Debt ceiling talks to resume as Biden, McCarthy prepare to meet Monday to resolve standoff

It doesn't matter what Kevin negotiates. He doesn't have the votes in his insanity caucus to pass it.

And his lunatics don't seem to understand that the full faith and credit of America is not a point up for negotiation.

If the US defaults, the GOP and Kevin McCarthy will have some serious explaining to do. This is completely avoidable.

Republicans raised the debt limit multiple times under Trump without protest.

That's all you really need to know.

GOP lawmakers are holding tight to demands for sharp spending cuts with caps on future spending, rejecting the alternatives proposed by the White House for reducing deficits in part with revenue from taxes.

The debt limit negotiations are a mostly GOP engineered farce they have used since Reagan and the Tea Party to induce austerity and then bring in tax cuts for the .01%, ballooning the deficit.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/fortune.com/2023/02/01/can-republicans-balance-budget-deficit-debt-kevin-mccarthy-bill-clinton-1990s-harvard-professor/amp/

To be fair, Democrats also use the corporate Republican pressure to cut social welfare for their own corporate backers

The duopoly of American politics is as fake as pro-wrestling.

Which of the 70% of all obligations run up under GQP are the crazies going to default on first?

7 point 8 TRILLION dollars is the amount of the national debt the Republicans created under Trump, and now they want to show off how fiscally responsible they are?!

I agree. As an American, I fully believe all this debt ceiling threat is just fake as fake can be. When I was just but a child in America, this sort of thing never happen. Then suddenly, the threat from the Republicans materialized out of a poof of magic to try to control the Democrats. Ignore it. Fake.

It doesn't matter what Kevin negotiates. He doesn't have the votes in his insanity caucus to pass it.

Personally, Biden is running the economy already into the ground, Kevin should try whether he has the votes or not. Never give up and never capitulate. Biden REFUSED to meet with the Republicans to negotiate for 97 straight days and the Republicans passed a Bill in Congress to raise the debt ceiling with a fiscally responsible Bill that would also reduce the National Debt $4.7 Trillion dollars over the next 10 years.Biden said NO and still refuses to negotiate and demands a clean debt ceiling which would raise the National debt to $50 Trillion over the next 10 years ( National Debt is $31 Trillion now) and that would put the Country into a depression.

And his lunatics don't seem to understand that the full faith and credit of America is not a point up for negotiation.

Yes, it is, especially with this….guy in office.

Irresponsible politicians, with very few exceptions, on either side of the aisle have been doing this for decades.

They represent the special interests that fund their political campaigns, not the people who elected and reelected them, again and again.

Mr McCarthy is a compromised and ineffective “leader” who should resign and return to his sandwich shop in California.

We the People of the United States of America deserve better.

One of us thinks it’s ok to hold the full faith and credit hostage.

Funny thing: the kidnapped tend to be angry with their hostage-takers and frequently want them held accountable.

Among the proposals the GOP objects to are policies that would enable Medicare to pay less for prescription drugs. Republicans also have refused to roll back Trump-era tax breaks on corporations and wealthy households as Biden’s own budget has proposed.

Those - and that Repubs have also taken defense off the table - shows their utter lack of seriousness.

bring in tax cuts for the .01%, ballooning the deficit.

But if you actually check revenues numbers, they did not decrease after the most recent tax reform.

Therefore the extent that the deficit increased after those recent tax reforms, it was clearly due to increased spending.

The clay-footed House Speaker is just being pushed from behind by a howling herd of GOP crazies to "cry wolf" while Biden's keeping his powder dry and waiting for the noisy shtick of the McCarthyite default threat to fizzle out with a fake smile.

bass4funk

Biden REFUSED to meet with the Republicans to negotiate for 97 straight days and the Republicans passed a Bill in Congress to raise the debt ceiling

No negotiation is required. If the debt ceiling isn't raised, the US will default and the results will be catastrophic.

with a fiscally responsible Bill that would also reduce the National Debt $4.7 Trillion dollars over the next 10 years.Biden said NO and still refuses to negotiate and demands a clean debt ceiling which would raise the National debt to $50 Trillion over the next 10 years ( National Debt is $31 Trillion now) and that would put the Country into a depression.

