Now that Republicans have finished (for the time being, anyway) threatening people’s Social Security checks with their irresponsible economic brinkmanship, they can go back to harassing elderly people in all the usual ways—like convincing them that caravans of rampaging immigrants are at Kroger as we speak bogarting all the Weetabix and vindictively licking every individual grape in the produce aisle.
The whole world is breathing a sigh of relief after Republicans released their hostage mostly intact, but that doesn’t mean we’ve escaped unscathed. Every time this happens—which, to be clear, is only when Republicans control part of Congress and Democrats hold the White House—the markets writhe about like Donald Trump trying to chew his own arm off after getting it stuck in another jumbo tube of Pringles. Not only that, this latest debt-ceiling standoff could have lingering effects that undermine our economy for years.
On Friday, Fitch Ratings announced that it still might downgrade our nation’s credit rating, despite the 11th hour debt ceiling agreement that—for the moment—has forestalled a potentially ruinous default. In short, Fitch stated that the “repeated political standoffs” (aka reckless GOP hostage-taking) that occur whenever Republicans feel compelled to burnish their a-hole bona fides have damaged “confidence in governance on fiscal and debt matters.”
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Politico:
Treasury securities are the lifeblood of financial markets and a benchmark for how everything from municipal debt to credit card rates are priced. A downgrade, which would mark only the second time a ratings service has knocked U.S. bonds from top-tier status, could drive up borrowing costs for consumers, businesses and governments — tightening credit conditions at a time when the economy is already at risk of recession.
That would make for tough political headwinds for Biden, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other 2024 incumbents who waited until the U.S. was days away from default before agreeing to a deal. A similar dynamic influenced S&P’s decision to downgrade the U.S. credit rating in 2011 even after President Barack Obama and Republican leaders averted a debt-limit disaster.
Oh, hey, way to bothsides economic terrorism, Politico! President Biden waited too long to save the economy from Evil Opie and his henchmen. Right. Guess he should have agreed to shiv Grandma from the outset and maybe shove Jimmy Carter out to sea on an ice floe as a good-faith gesture. Again, this keeps happening only because one political party is callous and reckless enough to endanger the global economy in exchange for the right to torment poor people. But it’s nice to see we’re normalizing disingenuous financial fuckery now.
But while Biden rescued lifesaving programs like Social Security and Medicare from the grubby clutches of Reps. Chip Roy, Matt Gaetz, et al.—in part via his brilliant rhetorical checkmate during this year’s State of the Union address—Fitch still appears spooked by our nation’s debts and Republicans’ grim determination to act like toddlers.
“Increased political polarization and partisanship as witnessed by the contested 2020 election, repeated brinkmanship over the debt limit and failure to tackle fiscal challenges from growing mandatory spending has led to rising fiscal deficits and debt burden,” Fitch stated.
Yes, we do face growing mandatory spending. We also face revenue shortfalls as a result of our ongoing—and baffling—billionaire-coddling. But far from being an intractable existential threat to the so-called “entitlement” programs that Republicans keep glowering at like they’re the heaviest dude left on the life raft, these shortfalls are largely the result a stunning lack of imagination on the part of the dream-killer party. In fact, they could be resolved in no time with a few simple pen strokes.
As recently as February, Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders introduced a bill that would protect Social Security through 2096 simply by raising taxes on the—gasp!—wealthy.
Salon:
The Social Security Expansion Act, introduced by Sanders, I-Vt., and Warren, D-Mass., in the Senate and by Reps. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., and Val Hoyle, D-Ore., in the House, would put an additional $2,400 in beneficiaries' pockets each year and ensure the program is fully funded through 2096.
The bill would accomplish this by lifting the cap on the maximum amount of income subject to the Social Security payroll tax—a change that would not raise taxes on the 93% of U.S. households that make $250,000 or less per year, according to an analysis conducted by the Social Security Administration at the request of Sanders.
Currently, annual earnings above $160,200 are not subject to the Social Security payroll tax, which means that millionaires will stop contributing to the program later this month. The legislation proposes lifting this cap and subjecting all income above $250,000 per year to the Social Security payroll tax. If enacted, the bill would have raised more than $3.4 billion from the nation's top 11 highest-paid CEOs alone in 2021, including $2.9 billion from Tesla and Twitter executive Elon Musk.
Tax Elon Musk? What, are we socialists now? Like every titmouse of industry, Musk has an inalienable right to piss his money away on vanity projects. Instead, he has to watch the government waste it on boondoggles like lifesaving low-cost insulin.
But hey, why protect the lives and livelihoods of millions when you can do the same for just a handful of people snoozing the day away on their giant golden dragon hoards? And since there are only a few billionaires, they’re far easier to please than the rabble agitating for their evening gruel.
President Biden played the cards he was dealt and, despite facing a largely untenable situation, he won the hand. But the reason this keeps happening is that voters keep trusting Republicans, who have proved time and again that they’re nothing if not untrustworthy.
Maybe it’s about time their reign of terror came to an end. What do you think?
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