Like the pandemic, Ukraine war, and a number of other slow burn emergencies, most people aren’t going to become aware of this issue until it is knocking at the door. I am talking about the “debt ceiling crisis,” which I am sure will be all over the headlines and the Reddit feeds and Fox News when push finally comes to shove. This crisis refers to the arbitrary limit placed on loans by the Federal Govt. Since the Federal Govt needs to take out these loans in order to pay what is owed globally, capping the Govt’s ability to borrow money will cause it to default on, or not pay, a loan back on time. America has never failed to pay before, and I am sure we won’t fail to pay now. However, the threat of not paying gives the parties of our legislature leverage to negotiate with the executive branch, which is what is going on (slowly) right now. McCarthy, speaker of the House of Representatives, has lobbed a suggestion.
Well, this is smart! We can save America from global embarrassment and global economic destabilization by increasing the debt limit, and in the process we can start to look at our spending on the whole and trim some fat. We have to trim wasteful spending because the other option, increasing revenue to account for the increasing cost of government, has been declined. So, great idea McCarthy, but what spending do you propose we cut?
During a rent and housing crisis and record inflation to the cost of living, the republican speaker of the house suggests cutting social programs AKA the only way American tax dollars actually directly help real, living Americans. And on top of that, he wants to give even greater kickbacks to our energy sector, which, despite record profits in 2022, has not lowered prices or made meaningful investments in refining capacity beyond what money has been given to them for free by the government in previous spending packages. This is a trend across most of the inflated industries–the government subsidizes them, and the corpos raise prices anyway.
McCarthy is a corporate socialist, which is another word for a shill and a hack. He wants to take money away from food stamps and other programs that actually help people. He wants to take that money use it to line the pockets of people that are already making money. Meanwhile, America still can’t make its own shit. Small businesses are still floundering. I think it is a bad idea to punish the people that are keeping the machinery of this nation running, but this is the Republican playbook every time.
And cutting regulations, HAH! Silicon Valley Bank just failed and almost took the entire economy out with it if not for a rapid bail out, and the Republican plan is to cut regulations further? It seems to me that our eyeballs should be fucking gorilla glued to these people so they don’t fuck up again. With so much of our dollars flowing directly into their pockets, we better keep our regulatory eyes wide open. If I have to prove a thousand different things just to qualify for $100 a month in food stamps, all of these industries recieving McCarthy handouts better be following the rules to a mother fucking T.
And the wealthiest Americans and corporations still pay proportionally nothing in taxes. Shhh don’t say that part too loud.