When it convenes this week, Congress will until Friday to avert a government shutdown. It has until mid-month to avoid a catastrophic national default that would destroy our credit rating and probably cause a worldwide recession. It also has to pass our national defense spending bill and would like to push President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda through the Senate by the end of the year. Naturally, the members would also like plenty of days off so they can prepare for and celebrate the holidays.
That sounds like too much work in too little time, especially when you consider that the Republicans will use every stalling tactic they can devise to make the job more difficult. And even if there are enough hours available to get everything done, the Republicans won’t readily supply any votes (except, perhaps, on defense spending), so the Democrats will have to be unified and perhaps prepared to get creative on how to deal with the debt ceiling.
If there’s any compensation for the political observer, it’s that we’ll at least get to see our representatives working long hours. It’s not like they ordinarily give themselves a grueling schedule comparable to the average American worker. Let them earn their money for a change.
Hanging over all of this is the possibility of failure. Each failure would bring with it a different set of political consequences, but all of them are quite serious threats. Defaulting on our debts would be the worst of them, and a government shutdown might be the least problematic, provided it was brief. The Defense spending will get done, but any delay could cause some strong ripples. For the Biden Administration, all of this is paperwork compared to the Build Back Better bill. It represents the heart and core of the president’s agenda, and it’s also the one item that could actually suffer a permanent death. The government may shut down, but not forever, and we could default but we’ll go back to paying our bills before long. But if the Senate doesn’t pass Build Back Better now, it may never get passed, and you can kiss his presidency goodbye.
So, we’re in for a very consequential few weeks in Congress. I hope you’re mentally prepared.
Manchin doesn’t seem to care if Biden’s presidency dies. Lord knows what Sinema thinks.
Sinema is thinking about who is going to give her the most money. Fullstop.
oh my what a surprise. Dumbasses
Scary and precarious times. Seems inevitable that we’re going to have to pass through another time of major constriction before things get better. Meanwhile, one can only hope Machin and Simena aren’t too stupid or selfish to get why it’s important that they keep their word.
I’m guardedly hopeful because Simena seems to have held up a finger to the wind up backed off a bit of her craziness. Not that she’ll renegotiate tax increases on rich people. But I don’t think she wants to die on this particular hill going forward. I’m sure Manchin will demand family leave get stripped out of the Senate version of the bill but he’s signaled that he’ll sign once the legislation conforms to his earlier agreements. But I won’t breathe easy until it’s done. Heck, any one of these senators could get sick or die suddenly and then the whole thing would be off for the foreseeable future.
We,got us at least three screaming in your face issues that must be passed: 1) the debt limit,(2) voting rights and (3) abortion rights. Fail them and kiss our loving asses good bye. The build back better can wait,if ever.
You might have guessed it but good ole Chuckie got up there today at the podium to plead the republicans to keep the government open tomorrow after midnight. So far Cruz and company said fuck you Chuckie. So we knew this was going to happen and we keep that asshole as our leader in the senate anyway. And we are on the way to exceeding the debt limit and The Whole World is looking at you Chuckie. Whatcha gonna do? Anything?