In other words, despite the GOP speaker of the House agreeing to this deal, he couldn't get enough of his party colleagues to sign on, so it was Democrats who were the adults in the room, who acknowledged that everyone or no one won this latest act of political theater, and saved the day.
Just to detail the numbers and remember, a bill needs 218 to pass;
GOP about 150 for, about 70 against
Dems about 165 for, 46 against.
Yes Virginia, more Dems voted for the GOP hostage bill then GOP representatives. Now, one could explain that by saying that since Biden is a President of the Democratic persuasion, House Dems believed that he would get the blame should a default occur, so they swallowed their objections to save his presidency. I am sure that had some sway in some votes, despite the fact that the debt ceiling needed to be raised to pay for expenses already approved by Congress, so it is more a situation where the GOP thought they could blackmail Biden into giving in on some spending details knowing that he would make sure a deal was struck. In the end, those in the GOP caucus who have no qualms about forcing a debt default, truly don't understand that in a democracy you never get everything you want because just as many voters gave a mandate to the public servants on the other side of the aisle to represent their interests.
I guess what I am saying is that the GOP is currently the minority ruling party in America, but at least 70 of them think otherwise. That is the kind of if-I-don't-get-my-way-I-will-take-my-ball-home thinking that one usually experiences as a child on a sandlot field, not in the halls of Congress.
All that being said, the good news is that moderates of both parties exhibited an understanding as to how democracy works in a partisan environment. It reminds me of those diving meets where the high and low scores are thrown out, and only those scores in the middle are counted. Perhaps this vote, for the first time in a while, demonstrated that while the crazies on both sides of any debate are allowed to voice their opinions, and even vote their beliefs, it is the majority of those in the middle who should be making the bulk of the laws.
Of course, even this agreement, with its temporary spending caps, will do little to reduce our overall national deficit. At best, it slows the accumulation of debt a small fraction. At worse, it allows everyone to go to their various constituents and proclaim victory, when in reality, all Americans have lost again.
Well, not all Americans.
The super rich remain unscathed in this battle. Sure, some poor people on the SNAP program might have to work a bit more, and our young people will have to start making student loan payments, but the revenue side of this debate, was completely ignored, and from that standpoint, McCarthy and the GOP won by never permitting higher taxes to be part of the budget deficit solution.
The following link is to the post I wrote last week on this topic, and includes some data about who was in charge during the recent run up of our national debt, as well as links to my posts around the last big debt ceiling crisis during Obama's first term.
Clearly, that crisis had little effect in the growth of our national deficit, since the debt has grown by over 50% since. To put numbers to it, national debt is about $31 trillion dollars now, was under $12 trillion in 2008, under $6 trillion in 2001.
So, if you want to demonstrate the definition of a perfect storm, the details of why our cumulative debt went from about $6 trillion to $31 trillion in 22 years, which is over a trillion dollars per year average while it took us to run up $6 trillion in debt sine 1789 (211 years, and that included huge deficit spending for World War 1 and 2), look no further than the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the 2008 economic meltdown, the huge tax cuts for the rich in 2018, and the disjointed response to the pandemic.
More spending to rescue business and individuals from the 2008 meltdown and the effects of the lock down, less revenue by reducing taxes for corporations and the rich.
So again, as I said in my previous post, both sides are to blame, and since both sides represent portions of the American electorate, we are to blame for our difficult, national fiscal situation.
But our blame is more due to a lack of research and critical thinking than anything, because we continue to believe the propaganda of the rich who create wedge issues which diverts our attention from the real reasons why buying power for the middle class has stagnated.
Just look at all the hubbub surrounding Bud Light, and now Target department stores for believing that trans people should be able to drink beer and buy clothes. Really? Do everyday Americans really believe that we should have separate but equal beverages and department stores, or are they being aroused by the powers to be (can you say Fox News) to divert our attention from the real problems in America, namely that we are moving towards either a theocracy or autocracy every time we use our bible to blame society's ills on a minority group, or claim freedom means not knowing our own history.
Folks, the old adage story about when a frog is placed in boiling water, it jumps out, but put it in tepid water and slowly turn up the hear and it will boil to death is exactly how our democracy will fail.
Every time you agree with someone who tells you seeing a piece of clothing in a store, or reading a book, or understanding how some people have 2 dads or 2 moms, will make your child one of the "others", you are turning up the heat in our collective water bowl just a little more.
I have stated before that xenophobia may have been a necessary bias for early man, when those who were "others" weren't just avoided or tolerated, they were actively killed. It seems hardwired into our nature. But, not everyone suffers from its consequences, and it is possible to learn to ignore that first instinct, and to embrace the diversity of humanity.
Sometimes it is a simple as having a beloved family member "come out", or having a daughter or son bring home a minority for their date. But if you have not had an experience like that, it isn't all that hard to seek out a parent of a trans child, or a trans young adult and talk to them about their experience. Then, rather than reacting emotionally to a news story that presents an LGBTQ+ person in a negative light, you will be able to reference your conversation with someone who identifies in that way, and realize how distorted is that particular news story, and how all of us, regardless of our sexual identity or preference, are just trying to be happy in a tank of hot water.
And then we might wonder why these kinds of culture wars are so well funded, and where that funding is emanating from. Only then can the 90% of us keep the heat down in our community waters.
The following story, written earlier this year, is about empathy.
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