Trump saw 25% of the debt add during his single term, and now they want to be fiscally responsible?

Biden also wants to be fiscally responsible and he proposed a budget that would reduce debt, without making cuts to veterans' programs etc.

fxgaiToday  09:03 am JST

But if you actually check revenues numbers, they did not decrease after the most recent tax reform.

Actually they did.

Taken together, the Bush tax cuts, their bipartisan extensions, and the Trump tax cuts, have cost $10 trillion since their creation and are responsible for 57 percent of the increase in the debt ratio since then.

https://www.americanprogress.org/article/tax-cuts-are-primarily-responsible-for-the-increasing-debt-ratio/

One of us thinks it’s ok to hold the full faith and credit hostage.

One of us thinks it’s ok to be financially irresponsible.

Funny thing: the kidnapped tend to be angry with their hostage-takers and frequently want them held accountable.

Not this time, the kidnapped have a savior in red.

No negotiation is required. If the debt ceiling isn't raised, the US will default and the results will be catastrophic.

Wait! Where have you been??

https://www.ft.com/content/38ca6bdd-068e-4fe2-a684-484a5725ad8d

So this was in the making before Kevin took the gavel and now the Dems are all of a sudden in a panic?

Trump saw 25% of the debt add during his single term, and now they want to be fiscally responsible?

We are not talking about Trump, he’s not in office, focus.

No one told Biden to spend the way he’s spending, no one told him to give billions to Ukraine and bailout banks, he was warned and now he’s pitching a fit?

Biden also wants to be fiscally responsible and he proposed a budget that would reduce debt, withoutmaking cuts to veterans' programs etc.

No one believes him on that. Again, absolutely NO ONE!

Get your act together America.

bass4funk

Wait! Where have you been??

https://www.ft.com/content/38ca6bdd-068e-4fe2-a684-484a5725ad8d

That article is about reducing the value of the US dollar. How is it relevant?

So this was in the making before Kevin took the gavel and now the Dems are all of a sudden in a panic?

The Dems aren't in a panic, the GOP are, because the are responsible for raising the debt ceiling.

No one told Biden to spend the way he’s spending, no one told him to give billions to Ukraine and bailout banks, he was warned and now he’s pitching a fit?

Ukraine is an investment in foreign policy. Looking to avoid a financial crisis is prudent leadership.

Biden greatly reduced spending compared to Trump. So you are OK with Trump hiking the national debt, why complain about Biden, who greatly reduced spending in comparison? It is hypocritical.

bass4funk

*Biden also wants to be fiscally responsible and he proposed a budget that would reduce debt, without making cuts to veterans' programs etc.*

No one believes him on that. Again, absolutely NO ONE!

Well the Congressional Budget Office does.

Debt and budget crisis, another clear example of 'chaos', why world's rapidly losing interest in Democracy = No NEW Democracies, rather many existing are going 'hybrid' = LESS Democratic

US fiscal situation totally unsustainable, budget deficits expected to double Govt. calendar yr. ending Sept 30th vs. last yr., tax revenues dropping, WAY spending up, etc.

I want the default, no more money should be paid to the Washington clowns.

printing money from thin air should be stopped immediately.

I want the default, no more money should be paid to the Washington clowns.

printing money from thin air should be stopped immediately.

Hope you don't get paid a salary or a salary in dollars. Otherwise you are shooting yourself in the foot for spite.

At this point, we're being forced to watch this pure theater just so McCarthy isn't overthrown by the fruitcake fringe of his party...

Remember months ago McConnell said "there will be no default'....so he and Biden have already cooked up a deal...it might offer some scraps for Kevin, it may not...

