I love it when your own words boomerang back to bit you on your own ass. I guess when your actual job description is professional slinger of bullshit, it can get to be kind of hard to remember what bullshit you slung, and at whom, especially after 12 years.
According to new reporting in The Hill says that two Democratic Senators, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, and Tim Kaine of Virginia called for congress to adopt a proposal that was actually put forth by then GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell a mere dozen years ago. And I can’t wait to hear McConnell’s hammana-hammana-hammana over this one.
The proposal stems back to the Great Debt Ceiling Fight of 2011, when House Republicans literally took us to the warning track of doing a Thelma and Louise on the debt ceiling as a hostage for spending cuts.
McConnell’s proposal, which appears in the Senate version of the bill, which stalled in the House was simple. It gave then President Barack Obama the presidential power to raise the federal debt ceiling with the stroke of a pen. Already knowing what the howls of protest from the GOP House would be, McConnell tried a sneaky little legislative bait-and-switch. His proposal gave the combined chambers of congress the power to override the action, but only with a 2/3 majority. And good luck with that.
Of course McConnell’s bullshit proposal was self serving sophistry. He was just playing to the country, trying to show how balanced forthcoming he was, knowing full well it wouldn’t go anywhere. And it didn’t. The Senate bill never got a vote in the House, and the eventual 11th hour deal with draconian budget cuts didn’t have the proposal included.
But you gotta admit, it’s hilarious when a smart ass has his own scam come back to slap him in the face like an old dead fish. McConnell thought he was sooo fucking cute, making himself look all bipartisan and shit, while knowing the thing was DOA in the House. And now, here we are again, in the middle of a debt ceiling crisis, and it’s Democrats that resurrect McConnell’s debt ceiling zombie, while praising it as a model solution for the current crisis.
I can’t wait to see how Moscow Mitch handles this one. After all, these are his own words, which he personally presented for consideration, and which passed into the bill. How does he walk away from that now? He can always continue to publicly support his proposal, and let his caucus clean up his mess by filibustering the bill. But with both Sinema and Manchin facing difficult reelection campaigns, debt ceiling reform may just be the one thing popular enough to make them vote to carve out an exemption to the filibuster.
But, so what if it passes? It’s still DOA in the Squeaker McCarthy House, right? Maybe, and maybe not. Remember, there are 20+ sane moderate GOP swing district caucus members out there. They’re already unhappy with the McCarthy Agenda. Causing a global economic collapse isn’t what their constituents sent them to DC to accomplish. If six or more of them side with the Democrats for sanity, then it would be a perfect time to take the discharge petition clause of the House rules. And in this case, the more the merrier, since six moderate GOP votes gives McCarthy and the Freedom Caucus a convenient scapegoat for retribution. But 12-15 GOP yea votes takes that toy away.
I don’t know how all of this is going to play out, but it’s going to be as amusing as hell. For me, this is like checking out at the automatic lane at the supermarket, looking down, and finding that a previous customer forgot to grab the $20 in withdrawal they programmed in when they paid. It’s the little things that make life worth living, and my job so much fun. Whatever you do, don’t touch that dial.
I’m not sure his own words matter to him. He pissed on Obama’s Supreme Court nomination in Feb saying it was too close to the November election. Then when the orange fascist was in power he rams a cult member into Ruth Ginsberg’s seat after voting started. Did he care how much howling went on? Nope. And the people in bumfuck holler put him right back in the senate. He knows his country.
I’ve always felt the debt ceiling was Kabuki theater anyway.
There is no way the people who actually run the country (the wealthy donors) are going to let their bought-and-paid-for sock puppets in congress eff with their stock portfolios.
But they won’t give up the chance to do their performance pieces on cable news.