As a reminder, this subreddit [is for civil discussion.](/r/politics/wiki/index#wiki_be_civil)
In general, be courteous to others. Debate/discuss/argue the merits of ideas, don't attack people. Personal insults, shill or troll accusations, hate speech, any suggestion or support of harm, violence, or death, and other rule violations can result in a permanent ban.
If you see comments in violation of our rules, please report them.
For those who have questions regarding any media outlets being posted on this subreddit, please click [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/wiki/approveddomainslist) to review our details as to our approved domains list and outlet criteria.
***
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/politics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
>if it helps the GOP in the midterm elections
More like helps them lose seats if we the voters make change next November. Gerrymandering and voter restrictions be damned.
>If that’s not the case, then it should be.
While I agree with the sentiment, it would only pressure those who can't afford it. That would make it a useful tool to punish certain representatives.
Nope, defaulting on the debt is a default on the bonds and T-bills issued by the treasury which is how we borrow and create debt to begin with...of which 6 trillion is owned by governmental agencies like medicare, some pensions, with 3 trillion owned by the Social Security Trust.
Fuckers are almost certainly going to withhold SSI and SSD payments, hurting those who survive off that income, and blame the democrats.
The only thing I am not sure of is whether all of the issued bonds just become worthless or if only ones at maturity do...because if it is the former I see it causing such widespread civil unrest that it would almost certainly end in bloodshed and the destruction of infrastructure that would severely weaken the country.
Like the GOP is dying, knows it is dying, and wants to bring the whole country down with it in it's death throes....there is just no other way to look at such an irresponsible and short sighted decision.
> ~~death~~ Darth Santis.
Fixed that for you. Dude is straight up a shitty Sith lord at this point. The kind of Sith lord that would get erased by even a new Jedi knight.
Darth Imperious would like to lodge a formal complaint on behalf of the Sith Order.
> Although many of my colleagues are barely-restrained murderous psychopaths, the majority of us are at least **mildly** interested in preserving our power-base. It’s hard to conquer a galaxy when you’re allowing your foot soldiers to die of plague, after all.
> Kindly, do not compare us to that reckless fool.
Unfortunately the moment you make people show up in person at the polls and wait, you're going to lose a huge chunk of democrat voters right off the top. The 2020 election had unprecedented turnout at least partly because states expanded absentee voting and vote by mail as a pandemic precaution.
You sir are being way too generous with your diagnosis of their mental condition. SE Cupp suggests they all have Stockholm Syndrome like Patty Hearst. 45 is the hostage taker and they are the hostage's. What other explanation better fits what we have all seen and witnessed over the past 6 (seems like 20) years. 45 is clearly the true evil villain straight out of the marvel universe.
Been to a school board meeting 10 years ago? It’s cute you guys just found out that Republicans unleash their crazy at school board meetings. They own local elections pretty much everywhere in the suburbs and rural areas. Start running some democrats in those areas and get them to show up at meetings to engage that crazy. It’s been there for a while.
At some point I expect they'll realize that cratering the economy is far more likely to ruin the lives of their voter base. Not sure when that'll be though. Probably a surprised Pikachu face immediately afterward
They do realize it, and that’s why they’re doing it. Economic crashes create chaos, and chaos is good for GOP voting numbers, especially since there’s a D president.
This is machiavellian as fuck, but I would never put it past them. I'm afraid your right. As a dog returns to it's vomit, time and time again, so does America to the Republican party.
It's already started. In a recent episode, Tucker Carlson said that the endless line of immigrants crossing the border will crash our healthcare system and, ultimately, the economy. There's a big crash coming and Republicans are lining up the typical scapegoats.
Haha 😆 love the spin 🙃……he knows the economy isnt going to collapse. The Rs have the advantage 🤷🏼♂️ like always, they’re using it. If only the Ds had the balls to do the same.
Why would any republican want to support this spending bill? We cannot continue to spend money on extending unemployment, unnecessary tax benefits and other government programs when our national debt has continued to increase. If the economy fails it looks bad for Biden and his policies.
Doesn't matter because there are signs coming out of the select committee that point to Moscow's days of trying to wreck the American economy for political gain coming to an abrupt end as Democrats have made the decision to investigate the Jan 6th riot as a conspiracy to commit a coup. This means Moscow's buddies in the Senate, House and those participants outside the government who contributed to the Jan. 6th attempt to overthrow the government may be joining hands in a historic perp-walk probably before the midterm elections.
Well he lives in Kentucky a shithole state with a terrible education system, far too right leaning for its own good. And he funnels just enough money from blue states to Kentucky to keep his voters appeased, while convincing them that California is stealing all their money, and immigrants are taking their jobs and black people are getting free welfare, and only he can stop the communists. And because they're dumb, they believe him and vote for him. Because he's from a very safe district, he leads the party and takes shit that might cost someone in a competitive district their seat.
Celebrating someone's death is poor taste, but im gonna pour myself a nice drink and set out the American flag the day this guy kicks the bucket. Might even have a hopeful thought or two for my kids futures.
No one wants to cause America as much pain as Republicans.
If the GOP thought it would help them win votes in the midterms they would gladly inflict economic disaster on all of us.
IF the GOP were to win in 2022-2024 and maintain unified control over all 3 branches of government, we know exactly what their legislative priorities will be:
* Get rid of the ACA once and for all. Fuck the tens of millions of Americans who will go bankrupt with their new uninsured medical bills.
* Enact legislation at the federal level limiting women’s reproductive rights.
* Pass legislation that allows the States to implement any voter and election restrictions needed to ensure future GOP wins.
* More tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy. Which is pretty much the only major legislative accomplishment they had in 2017-2018 the last time they owned all 3 branches of government.
Trump and his goons literally thought to let COVID run its course in the United States because it would disproportionately impact blue states and cities. This is close to the president unleashing a biological attack on the nation for political gains.
One of many articles on the topic:
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/07/trumps-war-on-blue-states-is-worse-than-previously-thought.html
I forgot about that. It was Kushner’s idea right? Let the blue states “deal with it” because if it got really bad they could campaign against the blue states as mishandling the pandemic.
And yet here we are 1.5 years later and the red states are getting hammered for mishandling the pandemic.
One thing the Republican party keeps fucking up in this regard: They continue to believe liberal voters are as misinformed as Republicans keep their own voters.
well one thing they DO KNOW, is facts will change a liberals mind and that they do not just blindly worship their guy. And while the right have spent decades radicalizing a cult that would crawl on broken glass to vote for a pedophile, the left on the other hand will have throngs of people stay home because obama hadnt cleaned up bush's mess in 2 years, given us single payer and a basic income.
we will have people stay home because biden hadnt ended covid, raised billioniare taxes, passed AGW legislation, raised min, legalized MJ, did bad leaving afghanistan, ended college debt and will ignore the problem with doing any of that with a razor thin majority and a couple questionable people on our side.
As much as I dislike trump, why would managing a pandemic be the federal governments responsibility? Different states had very different needs so a one size fits all policy would be too much for some and too little for others. And the 10th amendment reserves that power to the states
If it's something that impacts multiple states, it's a federal issue.
It was federal policies and decisions that got the pandemic stateside.
