Absolutely nothing to worry about here. They’ve always found a way to raise the debt ceiling and avoid default and they will again.
For one thing, Republicans think Joe Biden is in the middle of 17 different major crises and there’s no way they’re going to get in the way of that by getting blamed for a catastrophic debt default.
For another, the media is doing a great job explaining that this whole thing has got nothing to do with future spending or the infrastructure bills, it’s about paying the debts that are already racked up.
Finally, if necessary, Dems can quickly pass a bill that prevents a filibuster specifically for debt ceiling legislation. Even Sinema and Manchin will quickly get on board with this since it would rescue the country’s finances while also putting the Republicans back on the defensive by making them look nihilistic, obstructionist, and just plain weak.
When you have a two-party system where one party is a coin-op Century BOB machine and the other is an ethnic schizonationalist cult, the fair and expected outcome is complete and total collapse. My advice is to make peace with it. You can root or hope for a better outcome, but understand that you’re making a big ask for something undeserved.
Surprised I haven’t seen any talk in here about the (probably not happening at this point) proposal to give the IRS direct access to see the inflow of any bank account over $600 to help enforce tax collection.
Given how many people I know at virtually all levels of income that do something on the side, I cannot imagine a proposal that would do more to alienate one’s entire voter base, especially when it’s clear they’re throwing up their hands at collecting an extra dime out of Bezos & Co.
And how many of these side businesses are paid through stuff like venmo? My friends and I are constantly using venmo to split checks, pay rent, buy group tickets and stuff–are we going to get scrutinized? $600 just seems stupid low for that kind of thing. Make it $600,000 or something
I mean the debt limit is the clearest example that the filibuster doesn’t work. There’s no give and take, no negotiation with the debt limit. It’s a simple procedural processes, and yet because of the elevated requirements to pass is we get this continuous hostage taking for no reason.
For no valid policy reason. But the Rs love the grandstanding and posturing about the debt. WHY CAN’T BIDEN RUN HIS GOVERNMENT LIKE A BUSINESS OR HOUSEHOLD HERP DERP INSTEAD OF JUST GIVING AWAY MONEY TO “URBAN” WELFARE QUEENS?!?!?!
Nobody ever actually thought the filibuster encouraged bipartisanship. It’s the new “libs hate the troops,” a tool for getting democrats to engage in good faith on nonsense.
Well a consequence of that is that people do believe it if they uncritically read the NYT and WP where writers dutifully amplify Republican talking points. This is where stuff like Stephen King’s “70% of something” comment comes from.
$600 seems too low to be useful (it is a common reporting threshold, but here would just generate too many flags to be useful), but conceptually I support this.
Yes way too low plus it’s doubly annoying when they should be concentrating on taxing the super rich. Instead they are just going to bug people with small transactions while the wealthy do whatever the fuck they want.
Important context on the IRS is that they have been drowned in the bathtub as desired by the Grover Norquist types. They don’t have the people to do the hard work of forensic audits on the big fish. They want data reporting from banks so they can turn loose cheap automation on the data. You’re going to end up with AI IRSbots sending form letters to people about their receipt of bank transfers while billionaires and multimillionaires duck taxes altogether. Fuck that. Any tax collection reform is a failure if it doesn’t start with doubling the budget of the IRS with all of the new auditors working on cases for people with earnings over $1 million.
Yeah that’s what I’m saying, it’s not gonna sit well with the average middle class dude who paid every dime in taxes for their day job but then gets a letter asking for $500 plus penalties for some crappy side work they did, just after reading an article that Bezos now has enough wealth to buy the poorest 20% of countries or something. People would be furious and Biden and congress Dems would take 100% of the blame right in time for the midterms.
The carried interest loophole is still in the fucking bill. There is absolutely nothing in it that scares billionaires. Maybe your local car dealer taking sham deductions will have to straighten up, but there aren’t even provisions to in any way inconvenience the mega-rich.
Looks like it. I am not that familiar with the proposal. I am seeing a plan to double the headcount by 2031. I guess I’ll believe it when I see it. They’ve been contracting for a decade so they have a long way to go just to get back to where they were in 2010.