic blackmail.” The result was a government shutdown, causing Republicans to suffer in the next midterm elections, and the downgrading of U.S. Treasury bonds rating. In 2011 and 2013, Barack Obama negotiated, but an ensuing government shutdown again hurt the Republicans, and the negotiated agreement hurt the economy.

In all these situations, Republicans offered to prioritize which bills to pay, claiming no technical default if they followed this procedure. The idea didn’t move forward because of the danger to stock markets’ plunging and a potential tanking economy. Yet Republicans pay no attention to history. The current agreement is to prioritize (1) first, debt service payments; (2) Social Security, Medicare and veterans benefits; and (3) military funding. Nothing else would be paid, including food safety inspections, border control, air traffic control, Medicaid, etc. Rep. Rick Allen (R-GA) justifies raising the Social Security retirement age to slash benefits because people tell him they “actually want to work longer.” He also claims his strategy isn’t cutting Social Security although recipients will get less money during their old age.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) has joined the GOP in cutting Social Security and Medicare. With Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), he has created legislation modeled after the Simpson-Bowles Commission that recommended deep cuts to Social Security in 2011. On Fox, Manchin said that this legislation could get a debt ceiling agreement from House Republicans and “really” thinks Biden will change his mind to negotiate with the GOP.  

Freedom Caucus chair Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), who tried to overturn the government on January 6, 2021, expressed confusion with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos about why Biden said he wouldn’t negotiate. More moderate Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) said Biden “has to negotiate” and “can’t say he refuses to negotiate.” He claimed that voters gave the GOP a “mission” to cut spending although the House, which vastly underperformed in the most recent election, has a slim majority of five members at this time. The Senate also lost a Republican.

Bacon also said that the government “just does not work” if “parties say, ‘My way or the highway’”—exactly what the Republicans are saying. Instead of cooperation, the GOP demands a ransom in a hostage situation. Imagine if, in 2019, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and her team told Republicans that the Democrats would crash the economy if the GOP wouldn’t drastically expand Affordable Care Act benefits. What would be the GOP response if a moderate House Democrat goes on television, explains that Democrats were elected to increase health care benefits (their “mission”), and says that “Donald Trump has to also negotiate. He can’t say he refuses to negotiate.” Would Bacon agree?

The conservative Hill listed five serious issues with not increasing the debt ceiling:

Rising recession risks: If Republicans block the ability to borrow money to fund stimulus, a recession from an economic showdown would be steep.

Global financial crisis: If the U.S. defaults on its debt for the first time and doesn’t stay solvent, the U.S. dollar and Treasury bonds would no longer be considered safe, and banks, financial firms, business and sovereign nations would lose backing from trillions of U.S. dollars and Treasury bonds.

Loss of crucial federal benefits for people in the U.S.: Millions of people would no longer be able to spend hundreds of billions of dollars for food, medical care, and basic necessities, crashing the economy in a domino effect with job losses, homelessness, hunger, closing small businesses, etc.

Higher interest rates: Anything making the government look less trusty increases rates by lenders both domestic and foreign—home mortgages, credit card debt, etc.  

Falling public trust: Polling with high disapproval of Congress will only get worse for the legislative body.

Conservative Charlie Sykes writes in his Bulwark that defaulting on debt obligations isn’t “conservative”—it’s reckless and irresponsible. He pointed out that the Freedom Caucus has taken “the economy hostage” with brinkmanship “a euphemism for this fiscal game of chicken,” and default would cause the Dow to plunge by thousands of points per day.”

The best solution for the national debt is to raise revenue—replacing the taxes for the wealthy and big business that were already about 30 percent of what they were in the 1950s before they were slashed in 2017. Republicans will never agree: they’d rather have a fiscal insurrection.   

