America The Hostage

Conservatives are holding America's economy hostage. Their demands are extreme.

America is walking up to the edge of default with no deal yet in sight.

Rating institutions have now issued warnings that the US credit rating is at risk. America’s credit rating will be downgraded before we ever default, as it was during the 2011 drawn out debt ceiling debate. And just as happened in 2011, the downgrade will negatively impact America’s economy immediately.

All politicians know this, but only one side sees this as a bad thing. The other side is holding the economy hostage to push forward a MAGA wish list which now includes non-economic issues as fresh demands straining negotiations that are already fraught.

If you think it is unfair or extreme to refer to the situation as hostage taking, here is Matt Gaetz’s own words:

“conservative colleagues for the most part support Limit, Save, Grow, and they don’t feel like we should negotiate with our hostage.”

Ronna McDaniel, the Republican National Committee chairperson, said about the ongoing stalemate and approaching default:

“I think that bodes very well for the Republican field.”

And then there is Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy who, instead of having the House stay and keep working on the debt ceiling, has called for an early recess today, Thursday, and sent all of the House members home for the long weekend.

The same Speaker who claims no fault for the ongoing issue while also refusing to raise the debt ceiling.

Republicans have been demanding the following:

• No tax increases and no removal of the Trump tax cuts that ballooned America’s debt.

• Reducing the budget by 22%.

• Capping increases on each department in the budget to 1% per year. Average annual inflation is over 3%. This creates an ongoing decade of cuts.

• Work requirements on all benefit programs despite the vast majority of recipients already working and the fact that work requirements are proven to not reduce poverty or end reliance on these programs.

• Cancel student loan debt forgiveness.

• Remove the 87,000 IRS agents that Biden added to properly collect taxes. When understaffed, IRS agents tend to avoid auditing complicated wealthy tax returns.

• Repeal Green Tax Incentives.

• Grant benefits to oil and mineral companies in the US which made record profits last year while price gouging Americans.

The reduction in the budget is more devastating than it seems as Republicans not only refuse to reduce the military budget, they want to increase it.

Interest payments on our debt can’t be cut. Social Security has its own tax flow and doesn’t add to the debt. And they’ve claimed they wouldn’t reduce Medicare.

That math is impossible because those are the biggest sections of the budget. To reduce the budget 22% won’t be possible even when gutting most other programs such as SNAP, TANF, and Meals on Wheels, the programs needy Americans rely on daily. Veteran programs would have to be reduced as well.

Whereas the military budget could be cut in half, saving Americans over $400 billion every year all while still having a military budget almost twice as large as China’s, still having the most advanced military in the world, and still having the most powerful allies.

Despite the impossible math and looming deadline, a group of Republicans has introduced additional demands to complicate the process.

One of those demands is wanting “border security” addressed with the debt ceiling, even though it has nothing to do with reigning in the budget.

That is because Republicans are using the debt ceiling as a game. They have only a slim margin of majority in the House, are the minority in the Senate, and don’t have the White House.

There is very little the GOP can force through in their current position, which is also apparent with all of the bills they’ve passed in the House that have not made it past the Senate or the President.

MAGA Republicans have turned a routine debt ceiling limit into a true hostage situation with outrageous demands. The majority of those demands have no chance of happening, and if they hold out, America will default on its debt. 

Defaulting on our debt will cost hundreds of thousands of jobs, potentially even 1 million. It will cause a recession. It would destroy 401ks, and it will take a severe toll on America’s economy overall.

Typically there would be no real risk of default as everyone involved would make a plan, solve the problem and move forward. Just as Republicans did three times during Trump’s Presidency.

Republicans agreed to raise the debt ceiling without any issue, as did Democrats, three different times under Trump. 

Kevin McCarthy even said during Trump’s time in office that the debt ceiling was about paying existing debts, not future spending. Yet now that the debt ceiling needs to be raised under Biden, all the Speaker can talk about is future spending, not how 25% of America’s debt was added under Trump’s administration and how we now have to pay that debt.

It is moments like these that highlight the danger of the MAGA movement. 

January 6th showed the extreme and violent lengths MAGA would go to in order to try and hold power in the United States. Democracy and the Constitution be damned. 

The current debt ceiling fight shows that they are willing to actively hurt their own constituents simply to notch a point scored for their team. It isn’t even about winning. It is about hurting the other side politically more than you hurt yourself. A scorched Earth approach on domestic soil.

This is why so many people talk about our Democracy being on the ballot in 2024. The leader of this movement wants to get back in office.

Trump told Republicans to let a default happen unless they get every single thing they want. He has said he would pardon all of the Jan 6th insurrectionists. He has discussed working to abolish federal agencies designed to keep corruption out of government.

MAGA politicians are holding the entire US economy hostage for ransom when they have only a tiny amount of power.

It should be clear what they would do to our nation if they had majority control once again.