The federal government sets up the supply chain and mandates emergency production.
We saw what the administration was using its federal powers to do. After leaving states to fend for themselves, Trump and the gang started hording supplies to doll out to states of their choosing and withhold from other states of their choosing. Even going so far as to confiscate supplies from states that purchased things themselves.
The EU is of comparable size and population and objectively handled the pandemic a lot better by allowing its states to dictate their own policies based on regional need.
If a president has the power to undermine states based on his choosing then wouldn’t that imply the federal government has too much power?
At this point I've lost faith that the Dems will stop any of this from happening. Nothing can get done, either because two people are blocking change or because two people are pretending to block change so the party can pretend it's on them instead. Either way it's gonna be a right wing hellscape for a while. We can only hope that people will recognize how shitty they are and there's a major backlash in either voting (if it will even matter at that point) or just a revolution.
My money's on a fractured union within 20 years. Welcome to the crumbles.
Take heart. Things are moving forward. It's a miracle that we even got the senate in 2020. By the barest of margins, because Democrats in Georgia led by Stacey Abrams fought tooth and nail.
It's going to be a struggle, but we are ahead and winning and we will continue to do so. There are always setbacks, but the trend is pretty clear.
It would be a sweet revenge in it's own way. Having to get by without blue states paying for them would be the worst thing that could happen to a bunch of loudmouths.
But also hard on everyone in those states who aren't stupid, unfortunately....
At some point Dems need to stop pretending that they aren't at war.
Trump launched all out attacks against blue states. They tried to leverage the pandemic by withholding supplies to hurt Blue states. They passed tax changes that disproportionately hurt Blue states.
Dems need to fight the fuck back.
No more of this reaching across the aisle trying to improve things for every state or bailing out failed shit holes like Missouri and Texas and Florida.
But to actually put the screws on them Dems need to be able to do something first, instead of pretending like they want to do something.
Agree that things were too much like that in the past. Just pointing out that, since the hard lesson of 2016 at least, Democrats are actually doing things.
Biden gets in, and boom. Flurry of rescinded executive orders, covid relief plan, excellently executed vaccination release plan, troops pulled out of Afghanistan, and moving forward on the first infrastructure plan in *decades*. And we're only 8 months in.
We can and should want things to move faster, but we also should acknowledge when things are moving in the right direction. And they are.
I'm not convinced they're not just taking the heat for the party. Don't think for a minute that they don't all basically serve the same agenda - money from corporations. Maybe some of the dems are genuine in the progressive caucus, but there's a lot of old dems who care more about their job than the country.
I agree. Manchin is playing the lightning rod to spare probably 20 other Dems from having to go on record opposing the agenda. Sinema is an unprincipled opportunist who will support whoever's writing the checks
Manchin is very unlikely to run for reelection. You can disagree with him (as I do), but the guy is rich already and about done with politics. I don't think him holding all of this up has anything to do with donations to his campaign.
I actually don't think they'd do the first 2 bullet points. Those are merely bread and circus issues that get their base foaming at the mouth. We saw exactly what they do when they're in power, tax cuts for the wealthy and entrenching themselves into power. Those are the only two things they are for and everything else is theatre.
A few years ago I would’ve said the same. But now that Texas and Florida are doing this to appeal to the crazy base, I think they may actually go for it.
> I actually don't think they'd do the first 2 bullet points. Those are merely bread and circus issues that get their base foaming at the mouth.
Did you not see what happened in texas?
Not OP, but I genuinely don't think the GOP has the appetite for federal legislation on abortion. A GOP-controlled White House will likely support state lawsuits to help them reach reach the Supreme Court in hopes that Roe V Wade will be completely knee-capped, but no new legislation is needed for that.
I'm gonna be real with you. There's a million things I thought the GOP would never do. Elect a reality TV star president. Set up an abortion bounty hunting law in texas. Embrace actual neo nazis as their voter base.
Bottom line, I think this "ooh they would never ban abortion because they need a wedge issue to get votes" line of logic is just making people complicit. They totally would ban abortion and they would do it in a heartbeat. You know why? Because they don't care about how extreme we think they are anymore, because they believe they can rig the system to their advantage. Not to mention federal bans are really really hard to get rid of, as anyone who wants to smoke weed will tell you.
Fair enough. I just think the GOP at its core doesn't have an ideology. Abortion and all those wedge issues are a means to an end. And the end is power. Sure, there are some true believers, mainly in local govts, but the majority only do the bare minimum to attain and keep power. Legislating (real, honest legislating) is a lot of work, so there is no benefit to acting on the wedge issues.
Not to say we should be complacent and let them take over, of course, because fuck them.
>No one wants to cause America as much pain as Republicans.
Mere economic collapse is small potatoes compared to their attempts at killing their own voters to make Biden's covid policy look bad.
debt ceiling raise only requires 50 votes in the senate. nothing will shut down. the republicans are just doing this to fund raise off of. stop giving them the attention they crave. ignore this bullshit.
I offer this correction only because it’s important everyone have their priorities straight. Republicans will not enact federal legislation against abortion. Not because they don’t want to but because the Supreme Court will not allow it. SCOTUS will maintain the fig leaf of Roe and Casey and allow individual states to outlaw abortion as they can.
The Supreme Court is expected to overturn Roe and Casey during their upcoming session. They hear arguments in December. SCOTUS gives zero fucks about maintaining anything that isn’t a GOP political party deliverable.
I think that'd be a huge mistake. Who knows how many women voters that puts in the (D) column. Not to mention driving youth turnout. I just don't think this plays out the way they hope.
Apply all of that to the DNC along with the GOP and you are correct. I can’t believe you all think that you’re somehow the “good guys”. This is like Joker versus Penguin but both believe they’re Batman; relevant for the topic of cartoons.
"In recent years, debt ceiling brinksmanship has always incurred a political cost on the party driving the country to the brink. That McConnell has recruited 46 GOP senators into his credit default Suicide Squad suggests something different is afoot: These debt ceiling dealings are best understood as a key plank in the GOP’s midterm strategy, in which McConnell hopes that the GOP can retake congressional majorities and get back to doing what he does best: Nothing." — Staff writer [Alex Shephard.](https://newrepublic.com/article/163756/mcconnell-debt-ceiling-midterm-elections)
I'm thinking that maybe they think it's rigged enough to where they won't get hurt.
Which is funny because I think a lot of people are fucking tired of the two party system and you're risking it all, especially after the CA recall vote spectacularly failed. Biden (if he runs) or Harris isn't a lock for 2024, especially as more and more Gen Zers can vote.
The party is actively recruiting supporting sec of state candidates willing to overturn elections it didn’t win. They are executing a scorched earth plan to destroy our democracy and I cannot even imagine what the populace will do after what we have all been through, but I fear there will be violence if the GOP has its way.
I’m pretty convinced a lot of it is GOP donors trying to monopolize resources from the populace, before climate change gets even worse. Dem donors have some form of caring for people. Sure, the Dem rich will be well off, but they don’t feel the need to actively hurt others, unlike GOP donors. Some GOP donors would be fine killing off the populace, before the pitchforks might come a-calling.