Abortion Update, DDT’s Endorsements

As expected, the Democratic bill to preserve reproductive rights for women went down 51-49 in the Senate. The 50 Republicans were joined by West Virginia’s “Democrat” Joe Manchin. Nebraska’s Ben Sasse had the gall—or naivety or stupidity—to suggest that GOP could use the refusal of these rights for the chance to expand social safety nets for children and mothers. He obviously hasn’t been observing his own party—or his own votes. In another classic argument against the bill, Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) compared women to sea turtles, saying women’s rights should be overturned because of the penalty in destroying sea turtle eggs. If the issue, killing women and losing rights, were not so serious, the responses would be hysterically funny. Like this tweet:

“IF WE COULD LAY EGGS OUTSIDE OUR BODY, WE WOULDN’T BE HAVING THIS CONVERSATION YOU PIECE OF SHIT.”

Mike Frog explained:

“The human race is not endangered, only white Americans are and they know it. That’s what this is all about.”

There was no hope from the beginning because of the 60-percent mandate for passing and Senate legislation, but 49 Democrats tried. Even Kyrsten Sinema (AZ), usually siding with the Republicans, voted in favor of the bill, but the conservative big business giving her donations, including the pharmaceutical industry, supports women’s reproductive rights, knowing that they spend a lot of money.

Another Supreme Court leak, the fourth one about overturning Roe v. Wade, reports that conservative justices siding with Samuel Alito in removing women’s reproductive rights have switched their votes. Before Alito’s rough draft was leaked, the Wall Street Journal gave behind-the-scenes details about discussion regarding Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the case that could lead to the elimination of Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) claim that he’s not a “moron” when he says the leak comes from someone on the left, but the two most recent links show conservatives are likely the sieve. An attorney close to several conservative justices said about Chief Justice John Roberts’ earlier decisions supporting the Affordable Care Act:

 “There is a price to be paid for what he did. Everybody remembers it.”

Despite the hue and cry about leaks being an assault on the court, the conservative justices are assaulting the people of the United States.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) pointed out that one of Roe’s opponents, Brett Kavanaugh, had not been properly vetted before the confirmation because the FBI was blocked from conducting a proper background after accusations of sexual assault by Christine Blasey Ford.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) is suffering from more “chalk attacks” written on the sidewalk in front of her home and has again called the Bangor police. The city has removed the writing with the notation of a complaint of “graffiti on public property.”

Election season is upon the U.S. for over six months, and endorsements by Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) has added to the heartburn suffered by Republicans. Yesterday, they dodged a bullet in Nebraska when serial Christian evangelist groper Charles Herbster missed a GOP primary win for governor. Despite multiple women from both parties witnessing and experiences Herbster’s unwanted advances, DDT, who also sexually assaulted women, told people to vote for him. DDT said, “He’s the most innocent human being … the last person to do any of this stuff.” Herbster, who had hired two DDT campaign leaders, Cory Lewandowski and David Bossie, conceded the election but told his audience to watch Rigged, Bossie’s movie with lies about DDT’s “stolen” election. The term-limited incumbent governor endorsed winner Jim Pillen, whose win probably puts another Republican into the governor’s mansion. The moderate conservative also lost.

All 13 state senators, including five Republicans, pushed back at Herbster’s denial of the “highly credible, corroborated allegations.” With no political experience, Herbster carried other baggage. He declared himself a fifth-generation Nebraska cattle rancher but dropped out of the 2014 governor’s race with allegations that the $18,000 house was not his residence. He owned a $435,000 house he owns in Kansas City (MO) and donated almost $9 million of his own money to his campaign, almost all of it gone.         

Even Kellyanne Conway, who worked for Herbster, knew about the allegations almost a year before the story broke, but she assumed the bipartisan group was just lying. The race was still fairly tight with Herbster picking up almost 80,000 votes at 30.2 percent of the GOP total number and Pillen getting 33 percent.

DDT also lost his favorite in Nebraska’s 2^nd Congressional district, Steve Kuehl, although he didn’t make an endorsement. At his May 1 rally, DDT denounced incumbent Don Bacon, saying, “I hope you vote like hell against that guy.” Bacon voted for the first infrastructure bill and defeated Kuehl by 44 points. Kuehl came in at 14,000 votes, 23 percent of the total. Incumbent Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen handily defeated his two opponents who pushed DDT’s message about “election security.

