Chuck Schumer, Chutzpah, and the Crybaby Republicans – By Matthew Cooper (Washington Monthly) / Oct 11 2021
After threatening to break the debt ceiling, GOP senators are whining. Boo-hoo.
There are no longer any Jewish Republicans in the United States Senate. But surely the Republican conference is familiar with chutzpah, once described as the nerve it takes for a child to shoot his parents and then seek the court’s mercy because he’s an orphan. Last week, Republicans showed a lot of chutzpah.
On Thursday, October 7, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer took to the floor after a handful of Republicans—and all of the Democrats—voted to override a Republican filibuster of a measure to raise the debt ceiling. The debt ceiling, of course, is a cap on how much the federal government can borrow to pay for past spending. It’s not, as the GOP scaremongers would have you believe, a shiny black Amex card that the Democrats want to use to pay for confirmation surgery for Oberlin students and critical race theory for preschoolers. It’s just like paying your Visa bill.
The debt ceiling is raised regularly because not raising it means the U.S. would be defaulting on its debts. The collapse of the full faith and credit of the U.S. would be unprecedented. The inability to issue and sell more Treasury bonds and Treasury notes would, as figures from Jamie Dimon to Bernie Sanders have noted, trigger an economic catastrophe. Even if the default only lasted an hour, it would likely raise borrowing costs for the U.S. forever, making the Biden spending proposals look like loose change.
Schumer noted that the GOP had caved—somewhat. After the Republicans had insisted that the only way they’d raised the debt ceiling was through Democratic votes and the cumbersome reconciliation process, McConnell folded. He allowed for a short-term hike in the debt, enough borrowing to last until early December, when Congress would also have to face a government shutdown. After McConnell corralled 11 Republican senators to end a Republican filibuster, Democrats raised the debt ceiling with no Republican votes. Vice President Kamala Harris cast the vote to break the tie.
CONTINUE > https://washingtonmonthly.com/2021/10/11/chuck-schumer-chutzpah-and-the-crybaby-republicans/