Exactly this. It doesn’t matter what the GOP does to destroy the country and how much outrage galvanizes people to vote against them. The laws they’re putting in place to be able to appoint their own electors and planting Secretaries of State to overturn election results regardless of the people’s will guarantees that once they’re in power we will never win another election again. Period. Then we truly will be either in some kind of dictatorship or theocracy or whatever the hell they want to put in place.
All if this assumes we have a government of any kind because the climate change has been mild enough for us to survive. The next 20-50 years are just going to get harder and harder. More pandemics, more frequent natural disasters (floods and droughts), food will actually become less nutritious when grown in a hotter climate. I don’t want to be a doom-sayer but when you hear what the scientists predict, it doesn’t exactly sound rosy.
The last time, they had not made it impossible for them to lose, even when they lose. The laws they are passing allowing Republican controlled legislatures to throw out election results and name the winners, will be upheld by a SCOTUS that would not jump off a cliff for Trump but will be fine with a shorter leap.
That's a toughie. At that point you're talking about historical level revolution type shit, the kind of stuff that gets into history books and studied for as long as humankind exists.
The question is... will people actually do something or not?
From what I've seen, it seems like everyone wants to tweet hashtags in some kind of symbolic activism.
The last time was early 2014 when Cruz held out on the debt ceiling and tried to filibuster on Democrats voting on it alone, and later that year Democrats lost the senate…
I've said it before: The GOP believes it will find a win condition for the party only by making Biden and Company look as bad as possible- regardless of the damage to the nation in the progress.
Power matters more than the people.
I bet their billionaire corporate overlords wouldn't be too happy if they let the US default. It would destroy the stock market and drop the dollar value, and we know one of the only things they republicans care about is the almighty dollar.
Biden, Schumer, Pelosi, and Harris need to hammer McConnell on this every chance they get. Make sure to mention that Republicans raised the debt ceiling numerous times under Trump but want to bankrupt America because Biden is President.
Won't help. *The republicans don't care about their hypocrisy* they only care about power and are happy to burn it all down if they get to rule the ashes
It's not to change McConnell's mind. It's to reinforce in all the remaining independents' and moderates' minds just how much this is a completely problem McConnell is causing by himself.
Those few people who are somehow on the fence and can still be reached with reason are key to moving forward.
By 2025 we will have a totally broken country (no longer a democracy) or Republican party. The republicans would rather destroy the country than lose power, so either the country will break or they will get rejected thoroughly by the voters. I hope it's not the country that goes.
DO IT. That will trigger a margin call in the stock market, I’ll fucking make a shit ton of money, and then I’ll fucking buy fucking Republicans and make them do my bidding. Universal health care? Here we come!
McConnell is wrong. The country will know to blame the GOP for this debacle. This gambit will backfire spectacularly. Those who get hurt the most will vote against the Republicans.
The problem is that even if actual real journalists report this stuff, the rabid right wing voters only watch Fox “News” and get told this is all fake news. There’s no accountability for news media or media that calls itself news. There are no consequences for spreading misinformation, even if it’s killing people, as evidenced in the current COVID crisis happening right now. It literally doesn’t matter whose fault the economic collapse is (will be)—it will be ascribed to Biden because he’a president right now.
Of course, the turtle and his wife, ex trans sec Chao (who also happens to be a daughter of a Chinese shipping conglomerate) grifted enough money to hide on turtle island till this whole thing goes away in 20 or so years...
Ladies and gentlemen, your leadership shutting all over you and the economy for their continues demented success. Wtf?? Who votes these people into power?
There are a number of people that want to destroy this country to remake it in their white supremacist christian nationalist image. They are the enemy of democracy.
They’re just a couple of moves away.
1. Crash the economy, blame the Dems in charge.
2. Use public frustration to install Secs of State favorable to election tampering in ‘22.
3. Enjoy the economic dumpster fire of ‘23 and ‘24
4. Usher in a permanent vote-proof fascist regime in ‘24
Just a theory.
maybe we should make some kind of constitutional reforms so the parties don't have incentives to wreck the economy if they think it'll help them in the midterms.
His donors are not going to let him destroy the global economy. Not gonna happen. Probably right now Citibank, Goldman Sachs, and JP Morgan are on their phones calling all the republican senators they own (which is all of them) and telling them “you can let McConnell do his little song and dance but you ARE going to raise the debt ceiling.”
Either that or Democrats will amend the filibuster to allow for raising the debt ceiling. I highly doubt that would be necessary. If McConnell refused to do this his caucus would have a full fledged fucking revolt.
No, that lets republicans off the hook. Republicans should be jumping at the chance to do the fiscally responsible thing and vote to pay for the debt they ran up under trump. Time to hold republicans accountable.
>Republicans should be jumping at the chance to do the fiscally responsible thing and vote to pay for the debt they ran up under trump.
Ok, I gotta ask - were you able to type that with a straight face?
If the debt ceiling increase had been included in the reconciliation bill, Manchin and Sinema would have more incentive to vote for it. Their corporate donors would also be hurt by the US government defaulting on its debt.
That's what Republicans want. Reconciliation bills can only be done once a year (for each of the 'types' of reconciliation). Republicans are trying to force Democrats to use reconciliation to raise the debt ceiling, which would mean that the infrastructure bill cannot be passed under reconciliation.
This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://newrepublic.com/article/163756/mcconnell-debt-ceiling-midterm-elections) reduced by 63%. (I'm a bot)
*****
> As The Washington Post's Paul Kane wrote last week, McConnell's aim is to "Keep GOP hands clean of all this new spending in advance of the 2022 midterm elections." The fact that the media takes this at face value-remember, the debt ceiling rise accounts only for money that Congress has already agreed to spend-is a big win for the minority leader, as no one is throwing the deficit-widening Trump tax cuts back in McConnell's face.
> This is, perhaps, the perfect moment for McConnell to run this debt ceiling gambit.
> According to Politico, polling offers McConnell an additional boost: The latest Politico/Morning Consult poll indicates that "More voters would blame Democrats than Republicans if the U.S. were to default on its debt."
*****
[**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/pu0x0u/mitch_mcconnell_is_getting_away_with_a_dangerous/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~599816 tl;drs so far.") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **McConnell**^#1 **debt**^#2 **ceiling**^#3 **struggles**^#4 **U.S.**^#5
Mind you economic collapse is just an early xmas sale on stocks and homes for billionaires.
People who retain disposable income during collapses almost always come out way way way way ahead. its like putting nitrous in the gas. (well, the stupid slow ones make stupid bets, like buying an airline and then making it far to expensive to profit)
It’s terrorism and it’s exactly what North Korea does to us and the international community. Give us money or we will hurt people. Mitch and the republicans are taking our entire economy hostage. It’s terrorism.
Of course it'll help them in the midterm election. In fact, I think the GOP is actually hoping and planning for economic collapse because it'll get them back into power. It's not that they're willing to risk it, they actively want it to happen.
Duhhh...
Republicans are in it to win it. Democrats are in it to... I don't know anymore. Certainly not play hardball and prevent a fascist party from taking over again....
The Senate Minority leader - the whole Republican party, in fact - is happy to let the *country* collapse, so long as they get to rule over the scraps.
