The Debt Ceiling Has to Go

 

So, did you all just see this giving birth to a prize watermelon effort that was put forward to just get a two-month extension on the debt ceiling, an artificial thing that shouldn't even exist because of course a nation who prides itself in the full faith and credit of its honorable debts pays those shits? 

Well, if you visit this blog, of course you did. And if you are a long time visitor, you know why I'm heated--we are past time to abolish  the stupid debt ceiling vote since it is absolutely a necessity and has become a political football. 

And it stays incredibly stupid after all this time: after some stupidly arbitrary legislative interval, responsible people have to once again explain that this is about paying the bills already due, like deciding whether to make your car payment or put at least the minimum on your credit card bill, like we haven't already been through this bullshit before. And the political grandstanders will act like that's not what it is, but say some dumb shit about how it's about new spending, which is nonsense, because of course there will be new spending. Like in a household, you have a mortgage payment and maybe a car loan, but that doesn't mean you don't still buy groceries or pay to fix the roof leak, right?

Life goes on. Needs accumulate. (And by the way--what is all the Marxism/communism talk on the right about tax money for infrastructure? Do they not know how roads and bridges and other communal welfare whatnots have been paid for by civilizations since time out of mind? Oh, wait: "Communism" is just the dirtiest word they know, like a baby learning Momma hollers if she hears them say "shit". It almost means nothing at all. They say it to get a reaction.) 

So anyway, the brilliant Senate strategist Mitch McConnell had his legions primed to not vote at all for the debt ceiling rise, insisting that Democrats had to do it themselves, for reasons that were as made up as his rules for things like whether the Senate can vote on a Supreme Court nominee or not. You know, typical McConnell bullshit. Partisan clown shoe-wearer Ted Cruz forced a full senate vote on cloture to put Republican senators in the awkward position of voting to let a vote take place because he said he wanted Dems to put the debt ceiling rise in the reconciliation. 

It's asinine. If our party wasn't stupid, we'd have already accounted for that. Shit, looking at the games Republicans play, we should have nuked the filibuster and fuck reconciliation, we go vote for what we want. Also too, first off, take away the Uzi from the babies and let's never hear about the debt ceiling again!

But this whole scenario is what radicalizes me: Republicans make me want to do away with the filibuster. Joe Manchin makes me want to do away with the Senate. Now to warm you up for his present stupidity, just a while ago, he was telling us that the events of January 6 made him want to do more bipartisanship.  Now, he wants to be John Thune-level mad at Chuck Schumer for entirely correctly pointing out that the debt ceiling bullshit was a full-on GOP song and dance production number. 

Does he really want to be this person when his state stands to get such a benefit he can run on? "Vote for me, I deliver the goods" is the best thing a person can say, right? But he's talking about those deliverables as "entitlements".  And he wants to be treated like a special critter for wanting to deal with terrorist sympathizers. 

Any institution that could create a cossetted fool like Manchin and even give him veto power over people with any awareness whatsoever of history or current events, has ridiculous issues I don't even know how to fix. Saying stupid shit like the filibuster protects democracy when it stands on the way of fixing our voting rights issue is just ignorant. I don't know what to say about Joe Manchin other than he needs to fix himself. Because he could do the right things for people who need the right things done, or do the wrong things for himself and cronies, and what he's doing right now is only too obvious. 

He could even see he was wrong himself if there was a telescope on his yacht. And an honest mirror close to hand.