Biden can...should...ignore the GOP's debt suicide attempt

[littlemissmartypants]

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL

Biden can, and should, ignore the GOP’s debt suicide attempt

BY ROBERT HOCKETT* AND LAURENCE TRIBE, OPINION CONTRIBUTORS - 05/18/23 9:00 AM ET

Conservative commentators have undertaken to pen apologetics for radicals. The subject? Our latest adventure in Republican-threatened financial suicide.

The results are surprising. And because these are likely the best spokespeople Republican extortionists will find, the attempted arguments call for engagement.

Take first, then, this remarkable would-be assurance: A minority of “House Republicans’ insistence on negotiations [about raising the debt ceiling] is not hostage taking,” but, “it is the ordinary stuff of politics.”

It is hard to fathom how anyone not either blissfully or willfully unaware of American budgetary history since 1974, not to say contract law and the U.S. Constitution, could so much as suggest such a thing.

For one thing, threatening default upon debt incurred by your own — that is Congress’s own — already legislated current budget in order to gain leverage you don’t democratically have over next year’s budget is anything but “ordinary.” It is overtly threatening the contract rights of literally millions of innocent people, not to mention our own Constitution and prior budget legislation. And it is doing so simply to get your way when you cannot convince your congressional colleagues of the merits of your own budgetary druthers.

Snip...

Much, much more at the link.
https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/4009101-biden-can-and-should-ignore-the-gops-debt-suicide-attempt/

*Robert Hockett is an American lawyer, law professor, and policy advocate. He holds two positions at Cornell University (the Edward Cornell Professor of Law at Cornell Law School and a Professor of Public Affairs), is senior counsel at investment firm Westwood Capital, LLC, and was a Fellow at The Century Foundation think tank. As of 2019, he is advising Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the Green New Deal.
Source:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_C._Hockett

**Laurence Henry Tribe (born October 10, 1941) is an American legal scholar who is a University Professor Emeritus at Harvard University. He previously served as the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard Law School.

Notable former students include:
Barack Obama
Ted Cruz
John Roberts
Elena Kagan
Merrick Garland
Kathleen Sullivan and
Jamie Raskin
Source:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurence_Tribe

Hat Tip to sheshe2



who's post on the Bernie Sanders video

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217933421

lead me here via Spoutable.

https://spoutible.com/thread/7359937

Thanks sheshe2, I love you. ❤️

Imo, this editorial is a true thing of beauty. Enjoy!

❤️pants

[Thunderbeast]

1. Biden's recent commitments to the budget freeze went too far.

Negotiating with suicide bombers never turns out well. Republicans believe that a default will be laid at the feet of the President. Their well-oiled propaganda machine already has the ads and commentary templates written. If they can convince a third of the country that Trump is really STILL the President, spinning this blackmail to their advantage will be a piece of cake!

Are the American people THAT stupid?

Why YES! Yes they seem to be!

[littlemissmartypants]

3. First, I'm a member of the "American people" and I'm not stupid.

That statement might just be insulting to a large swath of the USA, as a matter of fact.

Second, could you please supply a reference for this?

Their well-oiled propaganda machine already has the ads and commentary templates written.

If so, please share. If not, I'm going to interpret this reply as just another editorial. It's definitely a perspective I do not support. But you are most certainly welcome to share your support for it, even at the risk of being perceived as adversarial or ill-informed.

Thanks for your reply.

❤️pants

[Thunderbeast]

4. Collectively...the American people:

Elected a President steeped in criminal activity sponsored by a foreign adversary who rallies the ignorant to act on their racism...often with their favorite toys...GUNS!

Elected a Congress who's current majority sees nothing wrong with crashing the world's economy causing pain, suffering, and likely death of innocent citizens all to continue their goal to drown government in a bathtub.

Elected dozens of governors and state legislatures determined to crush the rights of women and non-white voters in a quest to establish permanent minority power.

Allowed the "Fairness Doctrine" to be dismantled allowing thirty years of raw sewage hate to influence millions of frustrated people into believing that their economic suffering was the fault of brown people...not the captains of industry who looted the economy without consequence.

So yes...The American People are collectively STUPID for making this happen, OR standing by and watching it happen as their neighbors' rights as citizens are eroded by the authoritarian gun humpers, bible-zealots, and oligarchs protecting their "rights" to own ALL of the wealth produced by workers in the economy.

So YES! We, on the left have failed miserably as we watched our democracy spiral into the authoritarian quagmire. While Trump cries about the stolen 2020 election, Democrats were weak and unable to correct the 2000 election theft, and were unable to convict Trump via impeachment when we learned of his electoral collusion in 2016.

Democrats are THE MAJORITY! We have let the archaic powers of gerrymandering, the electoral College, and the tragedy of McConnell's Supreme Court manipulations distort our will.

Democrats MUST fight harder...with all the weapons at our disposal to remove the criminal Republicans from power wherever they hold it. We must impeach corrupt Federalist Society judges by gaining massive majorities in the Senate.

[hlthe2b]

2. More like a "Murder-Suicide" pact and guess how many of us may be murdered...