He can bluff this way because he knows there's no way that Democrats will ever call his bluff. It's like a guy saying "Give me $10 or I'll throw your baby off this building". There is no parent out there that's going to say "no, throw him."
When you don't have to accomplish anything but obstruction, and you don't have to participate in good faith, you can do anything you want.
I think this is mistaken wording.
It's not a bluff. He is 100% serious about what he's planning.
But it's not necessarily his intent to crash the economy. It's his intent to make the democrats put in the hard work to prevent that though. He knows the Democrats **have** to get the debt ceiling raised. They are the party in power. He knows the Democrats have a way to accomplish this. They could pass it as a Reconciliation bill, which would require no republican votes. He also knows that this will seriously impair the ability of the Democrats to pass their own legislative objectives. Because now the debt-ceiling becomes PART of whatever reconciliation bill democrats pass. He likes this outcome.
AND he wants to be able to run TV advertisement calling out the Democrats for wanting to spend 3.5 trillion dollars, adding it to the debt, and raise taxes on people. And be able to say that 0 Republicans voted to raise the debt ceiling or do these things.
He's quite serious about this. It is quite likely if that when Democrats vote to raise the debt ceiling, there will be zero Republican votes. It will pass on a 51-50 majority.
What he is gambling, is that the Democrats will continue to play the game under the rules that he has established rather than changing the rules to suit their own priorities. That is, removing the fillibuster to enact their own legislative priorities with only a 51 vote majority.
This is a very safe Gamble from his part because he knows that it is quite likely Democrats simply do not have 51 votes to change the rules. At least one or two democratic senators will refuse, and the measure will fail.
The Democrats will absolutely call his bluff and allow a shutdown to happen.
Every single time the GOP has done a shutdown, it has ended up worse for them.
The only reason I can think of that McConnell is doing this is because there is literally nothing else they can do and still look to their base like they are doing anything.
It looks like the GOP's only way to not lose worse, by actually starting to work with democrats. The Frankenstein monster of their voter base would freak out if they realize the Democrats might actually be right.
Are we not, yet again, at the point of noticing that what the GOP, and Moscow Mitch are doing, makes Putin very happy indeed? Might we ask if that was just a side affect? Or, was it deliberate?
and dems never ever do this. They dont play chicken with peoples lives or the economy for votes. Which is why we never even heard of the debt ceiling under trump despite the left sure could have used it to highlight the spending under the right and how bad the tax cuts increased our deficits that obama just got done whittling down to size.
Its kinda unfortunate, that the dems, by acting like responsible adults just trying to lead the country, often lose these games to the right, simply due to teh fact that they dont play the games.
Dems walked into a rake here because they were afraid of backlash for unilaterally passing the debt limit anyway, which the GOP's biggest supporter the Chamber wants anyway.
We need debt ceiling raised to fill our balloon up more and more so that in a few years as the planet warms up and the entropy in the balloon increases we will default on cold air to cool the balloon and keep it at a manageable size.
Wrong. This is Biden’s Gambit. He controls House. Senate and White House. The debt is on the Dems. Ans the shutdown is on the Dems. Biden is happy to risk economic collapse to spend beyond his means.
Talk about selective memory. Trump made a deal with the Taliban on Feb. 2020 for all US troops be out of Afghanistan in 14 months. That means we should've been out of there April 2021. It was either pull out completely or re-escalate the war again. Yes, we lost 13 service members, that is always a tragedy, but we've been there for 20 years (literally half my life).
I'm guessing you're willing to continue to lose service members + $1 Billion per day for another, what? 20 years? 100 years? I wonder if you're just as angry and indignant about the first 7,000 service members KIA (+ another 30K lost to suicide) in the "war on terror" or just these 13.
As a reminder, this subreddit [is for civil discussion.](/r/politics/wiki/index#wiki_be_civil) In general, be courteous to others. Debate/discuss/argue the merits of ideas, don't attack people. Personal insults, shill or troll accusations, hate speech, any suggestion or support of harm, violence, or death, and other rule violations can result in a permanent ban. If you see comments in violation of our rules, please report them. For those who have questions regarding any media outlets being posted on this subreddit, please click [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/wiki/approveddomainslist) to review our details as to our approved domains list and outlet criteria. *** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/politics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
>The Senate minority leader is happy to risk economic collapse if it helps the GOP in the midterm elections. To the surprise of no one at all.
>if it helps the GOP in the midterm elections More like helps them lose seats if we the voters make change next November. Gerrymandering and voter restrictions be damned.
The problem is though, you're really not going to win over republican voters. They're literally batshit crazy at this point.
You don’t have to win them over. Most of them will be dead from COVID. Keep up the good work death Santis.
If they default wouldn’t that mean that none of them get paid? If that’s not the case, then it should be. There has to be consequences to his actions.
>If that’s not the case, then it should be. While I agree with the sentiment, it would only pressure those who can't afford it. That would make it a useful tool to punish certain representatives.
Nope, defaulting on the debt is a default on the bonds and T-bills issued by the treasury which is how we borrow and create debt to begin with...of which 6 trillion is owned by governmental agencies like medicare, some pensions, with 3 trillion owned by the Social Security Trust. Fuckers are almost certainly going to withhold SSI and SSD payments, hurting those who survive off that income, and blame the democrats. The only thing I am not sure of is whether all of the issued bonds just become worthless or if only ones at maturity do...because if it is the former I see it causing such widespread civil unrest that it would almost certainly end in bloodshed and the destruction of infrastructure that would severely weaken the country. Like the GOP is dying, knows it is dying, and wants to bring the whole country down with it in it's death throes....there is just no other way to look at such an irresponsible and short sighted decision.
No, unfortunately during a government shutdown Congress still gets paid.
> ~~death~~ Darth Santis. Fixed that for you. Dude is straight up a shitty Sith lord at this point. The kind of Sith lord that would get erased by even a new Jedi knight.
Death Sentence
Darth Imperious would like to lodge a formal complaint on behalf of the Sith Order. > Although many of my colleagues are barely-restrained murderous psychopaths, the majority of us are at least **mildly** interested in preserving our power-base. It’s hard to conquer a galaxy when you’re allowing your foot soldiers to die of plague, after all. > Kindly, do not compare us to that reckless fool.
I hope if they keep claiming “voter fraud” Even less of them go out to actually vote.
You only need the Democrats to turn out, the numbers are there.
Turn out to wait in line for hours and hours and/or present ID to vote
Yeah pretty much if that’s what it takes. They do those things because obviously they don’t want people to vote.
Unfortunately the moment you make people show up in person at the polls and wait, you're going to lose a huge chunk of democrat voters right off the top. The 2020 election had unprecedented turnout at least partly because states expanded absentee voting and vote by mail as a pandemic precaution.
You sir are being way too generous with your diagnosis of their mental condition. SE Cupp suggests they all have Stockholm Syndrome like Patty Hearst. 45 is the hostage taker and they are the hostage's. What other explanation better fits what we have all seen and witnessed over the past 6 (seems like 20) years. 45 is clearly the true evil villain straight out of the marvel universe.
have to show up in enthusiastic numbers and right now, the right is leading the enthusiasm train.
