Is anyone actually paying attention to the machinations at play with the possibility of default? Also what do we feel would be the possibly unforeseen ramifications?
Debt Ceiling
- Thread starter astonmartin708
- Start date
i have a monthly debt ceiling. its equal to my monthly income. maybe congress should do the same.
That would mean getting Manchin on board, and since he's not a liberal, would make things really difficult.
You do realize what "having a spine" means right? Millions of people out of work and a full blown recession, in the middle of a pandemic nonetheless.
the millions out of work, should take one of the millions of "now hiring" jobs.
Those now hiring ads would vanish overnight in the case of a severe economic recession.
Right now we have a skills mismatch for many unemployed workers and industry job openings. No matter how much a hospital needs nurses they’re not going to hire a party planner to do nursing. You can’t (immediately) be a big rig driver if you don’t have the training and your old job was in the hospitality industry.
Last edited:
Why? The Dems have 50 plus the VP. They can pass the bill with zero Pub votes
They have 48 liberal members one extreme moderate and one legitimate blue dog conservative. Much like Republicans couldn’t push through their Obamacare repeal, Dems can’t push through their advanced infrastructure plan.
Almost as bad as saying “Mexico Will Pay For It”
Let’s wait and see if he doubles down on it in every follow up interview like he-who-shall-not-be-named.
One of his handlers will inform him there are no “trillionares” prior to his next appearance. Sad thing is that it wasn’t a slip of the tongue. He truly believes there are trillionares in the US…and he’s in charge of our budget and tax policies.
Do you honestly think that HE is writing the tax policies, or even coming up with the broad strokes?
I'd be surprised if it's not staffers and congressmen on both counts.
At least the team that he has around him is lightyears better than the last outfit we had (not including Trump) far fewer scandals and dismissals.
Helps to have a sycophantic press that isnt interested in digging into anything..
Can anyone tell me why Congressional Republicans aren’t having their feet held to the fire for voting to default on the national debt?
“The Democrats should have enough votes to do raise the debt limit themselves” Is not an excuse to try to not pay your debts.
“The Democrats should have enough votes to do raise the debt limit themselves” Is not an excuse to try to not pay your debts.
Maybe because spending $4.5T during a time of rapidly rising inflation is irresponsible ?
The infrastructure spending bill seems to the be current priority for the Dems and not the $3.5T budget. The budget spending will need to be trimmed to pass. However, that’s not the current focus for whatever reason.
The infrastructure spending bill seems to the be current priority for the Dems and not the $3.5T budget. The budget spending will need to be trimmed to pass. However, that’s not the current focus for whatever reason.
Last edited:
Well, you have a choice, spend 4.5T to gain some benefits (hopefully offset by some strategic tax increases) or plunge the country into a recession. Which one is more irresponsible?
The Republicans already lost public support for their agenda in 2020. The Dems had a mandate, and a pretty significant one, but now the Republicans are trying to upend that mandate by holding a gun to the nation’s head and saying, if you don’t stop spending I’ll shoot.
It's basically Republicans 1) ignoring the Constitution will forbids the US defaulting and 2) refusing to pay for their own policies which are the reason the limit is being hit this year. "Irresponsibility" lies with McConnell.
Again….the $3.5T budget is not the bill the Dems are currently focusing on getting passed. As such, the responsibility of any default lies at the hands of the Dems.
We’ve seen short term shutdowns frequently. I would hope the Pubs hold firm in demanding a reduction of spending as the long term economic health of this country is at stake. That my friend is the responsible thing to do along with the Dems prioritizing the passage of this bill and not the infrastructure. I’m not holding my breath on either
I’m not worried about a government shutdown. I’m worried about the default and what it’s going to do to my financial accounts.
The Dems just had a bill in front of the Republican senate to avoid shutdown AND avoid default and the Republicans voted no. It has nothing to do with which one of two infrastructure bills they’re trying to pass, other than the fact that R’s are trying to play a game of chicken dating the Dems to use reconciliation on the a budget preventing default rather than one that includes the 3.5T. The 1T is tied to it, but only as a progressive threat that the progressives won’t vote for the 1T until the conservative Dems and Republicans address the 3.5T. There are 3 parties that are at odds right now.
As far as the 3.5 T being bad for inflationary purposes, some of it is to try and address the problems associated with limited workforce availability due to childcare issues.
It’s not just the $3.5T. It’s the $1T infrastructure. It’s the trillions in spending over the last 12 months. It’s madness to even be talking about throwing more dollars into circulation during a time of rapidly rising prices. Yet, here we are. This is absolutely the wrong long term play for the health of our republic. Those the Dems claim to want to help will be hurt the most with irresponsible short term spending. We always talk of governing for the short terms while ignoring the long term effects . This is a perfect example of such myopic vision. Still hoping reasonable heads will prevail.
Interesting question….does the President have the constitutional authority in a debt crisis to order the Treasury to sell bonds to raise money to prevent default? I believe the answer is yes. Hopefully it won’t come to that.
Last edited:
You’re not just throwing money into circulation, you’re also recovering money via taxes. It’s not the same as printing money randomly no matter how much you want to ignore raising personal and corporate taxes.
Myopic vision is arguing that a balanced budget bill that actually makes an effort to raise funds associated with the cost of a bill is worse than one that cuts taxes to the top earners and then expects an improbable level of gdp increase to offset the cost of the bill instead.
One might actually help people and the economy in the long run. The other sent some money back to Jeffrey Bezos.
BTW one of the main factors in inflation is housing prices which are being driven up by a lack of availability, which is something addressed in the 3.5T plan.
Here’s a question for you, if you’re so worried about inflationary pressure of putting money into the economy as well as the short term and long term debt, would you support all of the tax increases on the wealthy and large corporations if they were done WITHOUT a single dime of spending associated with them? Just straight up tax increases to used to raise revenue and pay down the debt.
Last edited:
I would absolutely support tax increases to pay down our debt. We have to be careful with the amount we increase capital gains for the reasons I have repeatedly stated but I wouldn’t oppose a reasonable increase even in capital gains. We need to take a long term approach.
give each congressman a spending budget, like a debit card. then subtract the amount of a passed bill he votes for from his budget. when he runs out of money he losses his vote.
The government debt is mostly funded by the American people through bonds. You’re totally Okay with defaulting on that money. Why should we not take your checks to fund the difference?
Republicans ran up this debt and now don't want to pay for it. Trump was definitely the "king of debt" just as he promised. Typical Trump, lay on the debt, achieve nothing, and leave others holding the bag.
www.propublica.org
Donald Trump Built a National Debt So Big (Even Before the Pandemic) That It’ll Weigh Down the Economy for Years
The “King of Debt” promised to reduce the national debt — then his tax cuts made it surge. Add in the pandemic, and he oversaw the third-biggest deficit increase of any president.
www.propublica.org
This discussion has zero to do with paying for the debt. No one is going to pay the debt off. The problem is the continued adding of money into the economy during rapidly rising inflation. I assume you understand how our debt is structured and the consequences on the same of inflation? As debt service costs rise our ability to fund government programs decrease.Republicans ran up this debt and now don't want to pay for it. Trump was definitely the "king of debt" just as he promised. Typical Trump, lay on the debt, achieve nothing, and leave others holding the bag.
Donald Trump Built a National Debt So Big (Even Before the Pandemic) That It’ll Weigh Down the Economy for Years
The “King of Debt” promised to reduce the national debt — then his tax cuts made it surge. Add in the pandemic, and he oversaw the third-biggest deficit increase of any president.
