4210

we really need a Like button…

4211

The most obvious explanation for Manchin and Sinema is that they don’t want a substantial and meaningful reconciliation bill of Democratic priorities at all, and are just running out the clock to avoid any vote on one. So you show them something and they say no, not that. You ask them what they want instead, and they say something else, but not that.

Most likely, they’ll wait until the 11th hour and then say what they will accept. It will be mostly terrible or mundane and the progressives will hate it but Manchin and Sinema will rely on the urgency of the moment to push it through.

4212

BTW, no one asked me and no one likely cares, but the framing of the debt ceiling issue right now as something that the Democrats are to blame for because they won’t nuke the filibuster seems utterly absurd to me. There’s one party that refuses to govern and has become a reactionary, kneejerk obstructionist institution. That party is the one to blame.

4213

Someone gave me an excellent response to this on another forum where I subject people to my bad jokes and I had to share.

Well he is the very model
of a West Virginia Moderate
obstructing legislation
till the people say “goldarn-erit”

4214

^Like^

4215

Do you think McConnell’s posturing on the Debt Ceiling is basically to force the Dems to nuke the filibuster? Right now, it’s the only way they’ll get a vote (or so it seems).

4216

I think McConnell is quite happy to provoke a default crisis if he can blame a Democratic President and Congress for it.

4217

McConnell seems pretty confident moderate democrats will not vote to remove the filibuster no matter what ratfuckery he pulls.

4218

Yep, and he’s thrilled that there are people who should know much better, folks who SO very much want a filibuster nuke, are clouding their judgment enough that they’re willing to blame Democrats for the idiot recalcitrance of the GOP.

4219

It seems like the refusal to raise the debt ceiling might give the Dems an easy choice to fuck the filibuster.

“Hey, we can nuke the filibuster, or force the country into default.”

4220

That’s what I was getting at a few posts up. It makes me a little uneasy, like ol’ Mitch WANTS it to happen. It’s almost too easy, like we’re playing right into his hands.

4221

I haven’t been keeping up with why they’re trying to get United States to default this time. What’s Mitch’s demand for raising the debt ceiling? To kill the reconciliation bill?

4222

It may be that he figures there’s no real way he can win there, so if he just forces the Democrats to do it all on their own, it gives him the ability to just blame the Dems for everything. “All this spending is the Dem’s fault!”

On some level, the GOP doesn’t actually CARE if the Dems get to do what they want now… They certainly don’t care about actual spending.

What they care about, is being able to feign suitable outrage.

On some level, having the Dems nuke the filibuster doesn’t actually hurt the GOP, because it gives them more grist for the outrage mill.

Now, on some level it may hurt the GOP because if the Dems actually achieve stuff then it will help the Dems… but if Mitch is settling in to be an angry minority party, it works… and frankly, that is probably fine for the GOP, as they’ll still be able to raise money from the marks.

4223

The same as always. There is a Democratic President.

Like he literally has no reason, there are side by sides of him in 2019 and 2021 on the same subject.
Usual GOP bullshit.

4224

Yup

4225

Is it time for the coin?

4226

Why not mint a $50 trillion coin and retire the debt entirely for the conceivable future?

4227

I think you can only use this as an accounting trick to retire debt held by the Federal Reserve, because the Federal Reserve doesn’t really care about the debt they hold and would be happy to retire it in return for a coin which has the effect of balancing the books. Any other holder of US treasuries probably wants to be paid in money they can actually use. Since the Fed holds about $10 trillion, though, there’s a lot of room there.

4228

Yeah ok, so mint a $10 trillion coin. I mean if $1 trillion is fine, and $2 trillion is fine, why not go all the way?

4229

Sure, I would support that.

Presumably you could also repay e.g Social Security that way, but if SS has a surplus they just have to buy more treasuries anyway.