House GOP, the budget and the debt ceiling



The House apparently passed a bill to remove some funding from the IRS that had been included in a bill enacted last session. This repeal will go nowhere in the Democratic Senate. This and other similar performative GOP tantrum legislation should be ignored: it's just wasting taxpayer money and will end up pissing off the electorate that is souring on this kind of naked partisanship.

But what about the budget and the debt ceiling. Kevin Drum has a suggestion:

"Just ignore the debt ceiling and keep writing checks. That's it. Get an OLC opinion stating that (a) the spending in question has already been legally appropriated, and (b) the Constitution says the debt of the United States "shall not be questioned." Then tell Republicans to pound sand. The government will continue operating unless they go to court and get a judge to order the Treasury shut down.

"Would they call this bluff? Going to court would shine a klieg light on the Republican Party's willingness to stop grandma's Social Security check from being issued. They might think twice about that. And if they went ahead anyway, would a court have the balls to order the printing presses shut down? Would they instead toss the case for lack of standing and breathe a sigh of relief? Or rule on the merits in favor of the government?"

Sounds good to me.

https://jabberwocking.com/how-to-handle-the-coming-debt-ceiling-standoff/

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