(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . How I learned to stop worrying and love the Debt Ceiling deal (and why I hate it generally) [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-06-02 How both Republican and Democratic Parties may have done something their parties can feel good about without real damage* And also, why, legally, operationally and contextually Initially, I was pretty unhappy with President Biden for even entertaining this discussion; the reasons why are pretty good, But of late I have been of an effort to respect people making choices, doing the actual work, when I haven’t been involved in the sausage making with what they have in the big complex system, unless its a nose cutting off gaffe, or blatantly unconstitutional. I think in this case, President Biden took the safest path, the path in line from his thinking which, more than any previous President, is shaped by recent Capitol Hill policies- he’s been there for literally 50 years, and he clearly held firm on the bulk of Most of what he gave up are tweaks. McCarthy got something, with a very weak hand, as is discussed later The Defense increase is hard to complain about with the current situtations in the world. the WV pipeline is already pretty much done, and part of the political deal unrealized from the IRA deal. Schumer admitted as much, however much we would have wanted a better, or decent deal for the IRA given the drama and overstepping of the Senator from West Virginia, honoring deals is an appropriate action The work requirements I haven’t really looked at, but also appear to be the sort of thing, that can be adjusted with the budget if egregious before they even take hold The big takeaway no one talks about- is the Debt ceiling is punted to 2025 The spending caps are, as with all things Congress, largely ceremonial, as they create new law, overwriting the old everytime they go back to the drawing board. Ultimately though, there are plenty of opportunities to reduce government size, and get more out of existing spending, from Defense to Legal I am of the opinion, shared by a no name Harvard Law Professor who used to go by Leisure Suit Larry: x Exactly right! @RepRaskin is spot on. There’s nothing optional about the 14th Amdt. “Invoking” the 14th isn’t even a thing. It’s not a “get out of jail free” card but a set of handcuffs. It must be obeyed. McCarthy should read it. https://t.co/CdhyDLdGMZ — Laurence Tribe 🇺🇦 ⚖️ (@tribelaw) May 22, 2023 In general this is a huge beef I have with all the American government every Article Branch : spirit of Constitutional law is a mandate, allowing choice in mechanism, but not action. The President’s primary job, is to execute the laws 1. from the Constitution 2. From Congress, in that order In this case Congress passed a budget authorizing spending, creating a debt, which the President has authority and a legal requirement to spend Professor Tribe noted elsewhere, the most recent passage of Congress was the 1974 Control Act- an act whose thrust was to assure that the President WOULD spend all that had been allocated by the budget, and acts as an implicit, not explicit repeal the 1917 law around the debt ceiling As Chief Justice Marshall said in 1803’s Marbury vs Madison, when two laws conflict, it is most emphatically the role of the Courts to say what the law is : While I have the same faith in the Supreme Court to do what is right (morally) most have, I’m reasonably sure no decision would issue that would damage which would permanently damage the United States money machine. In fact generally speaking the thrust of the branch roles- the President and the Courts are empowered, and are specifically supposed to act when Congress cannot or did not. Congress is the strongest but at but the longest to take action, at least in theory and thus the weaker of the co-equal branches are expected to step in They cannot, usually, override a specific act of Congress, but in this case Congress has done nothing. The President continuing to do normal actions to pay bills- the Court would have to issue an order requiring the US to default- no, they’re not going to do that, even if it somehow were what the law demanded unequivocally, which, it does not Finance/Operations Warren Buffet in this conversation, is in his sweet spot as a straight shooter, money man, & corporate tycoon, a place where, to the business world, the perceptions of the reality of the global markets, as much as anything can. It’s stupid to bring this stuff up again and again because the US can simply print money, and it is a terrible waste of time; Congress has many other things to do, decisions to make. What he doesn’t even mention is that the US dollar is the world’s reserve currency, so to pretend the US is in crisis is absurd. In fact, Japan operates with literally twice the debt to GDP ratio of the United States. worldpopulationreview.com/… While the US is in the middle of the worst on this list, the opposite list, of best debt to GDP ratios is a list of countries no country particularly wants to be associated with. The United States is nowhere near the practical limits of it’s credit, crashing the economy, or its ability to pay. All of this should be handled inside of normal budgeting processes. That is really what Congress is supposed to be working on now anyway- Fiscal new year, for the US government is in October, not January, so less than 4 months, including summer breaks, and that budgets are supposed to be completed well before the start of the new year so departments can plan. GOP hypocrisy It would not be unfair to call the GOP the party of debt and deficits. Donald Trump was the single term greatest increase of the debt and deficits, in American history, nearly 8 Trillion in one term, and importantly, was already near that, before Covid hit. Because he sold with the same vigor, that tax cuts magically aid federal revenue, and would decrease the deficits. He also was issuing trillions in QE, to pump money into markets without any innovation. He also railed against any interest rate increase Obama also set records with debt and deficits, due to the financial crisis from his predecessor, but unlike his GOP book ends, lowered the deficits, though not the debt over his term. George W Bush came into office with nominal record budget surpluses from the Clinton adminstration. He promised, for months, that tax cuts, would bring about even more surpluses. It didn’t of course, as GWB turned record surpluses into record deficits in a single term. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/2/2172504/-How-I-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-Debt-Ceiling-deal-and-why-I-hate-it-generally Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/