What does Kevin McCarthy think he’s even doing?
“We lifted the debt limit; we’ve sent it to the Senate; we’ve done our job,” Kevin McCarthy is quoted as saying. Unless your job is to harm the economy, you have not done your job. By a margin of 217-215, Republicans in the House passed their spending cuts bill. They have not operated in good faith; their goal is to force President Biden and Democrats to go along with a bill that will harm people. As New York Times reported, this legislation will be DOA in the Senate, and President Biden has already indicated that he’s not signing it.
To make matters worse, the Republican plan will raise the limit for one year. Why must we keep revisiting this issue? Are they not able to put something together to give some breathing room? It is utterly ridiculous to keep wasting time and money on an issue that will continue to be an issue. One of the biggest agenda items for Republicans is cutting everything else they can to maintain the Trump tax cuts, which benefit the wealthy more than anyone else. In their minds, it makes sense to squeeze Medicaid recipients, the working poor, and the middle class to ensure that the wealthy pay not one dime more. Yet, average people continue to put these self-centered lunatics in office.
Republicans also claim that their spending cuts will reduce inflation and will result in smaller government. Funny, when they held complete power in 2017 and 2018, they increased federal spending, which ultimately increased the deficit. Once again, they say one thing and do exactly the opposite. As is abundantly clear, they merely want to hurt President Biden and rob him of his legacy, even if it means hurting the economy. Not to beat a proverbial dead horse, but Republicans care about no one or nothing but themselves and what they want. Decreasing the deficit and strengthening the economy is going to take many more cuts than Republicans are proposing, though they know full well they had better not even think about touching social security and Medicare, as most of their constituents are using both. We are in a very dangerous place, and Democrats need to shoulder their part of the burden.
While Democrats don’t want to negotiate with Republicans, they have not presented an alternative. Democrats know full well that the Republican bill will hurt some of the most vulnerable in the U.S., yet all they can say is “we’re not going to negotiate.” That’s understandable but give us all something to work with. What good will a stalemate do anyone? President Biden is willing to negotiate after the limit has been raised. New York Times uses as an example the country of Denmark, which consistently raises its limit prior to even reaching it. Why can’t we do that? We know this is coming, but our representatives would rather sit around and wait to duke it out with the other side. Republicans are not trustworthy, but we’re stuck with them. We all need to learn to work together for the good of the country.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years