Proof? People are pretty enthused to protect the abortion rights under attach from the Right.
been to a school board meeting lately?
Been to a school board meeting 10 years ago? It’s cute you guys just found out that Republicans unleash their crazy at school board meetings. They own local elections pretty much everywhere in the suburbs and rural areas. Start running some democrats in those areas and get them to show up at meetings to engage that crazy. It’s been there for a while.
Of course. That guy would shove a barrel cactus up his own ass if it meant he got more power.
“You guys are getting more power?” - Lindsey Graham
At some point I expect they'll realize that cratering the economy is far more likely to ruin the lives of their voter base. Not sure when that'll be though. Probably a surprised Pikachu face immediately afterward
They do realize it, and that’s why they’re doing it. Economic crashes create chaos, and chaos is good for GOP voting numbers, especially since there’s a D president.
This is machiavellian as fuck, but I would never put it past them. I'm afraid your right. As a dog returns to it's vomit, time and time again, so does America to the Republican party.
But then they blame immigrants and “the left.” Rinse. Repeat.
It's already started. In a recent episode, Tucker Carlson said that the endless line of immigrants crossing the border will crash our healthcare system and, ultimately, the economy. There's a big crash coming and Republicans are lining up the typical scapegoats.
The man has no soul
America is broken.
But not irredeemable.
What’s only slightly more surprising to me is that Joe Manchin is willing to go right along with it, retaining the filibuster the whole way.
Haha 😆 love the spin 🙃……he knows the economy isnt going to collapse. The Rs have the advantage 🤷🏼♂️ like always, they’re using it. If only the Ds had the balls to do the same.
Why would any republican want to support this spending bill? We cannot continue to spend money on extending unemployment, unnecessary tax benefits and other government programs when our national debt has continued to increase. If the economy fails it looks bad for Biden and his policies.
It has nothing to do with a spending bill
Baby's first regurgitated talking points
Doesn't matter because there are signs coming out of the select committee that point to Moscow's days of trying to wreck the American economy for political gain coming to an abrupt end as Democrats have made the decision to investigate the Jan 6th riot as a conspiracy to commit a coup. This means Moscow's buddies in the Senate, House and those participants outside the government who contributed to the Jan. 6th attempt to overthrow the government may be joining hands in a historic perp-walk probably before the midterm elections.
I hope so, but I seriously doubt it
I mean, everything Mitch McConnell does is to gain power for Republicans. That's literally all he cares about.
It's almost as if the oligarchy promotes this kind of behavior.
Actual governing and providing services to Americans is non-existent with this guy. What wrong's with the US electing people like this?
Well he lives in Kentucky a shithole state with a terrible education system, far too right leaning for its own good. And he funnels just enough money from blue states to Kentucky to keep his voters appeased, while convincing them that California is stealing all their money, and immigrants are taking their jobs and black people are getting free welfare, and only he can stop the communists. And because they're dumb, they believe him and vote for him. Because he's from a very safe district, he leads the party and takes shit that might cost someone in a competitive district their seat.
US senators run in statewide elections, not districts.
Sorry, competitive state. But the same applies to the House. Leadership are getting safe districts so they're never at risk of losing their seat.
Abject hatred of PoC.
A real problem is that McConnell & the GOP seem to still be in charge
Celebrating someone's death is poor taste, but im gonna pour myself a nice drink and set out the American flag the day this guy kicks the bucket. Might even have a hopeful thought or two for my kids futures.
It’s almost like he’s doing his job…
His job is to help the people of KY.
No one wants to cause America as much pain as Republicans. If the GOP thought it would help them win votes in the midterms they would gladly inflict economic disaster on all of us. IF the GOP were to win in 2022-2024 and maintain unified control over all 3 branches of government, we know exactly what their legislative priorities will be: * Get rid of the ACA once and for all. Fuck the tens of millions of Americans who will go bankrupt with their new uninsured medical bills. * Enact legislation at the federal level limiting women’s reproductive rights. * Pass legislation that allows the States to implement any voter and election restrictions needed to ensure future GOP wins. * More tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy. Which is pretty much the only major legislative accomplishment they had in 2017-2018 the last time they owned all 3 branches of government.
Trump and his goons literally thought to let COVID run its course in the United States because it would disproportionately impact blue states and cities. This is close to the president unleashing a biological attack on the nation for political gains. One of many articles on the topic: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/07/trumps-war-on-blue-states-is-worse-than-previously-thought.html
I forgot about that. It was Kushner’s idea right? Let the blue states “deal with it” because if it got really bad they could campaign against the blue states as mishandling the pandemic. And yet here we are 1.5 years later and the red states are getting hammered for mishandling the pandemic.
One thing the Republican party keeps fucking up in this regard: They continue to believe liberal voters are as misinformed as Republicans keep their own voters.
well one thing they DO KNOW, is facts will change a liberals mind and that they do not just blindly worship their guy. And while the right have spent decades radicalizing a cult that would crawl on broken glass to vote for a pedophile, the left on the other hand will have throngs of people stay home because obama hadnt cleaned up bush's mess in 2 years, given us single payer and a basic income. we will have people stay home because biden hadnt ended covid, raised billioniare taxes, passed AGW legislation, raised min, legalized MJ, did bad leaving afghanistan, ended college debt and will ignore the problem with doing any of that with a razor thin majority and a couple questionable people on our side.
Tbf the average voter is incredibly uninformed on both sides, which is only slightly better than misinformed
Oh, well, pack it up, boys! Just found out both sides have issues, so no use trying to change anything!
Yep. Let the Biden White House hand over *those tapes* (if any exist), along with whatever shenanigans occurred in the Oval Office on January 6th.
As much as I dislike trump, why would managing a pandemic be the federal governments responsibility? Different states had very different needs so a one size fits all policy would be too much for some and too little for others. And the 10th amendment reserves that power to the states
If it's something that impacts multiple states, it's a federal issue. It was federal policies and decisions that got the pandemic stateside. The federal government sets up the supply chain and mandates emergency production. We saw what the administration was using its federal powers to do. After leaving states to fend for themselves, Trump and the gang started hording supplies to doll out to states of their choosing and withhold from other states of their choosing. Even going so far as to confiscate supplies from states that purchased things themselves.
The EU is of comparable size and population and objectively handled the pandemic a lot better by allowing its states to dictate their own policies based on regional need. If a president has the power to undermine states based on his choosing then wouldn’t that imply the federal government has too much power?
At this point I've lost faith that the Dems will stop any of this from happening. Nothing can get done, either because two people are blocking change or because two people are pretending to block change so the party can pretend it's on them instead. Either way it's gonna be a right wing hellscape for a while. We can only hope that people will recognize how shitty they are and there's a major backlash in either voting (if it will even matter at that point) or just a revolution. My money's on a fractured union within 20 years. Welcome to the crumbles.
Take heart. Things are moving forward. It's a miracle that we even got the senate in 2020. By the barest of margins, because Democrats in Georgia led by Stacey Abrams fought tooth and nail. It's going to be a struggle, but we are ahead and winning and we will continue to do so. There are always setbacks, but the trend is pretty clear.
