I'm sure I'm not the only person so disgusted with yet another debt ceiling standoff that I sort of wish we'd just go ahead and default and see what happens. But no. We are Responsible People™ around here, so the feeling soon passes.
But how about this instead? The latest estimate of when we'll really and truly run out of money is October 18. So starting around, say, October 15 the House passes a bill to raise the debt ceiling and sends it to the Senate. It will be filibustered by Republicans, of course, and fail.
So do it again the next day. And the next. And the next.
Every single day make Republicans filibuster a simple, clean debt ceiling bill while the government slowly gets shut down. Eventually they'll cave, and it will put an end to debt ceiling hostage taking forever.
No one's ever done this, so I assume there are technical reasons it wouldn't work. You'd think they could be overcome, though. Does the majority leader have the authority to send bills to the floor immediately without going through the usual committee process? What else would get in the way of doing this?
Have the US army shoot one Republican Congressperson every day the debt ceiling standoff is not resolved, as domestic enemy?
that ought to do the trick.
Have one Senator from each party pitched off the Capital Dome. Fair, right? Each party could vote for which Senator to go. I assume the Democrats will vote for Manchin and the Republicans will vote for Cruz. By the end of the first day many problems will be solved.
Dark but true!
But if another day, turncoat Sinema goes.
Manching is probably the 2nd last democrat tossed off the root. (schumer would be last.) He's the only democrat who can win in WV. There are a lot of easily replaceable candidates starting with Bernie Sanders.
Is there some reason the debt ceiling increase couldn't have been stuck in the first reconciliation bill thereby avoiding this whole situation.
Democrats don't want to pass it without republican buy in. Why should democrats be responsible for passing approval of money borrowed under Trump's budget?
"Democrats don't want to pass it without republican buy in. .."
So they could have but thought it was to their political advantage not to?
Won't they eventually cave anyway? The more social security checks that fail to go out, the greater the pressure on Republicans to cave.
Are you asking how much flesh should be extracted from Republicans? I think you know the answer to this: No matter how much flesh you take, the conservative echo chamber will blame Democrats for the shutdown. It is a pox on both houses.
I prefer the suggestion of invoking the 14th to unilaterally issue an EO declaring the debt ceiling law contrary to the 14th and therefore unconstitutional. Force Republicans to go to SCOTUS and let the conservatives on the Supreme Court take the blame. Make Americans hate the conservatives on SCOTUS.
Great idea.
We also need some sort of "Byrd rule" or "Hastert rule" type thing where whenever a funding or tax cut bill is passed, it includes increasing the debt limit by the amount of the bill, plus say 20% as a cushion.
Not to mention that for 40 years I've heard "tax cuts will generate more revenue" and then when they lose revenue there's no accountability. Those tax cut bills sold as revenue raisers should include and automatic provision that raises taxes on the wealthy if revenues go down.
Present all these proposals as "fiscally responsible" (since they are) and let the Rs vote against them.
Honestly, let's just eliminate the debt ceiling. I'm assuming Senate Democrats could rule it's not subject to filibuster because of the constitutional obligation to pay our debts, like they did judicial nominees.
It's stupid to have a separate debt ceiling. If there has to be a limit, it should be implicitly raised with each passed budget. It makes no sense to let Congress allocate spending without financing it, and structurally it just adds an extra point of obstruction.
Everybody here makes more sense on this topic than everybody in Congress. Of course our congresscritters are aware of these excellent proposed solutions. They should freakin' do something, and lay the issue to rest for good.
Josh Marshall has just pointed out, in a slight change of topic, that while the conservaDems in the House are forcing a vote on the Bipartisan MiniBill this week, before the Senate even manages to come together on the Build it Back Better Reconciliation Bill, the mini-bill won't become law until Joe Biden SIGNS IT.
So they can get their kabuki bill through Congress, but if that BBB reconciliation thing isn't also passed, there's no guarantee that the mini-bill will ever become law. So they and their constituents will get nothing. Zippo. And they will have deep-sixed their President's agenda, not to mention their slim majorities and seats.
Of course, maybe the conservaDems don't care. Maybe they've all gotten generous offers from Fox News. Fox would love to have some convert Dems in their stable of talking, lying heads. Who knows.
Not true. After 10 days the passed bill becomes law as long as congress is still in session.
But doesn't that 10 day timer only start when Pelosi delivers the bill to the White House?
Biden can't sit on it.....but I think Pelosi can?
Regardless, it will fail to pass Thursday and get voted on again a coule of weeks.
What if Democrats voted to raise the debt limit to, say, $100 trillion? That would quiet things down for a while.
2, maybe even 3 republican presidencies without this particular circus! It would be like a vacation.
The government doesn;t shutdown if we don't raide the debt ceiling. We default on our bonds and all of our other bills and don't pay the workers on time. But the government keeps operating.
There will be no default on bonds; this isn't their first rodeo, sadly. They will prioritize outlays in roughly this order:
1. Bonds.
2. Due bills to contractors.
3. Military and/or Social Security and/or Medicare and/or Medicaid.
4. Everything else except Congressional pay.
5. Congressional pay.
Some parts of government that don't generate much revenue will be shut down.
But, understand, the debt ceiling threat comes *after* the fiscal year ends. If on Oct. 1 there is no budget signed into law, there will be a shutdown except for minimal necessary staffing.
That means all representatives have to come to the House and vote every single day.
And there's your problem.
Call it the "Paying for Trump's give away to millionaires"
Ok, maybe you can come up with a better name so you'll have an acronym.
In the end, to the extent there is an end, Kevin’s idea did not seem necessary: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/senate-reaches-minute-deal-avert-government-shutdown/story?id=80322618