@Tilopa@convo.casa
What is the difference between this and the previous goverment shutdowns where they stop paying people for a week or two, then seem to carry on as normal, at least until they have to do it again.
@zleap @Tilopa
Prior economy hostage taking was only over passing a budget that authorizes government spending for the next fiscal year.
It didn't interfere with selling more Treasury bills to raise cash to pay bills already incurred from prior budgets (with additional deficit spending).
There is a manifestly stupid 1917, possibly unconstitutional, law that requires Congress to raise the limit on how much debt can be incurred, i.e. the ability to sell more T-Bills.
/1
@zleap @Tilopa
This time the GOP is refusing to raise this debt limit making it impossible to pay debts created by previous budgets, debts mandated by prior legislation that the government is legally obliged to incur and therefore pay, debt limit or no debt limit.
This last bit is a 2nd legal way to give the GOP the middle finger and ignore the debt limit law (in addition to the debt limit law violating the 14th Amendment requirement to pay our debts).
/2
@zleap @Tilopa
P.S. Pretty much very country did a lot of deficit spending to deal with the pandemic.
Our additional problem is the GOP under Trump once again cut taxes for their wealthy donors without cutting any spending.
Democrats have rolled back a smallish portion of those cuts and more are set to expire which has reduced the annual deficit, but not the accumulated debt.
@joeinwynnewood @Tilopa@convo.casa
Thank you for all this, complex issue, and scary that the GOP seem to be putting their own political agenda before the country. But I am starting to get a clearer picture.
Thing is if a law was written in 1917, the US was engaged in WWI, so wars such as that do cause a country to incur more debt. So that could explain the 1917 law. So, it makes sense regarding the pandemic too, that the country would incur debt.
So how much of the US population understands all this and also understands what is actually at stake here.?
@zleap @Tilopa
Re: WW I
Yup totally tied up in war expenditures
Re: who gets all this
Excellent question. No where near enough, yet. I say yet because a pretty extensive network of grassroots groups is ramping up activity to make sure people in districts of vulnerable Republican House Members (districts Biden won in '20) at least know who is doing the hostage taking, how insane their demands are & what will happen to the economy if they, metaphorically, kill the hostage.