At this point it's a toss up which happens first, Kevin is ejected from his Speakership or Trump is indicted for obstructing justice...

Jexan

The GOP and Dems play the same games depending on who’s in office. Not surprising but still embarrassing. This is why it baffles me when Americans want more government control over their lives verses less. Can anyone make sense of that?

Except there was never any risk of default when the Dems held the house and Trump was in office.

So not the same games at all.

That article is about reducing the value of the US dollar. How is it relevant?

When the left even asks that question, you need to be VERY worried.

The Dems aren't in a panic,

Of course not, why should they, it's not their money.

the GOP are, because the are responsible for raising the debt ceiling.

Well, they were put into office to stop the Biden spending agenda.

Ukraine is an investment in foreign policy. Looking to avoid a financial crisis is prudent leadership.

Keep telling yourself that.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2022/09/15/most-americans-say-the-us-should-only-continue-to-spend-money-ukraine-under-certain-conditions/

https://www.npr.org/2023/02/20/1141689717/ukraine-russia-biden-funding

Biden greatly reduced spending compared to Trump.

Americans don't think so, that is why Kevin has the gavel

Biden also wants to be fiscally responsible and he proposed a budget that would reduce debt, without making cuts to veterans' programs etc.

Hmmm...

No one believes him on that. Again, absolutely NO ONE!

Well the Congressional Budget Office does.

Again, No one believes this admin.

House Republicans have accused the Biden administration of lying to veterans about purported cuts to their benefits concealed in the debt limit bill their conference passed last week.

GOP members, many of whom are veterans themselves, slammed President Biden over the weekend for “politicizing” the Department of Veterans Affairs after the agency put out an April 21 press release claiming the debt bill would cut funding for veterans’ programs by 22%.

“In my nine years as a member of Congress, I have never seen the use of an agency that is so vitally important to so many people be used as a political hammer, to deliver a message that is false so that it would stir people up to cause our veterans to be used as pawns in a political game,” Rep. Mike Bost (R-Ill.), who chairs the House Veterans Affairs’ Committee, said on a Sunday conference call.

https://nypost.com/2023/05/01/house-gop-biden-shamelessly-lying-about-vet-benefit-cuts/

Actually they did.

Thats incorrect, revenues did not decrease. See the recent figures:

2016: $3.27 trillion

2017: $3.32 trillion

2018: $3.33 trillion

2019: $3.46 trillion

2020: $3.42 trillion (preliminary data, subject to change)

On the expenditure side, here are the figures:

2016: $3.85 trillion

2017: $3.98 trillion

2018: $4.11 trillion

2019: $4.45 trillion

2020: $6.55 trillion (including COVID-19 relief measures)

Clearly, it is the expenditures side that has driven the increase in the deficit, since revenues only declined in the initial year of the Covid pandemic, and even then, we’re still above revenues prior to the last tax reform.

The US has an over spending problem, just like Japan.

It’s peculiar that the President’s side does not want to reduce spending, even though the prior administration is guilty of increasing spending too.

Some interesting facts on the debt ceiling;

Since 1960, Congress has acted 78 separate times to permanently raise, temporarily extend, or revise the definition of the debt limit – 49 times under Republican presidents and 29 times under Democratic presidents.

In 2017, 2018, and 2019 during the Trump administration, the debt limit was reset at $20.5 trillion, $22 trillion and $28.4 trillion, respectively. NONE of these bills, when signed into law, contained a precondition to cut spending. McCarthy voted FOR each of these bills.

Trump's comments on the debt ceiling when in office: “That’s a very, very sacred thing in our country, debt ceiling. We can never play with it." “I can’t imagine anybody ever even thinking of using the debt ceiling as a negotiating wedge,” 

Need to know anything more on how big of hypocrites these Repubs are?

there was never any risk of default when the Dems held the house and Trump was in office.

