We Need a Clean Debt Ceiling Bill
For financial responsibility,
Debra Schrishuhn for the PDA National Team
Tell Congress and President Biden to raise the debt ceiling with no budgetary hostage taking.
I hate writing about the perennial debt ceiling fight.
Republicans hold the full faith and credit of the United States hostage to extort draconian budget cuts in exchange for agreeing to pay bills that Congress has already authorized and are payable by law. They conflate two issues—crafting and passing appropriations and paying authorized expenditures—exploiting the ignorance of the public to gin up sympathy for their financial and legislative sleight of hand. All too often, they try to exact heavy cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security during this spurious process, and this year will be no different.
The time and place to negotiate budget appropriations is while the appropriations bills are being crafted and voted on. Raising the debt ceiling is simply paying the bills that have come due.
Domestic negotiations, as with international negotiations, require two partners working in good faith. The House Republicans under Speaker McCarthy are faithless and insincere partners in this aspect of governing.
Call your Representative today. Tell them we need to pass a clean debt ceiling bill with no budgetary hostage taking. Tell them we need to resolve this issue now, not at the last minute when the U.S. is about to default on its financial obligations. Then tell President Biden to demand a clean debt ceiling bill from Congress.
PDA is fighting for progressive policies on many fronts. We will not stand for holding the government hostage by MAGA extremists and their enablers. Volunteer and donate today to give us the resources to hold elected officials accountable. The sooner we get the debt ceiling raised, the sooner we can devote more time to working for human rights and a level playing field for all.
This is from the latest video from Thomas Frank. Please watch it, or at least the part about an hour from the start where he makes his conclusion:
Basically, we need to build a movement out of ordinary people, not elites.
It can’t be about ideological purity, or even about understanding things better than everyone else. You have to have what Larry Goodwin called ideological patience. Don’t judge people, bring them together. The movement needs to be massive enough to overwhelm those against it. But to insist that they know the rhetoric before signing up and be totally on board with everything you want before they can get involved with you is AUTOMATICALLY doomed to failure – total disaster.
That’s what we are doing right now and why we keep losing!
Instead, meet people where they are, see what you can agree on, go from there.
Also, slow down, and LISTEN. Let them tell you what they think and why they think that way. This needs to be done over time.
[As I like to put it, if you wait until there are candidates on the ballot, you have waited to long.]
Also, never forget that you are npt on a level playing field where the best ideas win. You can have the best ideas, but if you can’t get people to accept them it doesn’t matter that your ideas are the best. You have got to learn how to message.
We need legislation eliminating multiple issues in one bill. One issue per bill.. period. All bills must be available for public scrutiny and review. All bills must be read by the legislator voting on it. NO MORE multiple issues snuck into proposed legislation! NO MORE sneaky backroom deals! Also.. All meetings between lobbyists and legislators about proposed legislation and all correspondence from anyone to a legislator about proposed legislation must be filmed, recorded, logged, kept on file in perpetuity, fully transparent, and available to the public online or through written request.