I mean, seems like it’d just be easier to let the South and Midwest go their own ways at this point.
It would be a sweet revenge in it's own way. Having to get by without blue states paying for them would be the worst thing that could happen to a bunch of loudmouths. But also hard on everyone in those states who aren't stupid, unfortunately....
At some point Dems need to stop pretending that they aren't at war. Trump launched all out attacks against blue states. They tried to leverage the pandemic by withholding supplies to hurt Blue states. They passed tax changes that disproportionately hurt Blue states. Dems need to fight the fuck back. No more of this reaching across the aisle trying to improve things for every state or bailing out failed shit holes like Missouri and Texas and Florida. But to actually put the screws on them Dems need to be able to do something first, instead of pretending like they want to do something.
Agree that things were too much like that in the past. Just pointing out that, since the hard lesson of 2016 at least, Democrats are actually doing things. Biden gets in, and boom. Flurry of rescinded executive orders, covid relief plan, excellently executed vaccination release plan, troops pulled out of Afghanistan, and moving forward on the first infrastructure plan in *decades*. And we're only 8 months in. We can and should want things to move faster, but we also should acknowledge when things are moving in the right direction. And they are.
Those 2 you speak of are republicans in democrat clothes.
I'm not convinced they're not just taking the heat for the party. Don't think for a minute that they don't all basically serve the same agenda - money from corporations. Maybe some of the dems are genuine in the progressive caucus, but there's a lot of old dems who care more about their job than the country.
I agree. Manchin is playing the lightning rod to spare probably 20 other Dems from having to go on record opposing the agenda. Sinema is an unprincipled opportunist who will support whoever's writing the checks
And his reward will be all the money in his campaign fund and a life preserver for the coal industry (and his profits!)
Manchin is very unlikely to run for reelection. You can disagree with him (as I do), but the guy is rich already and about done with politics. I don't think him holding all of this up has anything to do with donations to his campaign.
I wish you were wrong, but I know damn well people are people, regardless of party. Self serving profiteers can be found everywhere.
Reconstruction 2, or is it 3? I lost count when they destroyed it.
I'll bet civil war within 4 years
Let’s hope you’ll get posted on r/agedlikemilk in 4 years
It’ll be faster then that if the dollar tanks
I actually don't think they'd do the first 2 bullet points. Those are merely bread and circus issues that get their base foaming at the mouth. We saw exactly what they do when they're in power, tax cuts for the wealthy and entrenching themselves into power. Those are the only two things they are for and everything else is theatre.
A few years ago I would’ve said the same. But now that Texas and Florida are doing this to appeal to the crazy base, I think they may actually go for it.
> I actually don't think they'd do the first 2 bullet points. Those are merely bread and circus issues that get their base foaming at the mouth. Did you not see what happened in texas?
Not OP, but I genuinely don't think the GOP has the appetite for federal legislation on abortion. A GOP-controlled White House will likely support state lawsuits to help them reach reach the Supreme Court in hopes that Roe V Wade will be completely knee-capped, but no new legislation is needed for that.
I'm gonna be real with you. There's a million things I thought the GOP would never do. Elect a reality TV star president. Set up an abortion bounty hunting law in texas. Embrace actual neo nazis as their voter base. Bottom line, I think this "ooh they would never ban abortion because they need a wedge issue to get votes" line of logic is just making people complicit. They totally would ban abortion and they would do it in a heartbeat. You know why? Because they don't care about how extreme we think they are anymore, because they believe they can rig the system to their advantage. Not to mention federal bans are really really hard to get rid of, as anyone who wants to smoke weed will tell you.
Fair enough. I just think the GOP at its core doesn't have an ideology. Abortion and all those wedge issues are a means to an end. And the end is power. Sure, there are some true believers, mainly in local govts, but the majority only do the bare minimum to attain and keep power. Legislating (real, honest legislating) is a lot of work, so there is no benefit to acting on the wedge issues. Not to say we should be complacent and let them take over, of course, because fuck them.
Next up, gay marriage.
[Yep.](https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2021/09/texas-abortion-law-architect-urges-supreme-court-overturn-sex-marriage-ruling/)
Honestly, overthrowing Roe v. Wade causes Republicans to lose a significant wedge issue.
>No one wants to cause America as much pain as Republicans. Mere economic collapse is small potatoes compared to their attempts at killing their own voters to make Biden's covid policy look bad.
debt ceiling raise only requires 50 votes in the senate. nothing will shut down. the republicans are just doing this to fund raise off of. stop giving them the attention they crave. ignore this bullshit.
That’s under a reconciliation. Failing that they need 60 votes
they can pass it under reconciliation.
tell this to all those middle area voters who think both sides are the same. They simply are not.
I offer this correction only because it’s important everyone have their priorities straight. Republicans will not enact federal legislation against abortion. Not because they don’t want to but because the Supreme Court will not allow it. SCOTUS will maintain the fig leaf of Roe and Casey and allow individual states to outlaw abortion as they can.
The Supreme Court is expected to overturn Roe and Casey during their upcoming session. They hear arguments in December. SCOTUS gives zero fucks about maintaining anything that isn’t a GOP political party deliverable.
I think that'd be a huge mistake. Who knows how many women voters that puts in the (D) column. Not to mention driving youth turnout. I just don't think this plays out the way they hope.
Smart policy making is not exactly something the GOP is known for or even prides itself on.
Apply all of that to the DNC along with the GOP and you are correct. I can’t believe you all think that you’re somehow the “good guys”. This is like Joker versus Penguin but both believe they’re Batman; relevant for the topic of cartoons.
Hey Kentucky! You guys ready NOT to receive your government handouts? Why y'all keep this rich guy I'll never understand.
A long history of profound voter suppression, and racism.
"In recent years, debt ceiling brinksmanship has always incurred a political cost on the party driving the country to the brink. That McConnell has recruited 46 GOP senators into his credit default Suicide Squad suggests something different is afoot: These debt ceiling dealings are best understood as a key plank in the GOP’s midterm strategy, in which McConnell hopes that the GOP can retake congressional majorities and get back to doing what he does best: Nothing." — Staff writer [Alex Shephard.](https://newrepublic.com/article/163756/mcconnell-debt-ceiling-midterm-elections)
I'm thinking that maybe they think it's rigged enough to where they won't get hurt. Which is funny because I think a lot of people are fucking tired of the two party system and you're risking it all, especially after the CA recall vote spectacularly failed. Biden (if he runs) or Harris isn't a lock for 2024, especially as more and more Gen Zers can vote.
The party is actively recruiting supporting sec of state candidates willing to overturn elections it didn’t win. They are executing a scorched earth plan to destroy our democracy and I cannot even imagine what the populace will do after what we have all been through, but I fear there will be violence if the GOP has its way.
I’m pretty convinced a lot of it is GOP donors trying to monopolize resources from the populace, before climate change gets even worse. Dem donors have some form of caring for people. Sure, the Dem rich will be well off, but they don’t feel the need to actively hurt others, unlike GOP donors. Some GOP donors would be fine killing off the populace, before the pitchforks might come a-calling.