Nebraska voters also didn’t send Rep. Jeff Fortenberry back to Congress after he was convicted of lying to federal investigators about illegal campaign contributions of $30,000. He had resigned after the conviction but stayed in the race. Despite his legal problems, Fortenberry got almost 10,000 votes at 12 percent of the total. At DDT’s May 1 rally, he defended Fortenberry, saying it was “very unfair” that Fortenberry might end up “in jail for a tiny amount of money.” The former congressman will be sentenced in June for three felonies.  

DDT did come up victorious in the West Virginia congressional race between two incumbents after the state lost one of its seats. Voters preferred the farther right one, Alex Mooney, despite his opponent, David McKinley, voting against massive funds for the state in the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Mooney is being investigated for possible use of campaign funds for personal expenses. GOP Gov. Jim Justice supported McKinley. Republicans are hoping to take over the House. If they do, West Virginia should expect less federal money for their impoverished population, crumbling infrastructure, and lack of health care.

Tuesdays are busy. Here’s a calendar of 2022 primaries for all the 435 House members, 34 U.S. Senators, 36 governors, and thousands of state legislators. Five states are up next Tuesday, May 17.

Last week, DDT won his endorsement of J.D. Vance for the GOP U.S. Senate candidate from Ohio after the author of Hillbilly Elegy completely reversed his revulsion for DDT and campaigning on sinking to greater lows that DDT. Before DDT won in 2016, Vance wrote that DDT is either a “cynical asshole” or “America’s Hitler.” In October 2016, he called DDT “noxious,” “reprehensible,” and an “idiot.” Last summer, he told Molly Bang that to get the Republican vote he needed “to just suck it up and support” DDT.

Some Vance “winning” positions:

• “Fire every midlevel bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state, replace them with our people.   
• Close public schools and send children to churches and synagogues.
• “Separation of church and state is a myth.”
• “I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other.”
• The 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from DDT.

Vance is backed by the Mercer family, who formerly funded DDT, and venture capitalist Peter Thiel as well as supported by planners of overturning the election, including Steve Bannon.  Fox’s Tucker Carlson also helped Vance’s campaign by telling DDT that the supporter of Vance’s opponent, Club for Growth President David McIntosh, has an embarrassing and “chronic” sexual habit and was at odds with DDT’s position on China and trade. The opponent’s sexual habits were also questioned. DDT picked Vance. It didn’t even matter than DDT couldn’t remember Vance’s initials—or his last name when he endorsed “JP Mandel” at a rally.

Vance’s desperation showed last week when he accused President Joe Biden of intentionally allowing deadly drugs such as fentanyl to come into the U.S. with Biden’s purpose to kill DDT’s supporters in the “heartland” of the country. Yet in Biden’s first year, he captured 50 percent more fentanyl than DDT did in his last year. Deaths from drug overdoses during DDT’s four years increased 45 percent. The rate under Biden is slower. As for targeting “MAGA voters,” overdose deaths increased most among people of color, primarily Black men, not DDT’s typical voter. The highest increase between 2019 and 2021 was also in teenagers age 14 to 18, youth too young to vote. Glenn Kessler, a tough judge, award Vance’s lie with four Pinocchios, the highest number possible. Vance had zero evidence for his false claims.

In 2018, DDT tweeted a wholehearted endorsement for Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY) in his re-election campaign, writing he “has done a great job. He has my complete and total Endorsement!” Facing sexual misconduct claims, Reed has resigned. Last year, he said he considered running for New York governor but now has no election plans this year. Instead, he has joined a lobbying firm.

Outside the U.S., Ferdinand Marcos Jr., son of the late dictator whose family stole billions of dollars from the Philippines, is now the new president by a landslide. A revolution threw out his father. Jr. takes over from the brutal Rodrigo Duterte, whose daughter Sara Duterte-Carpio, is the next vice president. One-fifth of the population is below the poverty line. Jr. plans to shield Duterte from any prosecution at the International Criminal Court. What else he plans is uncertain because Jr. avoided debates and interviews.