The pattern I see is that, the only time when US finances are put into shape are when there is a Democrat President, and a Republican house.

Clinton and Gingrich did it nicely in the late 1990’s.

But put democrats or republicans fully in charge, it’s a disaster.

Republican President in charge, it’s a disaster.

Only when there is a Democrat President does the deficit get eliminated, with a Republican house.

Now is the chance, will Biden and his democrats be able to demonstrate some fiscal restraint like is rarely ever seen in US politics?

love all the optimism where people think Biden is actually coming out of this "blameless" as he stated himself.

House Republicans have accused the Biden administration of lying to veterans about purported cuts to their benefits concealed in the debt limit bill their conference passed last week.

Hmmmm.....

The Republican House-passed debt-ceiling measure does specifically mandate one significant cut, as Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the House Appropriations Committee’s top Democrat, pointed out. The GOP bill rescinds any unspent funding passed in bills on COVID-19 relief, including veterans’ funding. When Bost wrote to the VA at the end of March asking about unspent COVID-19 money, his office estimated some $4.5 billion.

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2023/may/09/mike-bost/republicans-vow-not-to-cut-veterans-benefits-but-t/

Pretty clear to see who is lying...

That article is about reducing the value of the US dollar. How is it relevant?

When the left even asks that question, you need to be VERY worried.

Non-sensical, non sequitur blather goes over well with the MAGA crowd but other demand more logical rigor, especially dealing with the budget.

To parse that non sequitur, the so-called left should not ask questions about the value of the dollar?

The article you presented, about the value of the dollar, should worry the left because it does not relate to the topic of the debt limit?

That is just one data point in your blather, and to start off it does not make a lick of sense.

Kind of like the Freedom Caucus pretending to not want to aim to give corporations more budget busting tax breaks and welfare

Non-sensical, non sequitur blather goes over well with the MAGA crowd but other demand more logical rigor, especially dealing with the budget.

Ok, now try and convince the voters of that. They aren’t buying this Dems spiel.

To parse that non sequitur, the so-called left should not ask questions about the value of the dollar?

Now all of a sudden.

The article you presented, about the value of the dollar, should worry the left because it does not relate to the topic of the debt limit?

Again, the left now cares all of a sudden?

That is just one data point in your blather, and to start off it does not make a lick of sense.

To most liberals, probably not.

To most liberals, probably not.

I am no more a liberal than Bernie Sanders and that is slanderous and instead of illogical babble from the corporate funded right on the deficit

read some facts from his advisors.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/theconversation.com/amp/bernie-sanders-economic-adviser-has-a-message-we-might-just-need-130182

US Govt's current year budgetary situation relative to Last Year for first 6 months of budget year, Oct - Mar.

Current Yr., Oct-Mar vs. Prior Year Oct-Mar

Revenues Negative (3%) & Spending Positive 11%

As US Govt. Budget's larger than Japanese Economy, each % above represents nearly $50 billion

Unfortunately, US tax revenues now accelerating to downside/see below'. Bed Bath & Beyond, SVB, etc.

U.S. corporate bankruptcies at highest level since 2010

By Bansari Mayur Kamdar, Reuters

May 9 (Reuters) - U.S. companies are feeling heat of decades-high interest rates and sticky inflation, with several filing for bankruptcy protection as the era of easy money draws to a close.

> Tally of U.S. companies that have gone bankrupt so far in 2023 is higher than the first four months of any year since 2010, data from S&P Global Market Intelligence showed. The year-to-date count more than doubled to 236 from a year ago.

When one gets taken hostage and the kidnapper makes ransom demands that one's family cannot possibly meet, does the hostage get mad at the kidnapper or at their family?

I am guessing the kidnapper gets the blame.

Just a thought there, Kev.

Blacklabel

love all the optimism where people think Biden is actually coming out of this "blameless" as he stated himself.

He will. No doubt about it. People can understand that the GOP are trying to take hostages.