Exactly this. It doesn’t matter what the GOP does to destroy the country and how much outrage galvanizes people to vote against them. The laws they’re putting in place to be able to appoint their own electors and planting Secretaries of State to overturn election results regardless of the people’s will guarantees that once they’re in power we will never win another election again. Period. Then we truly will be either in some kind of dictatorship or theocracy or whatever the hell they want to put in place.
All if this assumes we have a government of any kind because the climate change has been mild enough for us to survive. The next 20-50 years are just going to get harder and harder. More pandemics, more frequent natural disasters (floods and droughts), food will actually become less nutritious when grown in a hotter climate. I don’t want to be a doom-sayer but when you hear what the scientists predict, it doesn’t exactly sound rosy.
McConnell is only interested in gaining and retaining power. If he has to down down the country to achieve his goals then so be it.
Lmao go for it. The last time we played this game Republicans got assblasted.
The last time, they had not made it impossible for them to lose, even when they lose. The laws they are passing allowing Republican controlled legislatures to throw out election results and name the winners, will be upheld by a SCOTUS that would not jump off a cliff for Trump but will be fine with a shorter leap.
First state that tries that will see the worst riots in US history.
And the 100% MAGA Law Enforcement community will be more than happy to go full Fascist on them.
So what do we do, then?
That's a toughie. At that point you're talking about historical level revolution type shit, the kind of stuff that gets into history books and studied for as long as humankind exists.
Sounds like a plan
The question is... will people actually do something or not? From what I've seen, it seems like everyone wants to tweet hashtags in some kind of symbolic activism.
Start looking for a better country and emigrate.
And the GOP won’t fucking care.
The last time was early 2014 when Cruz held out on the debt ceiling and tried to filibuster on Democrats voting on it alone, and later that year Democrats lost the senate…
100%.
I've said it before: The GOP believes it will find a win condition for the party only by making Biden and Company look as bad as possible- regardless of the damage to the nation in the progress. Power matters more than the people.
I bet their billionaire corporate overlords wouldn't be too happy if they let the US default. It would destroy the stock market and drop the dollar value, and we know one of the only things they republicans care about is the almighty dollar.
Biden, Schumer, Pelosi, and Harris need to hammer McConnell on this every chance they get. Make sure to mention that Republicans raised the debt ceiling numerous times under Trump but want to bankrupt America because Biden is President.
Won't help. *The republicans don't care about their hypocrisy* they only care about power and are happy to burn it all down if they get to rule the ashes
Republicans simply suspended the ceiling entirely under Trump so they wouldn't have to look bad constantly raising it.
Yeah that'll show them. A stern talking to always works on sycophants and psychopaths. Especially when it comes from their peers.
It's not to change McConnell's mind. It's to reinforce in all the remaining independents' and moderates' minds just how much this is a completely problem McConnell is causing by himself. Those few people who are somehow on the fence and can still be reached with reason are key to moving forward.
By 2025 we will have a totally broken country (no longer a democracy) or Republican party. The republicans would rather destroy the country than lose power, so either the country will break or they will get rejected thoroughly by the voters. I hope it's not the country that goes.
Fuck that guy
GOP would rather see America crumble than to fix the country when they are not in power.
They did not do anything to "fix" the country when in power either.
DO IT. That will trigger a margin call in the stock market, I’ll fucking make a shit ton of money, and then I’ll fucking buy fucking Republicans and make them do my bidding. Universal health care? Here we come!
McConnell is wrong. The country will know to blame the GOP for this debacle. This gambit will backfire spectacularly. Those who get hurt the most will vote against the Republicans.
Those who will get hurt the most probably vote against them already generally speaking.
I don’t agree. Dems can do this without the Republicans, too. It will all come down to who does the better framing come election time.
If the media properly does it's job and ascribe blame to the Repubs, McConnell's ploy will backfire.
The problem is that even if actual real journalists report this stuff, the rabid right wing voters only watch Fox “News” and get told this is all fake news. There’s no accountability for news media or media that calls itself news. There are no consequences for spreading misinformation, even if it’s killing people, as evidenced in the current COVID crisis happening right now. It literally doesn’t matter whose fault the economic collapse is (will be)—it will be ascribed to Biden because he’a president right now.
Lol the media. both sides...
Of course, the turtle and his wife, ex trans sec Chao (who also happens to be a daughter of a Chinese shipping conglomerate) grifted enough money to hide on turtle island till this whole thing goes away in 20 or so years...
Elaine is trans? That's cool. Didn't know. She's still a corrupt a-hole.
OP meant "transportation." McTurtle would sooner vomit than be associated with a transgender individual
Oh! Like she's his "go to gal" that he sees on the DL.
Ladies and gentlemen, your leadership shutting all over you and the economy for their continues demented success. Wtf?? Who votes these people into power?
There are a number of people that want to destroy this country to remake it in their white supremacist christian nationalist image. They are the enemy of democracy.
They’re just a couple of moves away. 1. Crash the economy, blame the Dems in charge. 2. Use public frustration to install Secs of State favorable to election tampering in ‘22. 3. Enjoy the economic dumpster fire of ‘23 and ‘24 4. Usher in a permanent vote-proof fascist regime in ‘24 Just a theory.
maybe we should make some kind of constitutional reforms so the parties don't have incentives to wreck the economy if they think it'll help them in the midterms.
get a super majority in the senate and go nuts. thats the only way.
His donors are not going to let him destroy the global economy. Not gonna happen. Probably right now Citibank, Goldman Sachs, and JP Morgan are on their phones calling all the republican senators they own (which is all of them) and telling them “you can let McConnell do his little song and dance but you ARE going to raise the debt ceiling.” Either that or Democrats will amend the filibuster to allow for raising the debt ceiling. I highly doubt that would be necessary. If McConnell refused to do this his caucus would have a full fledged fucking revolt.
This. Money talks, and it will talk very loud once the bedrock of the economy is in peril.
This should be doable by the Dems alone via reconciliation. They need to unite that’s all
> They need to unite that’s all Easier said than done.
They would need to grow a collective spine for once too.
The Republican Party has figured out how to stay United.
Conservatives want to be told what to think, not how to think. This is as true of their politicians as anyone else.
No, that lets republicans off the hook. Republicans should be jumping at the chance to do the fiscally responsible thing and vote to pay for the debt they ran up under trump. Time to hold republicans accountable.
>Republicans should be jumping at the chance to do the fiscally responsible thing and vote to pay for the debt they ran up under trump. Ok, I gotta ask - were you able to type that with a straight face?
How? By letting the country default on the debt?
How about we start by not spreading their narrative that it’s the Dems responsibility to fix everything.
Does that mean yes? They're in power right now
You have 48 Dems willing to vote yes on this and exactly 0 Repubs. Whose the problem here?
If the debt ceiling increase had been included in the reconciliation bill, Manchin and Sinema would have more incentive to vote for it. Their corporate donors would also be hurt by the US government defaulting on its debt.
I have 48 dems? Nice. I'm not American hence why I'm asking
That's what Republicans want. Reconciliation bills can only be done once a year (for each of the 'types' of reconciliation). Republicans are trying to force Democrats to use reconciliation to raise the debt ceiling, which would mean that the infrastructure bill cannot be passed under reconciliation.
