115th United States Congress: Deuces Dropped

[archibaldcrane]

https://twitter.com/Phil_Mattingly/s...72399170723840

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[Byrthnoth]

Community Health Centers do need funding . . .

[kuronosan]

They're already federally funded. They're throwing that in there so that the Dems will look evil for challenging it.

[Byrthnoth]

No, their funding ran out last fall.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-polit...nters-congress

[Quicklet]

They're releasing the hostages one at a time. First CHIP, now community health centers, next will be the debt ceiling, etc. All intentionally withheld until these moments so they have leverage over the Democrats in funding fights.

[archibaldcrane]

It's just funny that they are releasing hostages in order to continue funding the government at levels defined by the Obama administration.

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[kuronosan]

No, their funding ran out last fall.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-polit...nters-congress

No, I mean this is something that is already federally funded. Not that they have funds.

[Deftscythe]

Maybe this goes without saying and that's why no one's brought it up, but funding the government to March 23rd would be past the deadline for dreamers.

[Byrthnoth]

Maybe this goes without saying and that's why no one's brought it up, but funding the government to March 23rd would be past the deadline for dreamers.

This doesn't matter because the debt ceiling fight will hit in late February and you can bet the Senate's turkle will use it to force an immigration bill through.

The real DACA resolution deadline is late February because Democrats cannot let us hit the debt ceiling and you better believe that Republicans will use that to do the most terrible things imaginable.

[Deftscythe]

Genius policy wonk Paul Ryan once again shows his leadership skills.

[Daydreamer]

This doesn't matter because the debt ceiling fight will hit in late February and you can bet the Senate's turkle will use it to force an immigration bill through.

The real DACA resolution deadline is late February because Democrats cannot let us hit the debt ceiling and you better believe that Republicans will use that to do the most terrible things imaginable.

Can someone please elaborate on this. I am ignorant on this topic, and would like help understanding what the impact of the debt ceiling being hit is and how republicans could be use it to "do the most terrible things imaginable."

[Byrthnoth]

I could be totally wrong, but here is my understanding:

Government shutdowns are caused by the government running out of money that it has already allocated to agencies, so the agencies have no choice but to shut down and send people home. It is a money allocation problem within government.

Debt ceiling is the limit on the amount of money the government can borrow. Think about it like this, the government runs out of cash and can't sell bonds (debt) to get more cash, what are the options?
1) Print money and devalue our currency, which consensus agrees is bad monetary policy that takes the power of the purse from Congress and gives it to the Treasury Secretary. As a result, also potentially illegal
2) Refuse to pay the people who own our debt


We don't really know what will happen if we hit the debt ceiling, but the general consensus is that it's going to be much worse than a government shutdown. "Global financial catastrophe" is commonly thrown around as a probable outcome. We could trigger an international financial meltdown. Point is, when that bill comes all the Democrats are going to vote for it regardless how dirty it is.

[Quicklet]

I'm not sure if I completely understand Byrth's logic, but I think he's saying that Democrats are too responsible to allow the US to default on its debt, so Republicans will use that to force Democrats to accept various policies attached to a spending bill that they otherwise wouldn't.

Frankly Democrats should call the bluff and force them to do a clean debt ceiling raise. But I don't see that happening.

[archibaldcrane]

Lol, Nunes conceeds that the FBI application for the FISA warrant on Carter Page did acknowledge the partisan funding behind the Steele dossier, contradicting, uh, himself.

https://www.politico.com/amp/story/2...mpression=true

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[Zealot]

Trump daring Democrats to shut the government down, says he'd love to see it.

[Prim]

I'm not sure if I completely understand Byrth's logic, but I think he's saying that Democrats are too responsible to allow the US to default on its debt, so Republicans will use that to force Democrats to accept various policies attached to a spending bill that they otherwise wouldn't.

Frankly Democrats should call the bluff and force them to do a clean debt ceiling raise. But I don't see that happening.

Not raising the debt ceiling is the HQ version of a government shutdown. With a “normal” shutdown, government entities lose the authority to pay their bills (like employee salaries) and make purchases. It’s bad,but it’s generally a known quantity of bad.
Defaulting on debt is all that and more- the Treasury can only rely on immediately available funds, mostly income withholdings from companies (thanks to the tax bill, withholdings are lowered so the Treasury hits that limit faster). There’s also emergency measures the Treasury can take for a limited time, but they already dipped into that back in December. Those run out later this month.

When the limit is breached, the Secretary of the Treasury determines who gets paid and who doesn’t. Government employee salaries and pensions usually get chopped first, followed shortly by Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Conflicts in regulations make it unknown who actually gets paid, which means every country we have debt with comes knocking and creates an economic nightmare.

This is all as I understand it since it’s never happened before. Any political party that “forces” those consequences to happen better have something big to show for it. I dunno if I have that kind of faith in Democrats.

[Quicklet]

We all know how this is going to end. Trump will mint the trillion dollar platinum coin, and it will be the biggest, most beautiful platinum coin ever, with his face on it and everything.

[archibaldcrane]

Looks like a huge budget deal breakthrough has occurred, now there's just the question of whether it has the votes.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-polit...deal-explained

Specifically, the agreement would:

Extend funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program for 10 years
Include $80 billion in disaster relief funding
Put $6 billion in funding toward opioid and mental health treatment
Put $5.8 billion toward the bipartisan Child Care and Development Block Grant
Put $4 billion toward the Veterans Administration to rebuild and improve veterans hospitals and clinics
$2 billion toward research at the National Institutes of Health
$20 billion toward infrastructure, including highways, water, wastewater, and rural broadband
$4 billion toward college affordability programs for police officers, teachers, and firefighters
$7 billion in funding and a two-year reauthorization for Community Health Centers

Some Democrats are calling for a promise from Paul Ryan to put whatever DACA bill comes out of the Senate to a vote in the House if they are going to support this budget bill - and Paul Ryan will need their votes because his conservative flank isn't going to go for a 300 billion dollar increase in spending over the next two years (which I believe would push the deficit to over a trillion per year...which honestly is pretty fucking stupid to do when unemployment is at 4.1% and the economy is in good shape...but the die was cast on that with the tax bill so whatever)

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-polit...mise-daca-vote

[kuronosan]

Fucking do it. And don't vote if they don't give on DACA. That's an amazing proposal.

[Salodin]

Won't happen. That stupid Republican rule where they won't put up a vote if the majority of the caucus isn't already for it. I highly doubt they'll leave the tea party out to dry.

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