The Morning Briefing: House Kicks $34 Trillion Debt Can Down the Road Under Cover of Night
Top O’ the Briefing
Happy Thursday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. Regina was convinced that her encyclopedic knowledge of Judge Judy episodes would one day make her the hero of the Parakeet Appreciation Society trivia night.
Whenever anyone complains about Congress not working hard enough, I pity them. I’d rather shake them and very loudly ask, “What is wrong with you?” That gets you removed from a lot of guests though.
I love it when Congress isn’t working because that means they aren’t spending any extra money at the moment. Last night, the House of Representatives worked late, which is never a good sign. That only happens when they’re doing something that will give us all hangovers then next morning whether we drank anything or not.
The debt deal is done and this hangover isn’t going away for a long time. Paula covered it last night:
Speaker Kevin McCarthy was able to cobble together enough Republican votes to push through a bill suspending the $34.1 trillion—TRILLION—debt ceiling. The Fiscal Responsibility Act passed Wednesday night with a 314-117 vote. The bill essentially removes the federal government’s borrowing limit until January 1, 2025—after the next presidential election.
Can we all just pause for a moment and marvel at the ability of our politicians to give names to bills that describe the opposite of what is really happening? They do it with straight faces too. I think “Fiscal Responsibility Act” just knocked “Inflation Reduction Act” out of first place in the running for “Most Inappropriately Named Legislation of the Biden Era.”
The sticker shock on this one is impressive, and I don’t mean that in a good way. On a recent episode of our VIP Gold live chat, “Five O’Clock Somewhere,” my friend Stephen Green and I were discussing the fact that we didn’t use to say the word “trillion” a lot when it came to Congress and spending. I think Barack Obama got everyone a little too used to it. Now the numbers are so big many people are numb about them. It seems like Monopoly money.
Oh wait, they print as much as they want — it is Monopoly money.
Here’s the real kicker line from Paula’s post:
McCarthy called it “the biggest spending cut in American history”
About that.
Since the COVID pandemic, the spending of the American government has been redefining “profligate.” Crowing about this spending cut is a bit misleading. If a guy who weighed 200 lbs. and then ballooned up to 600 lbs. loses 100 lbs., yeah, it’s his biggest weight loss ever. He still weighs 500 lbs. though, which isn’t healthy.
And he’s going to head right back to Dairy Queen.
McCarthy is feeling pretty good right now, but his leadership of this fragile Republican House majority might be in trouble, which Rick discussed in a recent VIP post. It’s a high stakes game and, no matter what the outcome, the American taxpayers still lose.
McCarthy needs to go as speaker, and EVERYONE that voted for it needs to go from the House.
ReplyDeleteAny way you look at it. The American taxpayer takes it in the shorts.
ReplyDeleteMcCarthy already talking about cutting Social Security again I'll stay home.
ReplyDeleteAmericans have the best government that you can get in a swamp filled with the diseased despotic castoffs of other nations.
ReplyDeleteThey are going to bankrupt us like they did the Soviet Union it's going to be America's time in the barrel soon!
ReplyDelete