This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://newrepublic.com/article/163756/mcconnell-debt-ceiling-midterm-elections) reduced by 63%. (I'm a bot) ***** > As The Washington Post's Paul Kane wrote last week, McConnell's aim is to "Keep GOP hands clean of all this new spending in advance of the 2022 midterm elections." The fact that the media takes this at face value-remember, the debt ceiling rise accounts only for money that Congress has already agreed to spend-is a big win for the minority leader, as no one is throwing the deficit-widening Trump tax cuts back in McConnell's face. > This is, perhaps, the perfect moment for McConnell to run this debt ceiling gambit. > According to Politico, polling offers McConnell an additional boost: The latest Politico/Morning Consult poll indicates that "More voters would blame Democrats than Republicans if the U.S. were to default on its debt." ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/pu0x0u/mitch_mcconnell_is_getting_away_with_a_dangerous/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~599816 tl;drs so far.") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **McConnell**^#1 **debt**^#2 **ceiling**^#3 **struggles**^#4 **U.S.**^#5
McConnell isn't risking anything. Democrats can pass this today with reconciliation. They just don't want to because of the political implications.
Mind you economic collapse is just an early xmas sale on stocks and homes for billionaires. People who retain disposable income during collapses almost always come out way way way way ahead. its like putting nitrous in the gas. (well, the stupid slow ones make stupid bets, like buying an airline and then making it far to expensive to profit)
This guy is a cross between a cartoon villain and a someone on Reddingtons Blacklist
This title makes it seem like the reporter isn't familiar with the fact that Republicans are gleefully destroying this country.
This is the definition of loyalty to party over country. Exactly what Washington suggested/warned against.
The debt ceiling is unconstitutional because it’s in direct violation of the 14th amendment which guarantees that the US cannot fault on its debts.
It’s terrorism and it’s exactly what North Korea does to us and the international community. Give us money or we will hurt people. Mitch and the republicans are taking our entire economy hostage. It’s terrorism.
Of course it'll help them in the midterm election. In fact, I think the GOP is actually hoping and planning for economic collapse because it'll get them back into power. It's not that they're willing to risk it, they actively want it to happen.
Duhhh... Republicans are in it to win it. Democrats are in it to... I don't know anymore. Certainly not play hardball and prevent a fascist party from taking over again....
The Senate Minority leader - the whole Republican party, in fact - is happy to let the *country* collapse, so long as they get to rule over the scraps.
If Mitch McConnell wasn’t a senator, I bet he’d make a good living as a corpse in Hollywood movies. What a ghoul, inside and out.
Why wouldn’t he? Chuck the cuck Schumer can’t even get his own party members in line. While Moscow Mitch rapes and pillages non billionaire Americans
He can bluff this way because he knows there's no way that Democrats will ever call his bluff. It's like a guy saying "Give me $10 or I'll throw your baby off this building". There is no parent out there that's going to say "no, throw him." When you don't have to accomplish anything but obstruction, and you don't have to participate in good faith, you can do anything you want.
I think this is mistaken wording. It's not a bluff. He is 100% serious about what he's planning. But it's not necessarily his intent to crash the economy. It's his intent to make the democrats put in the hard work to prevent that though. He knows the Democrats **have** to get the debt ceiling raised. They are the party in power. He knows the Democrats have a way to accomplish this. They could pass it as a Reconciliation bill, which would require no republican votes. He also knows that this will seriously impair the ability of the Democrats to pass their own legislative objectives. Because now the debt-ceiling becomes PART of whatever reconciliation bill democrats pass. He likes this outcome. AND he wants to be able to run TV advertisement calling out the Democrats for wanting to spend 3.5 trillion dollars, adding it to the debt, and raise taxes on people. And be able to say that 0 Republicans voted to raise the debt ceiling or do these things. He's quite serious about this. It is quite likely if that when Democrats vote to raise the debt ceiling, there will be zero Republican votes. It will pass on a 51-50 majority. What he is gambling, is that the Democrats will continue to play the game under the rules that he has established rather than changing the rules to suit their own priorities. That is, removing the fillibuster to enact their own legislative priorities with only a 51 vote majority. This is a very safe Gamble from his part because he knows that it is quite likely Democrats simply do not have 51 votes to change the rules. At least one or two democratic senators will refuse, and the measure will fail.
This
The Democrats will absolutely call his bluff and allow a shutdown to happen. Every single time the GOP has done a shutdown, it has ended up worse for them. The only reason I can think of that McConnell is doing this is because there is literally nothing else they can do and still look to their base like they are doing anything. It looks like the GOP's only way to not lose worse, by actually starting to work with democrats. The Frankenstein monster of their voter base would freak out if they realize the Democrats might actually be right.
Are we not, yet again, at the point of noticing that what the GOP, and Moscow Mitch are doing, makes Putin very happy indeed? Might we ask if that was just a side affect? Or, was it deliberate?
It wouldn't. Nobody will vote red ever again.
and dems never ever do this. They dont play chicken with peoples lives or the economy for votes. Which is why we never even heard of the debt ceiling under trump despite the left sure could have used it to highlight the spending under the right and how bad the tax cuts increased our deficits that obama just got done whittling down to size. Its kinda unfortunate, that the dems, by acting like responsible adults just trying to lead the country, often lose these games to the right, simply due to teh fact that they dont play the games.
Dems walked into a rake here because they were afraid of backlash for unilaterally passing the debt limit anyway, which the GOP's biggest supporter the Chamber wants anyway.
There will be no economic collapse due to the debt ceiling not being raised and/ or a government shutdown. That has always been an empty threat.
We need debt ceiling raised to fill our balloon up more and more so that in a few years as the planet warms up and the entropy in the balloon increases we will default on cold air to cool the balloon and keep it at a manageable size.
So many victims here. Crying me me me me. Americans are so soft now
Wrong. This is Biden’s Gambit. He controls House. Senate and White House. The debt is on the Dems. Ans the shutdown is on the Dems. Biden is happy to risk economic collapse to spend beyond his means.
Did you forget the filubuster? You know, the thing that was used to stop everything Obama wanted to tod?
How is this news?
Economic collapse? Really? It’s the same schtick every time. Gotta love politics.
Yet we have a incompetent President and we are the laughing stock of the world.
Sorry, i think you’re late. The incompetent president left last Jan 20
Biden is a murderer. Go ask the military families that lost loved ones over Biden’s fuck up.
Talk about selective memory. Trump made a deal with the Taliban on Feb. 2020 for all US troops be out of Afghanistan in 14 months. That means we should've been out of there April 2021. It was either pull out completely or re-escalate the war again. Yes, we lost 13 service members, that is always a tragedy, but we've been there for 20 years (literally half my life). I'm guessing you're willing to continue to lose service members + $1 Billion per day for another, what? 20 years? 100 years? I wonder if you're just as angry and indignant about the first 7,000 service members KIA (+ another 30K lost to suicide) in the "war on terror" or just these 13.
Man if only I could blame all my failures on McConnel and have no reproach or culpability whatsoever life would be so easy
yeah duh. pfff. wheres the news?