I don’t mean to panic anyone, but the US breached the debt ceiling on March 16th and the current extension on the Fiscal Year 2017 continuing budget resolution runs out on April 28th. Given the dysfunction within the majority caucuses in the House and the Senate, the fact that the new Administration’s skinny budget has been declared DOA upon its arrival in Congress, and the fact that NO ONE ANYWHERE – INCLUDING THE WHITE HOUSE, CONGRESS, MOST OF THE NEWS MEDIA, AND APPARENTLY MOST AMERICANS!!!!!!! – seems to be paying any attention or talking about this, perhaps we should be just a wee bit concerned.
Have a nice evening!
Corner Stone
Nah.
Ian
They can’t blow shit up and break apart families if the money runs out.
But I am sure they will try to find a way regardless…
schrodingers_cat
They will increase the debt limit, there is R in the White House.
TenguPhule
I’ve only been predicting and panicking about this for months now.
Welcome to my nightmare.
TenguPhule
@schrodingers_cat: Half of the Republicans in the House are batshitinsane teabaggers who don’t care who’s in the whitehouse when it comes to starving government.
Gvg
They should just repeal the debr ceiling. It serves no useful purpose. I realize they won’t because they are stupid blackmailers but I feel like saying it. Debt is authorized when a law is passed saying do this. This cost money. Therefore debt is authorized.
Tom
Regarding Kansas senator Pat Roberts expressed desire to eliminate mammogram coverage (“Just kidding! Can’t you ladies take a joke!”), can we show him saying that, followed by Lily Allen’s live concert rendition of her classic anthem “Fuck you!”?
ruckus
Drumpf will just declare bankruptcy, borrow a billion or two from the Russians (with just a couple of strings) and shit will be fine.
If you believe that l’ve got about a dozen bridges I can let you have, pretty cheap.
Major Major Major Major
Also North Korea is going to nuke Japan.
TenguPhule
And yes, we’re all really really screwed.
Black October is not going to hold a candle to Bloody April.
The people running the government have no idea how a government actually works.
BBA
Only the military and the TTB will be funded. The latter because if the beer stops flowing we’ll have riots on our hands, and even Trump knows that.
Oh, and National Capital Parks, so you won’t see the closed Washington Monument on TV.
debbie
@schrodingers_cat:
The same Republicans who refused to support Trumpcare will refuse to raise the ceiling. They have objected to doing that before.
TenguPhule
@Gvg: Unfortunately that’s a legal theory which has NEVER BEEN TESTED IN COURT.
Uncertainty about the quality of US Debt will literally shake the foundations of the modern civilized world.
I can’t emphasize just how really, really, really, really bad this is.
Adam is, if anything, underreacting.
Baud
C’mon. Ain’t no way Trump isn’t going to mint the trillion dollar platinum Trump coin and put his ugly mug on both sides of it.
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: You’re welcome!
Baud
@TenguPhule:
Huh. No one disputes that Congress can legally repeal the debt ceiling. They won’t but they could.
Elizabelle
Not in the mood for more disaster porn tonight.
I am just happy a wrench has been heaved into Congressional Republicans’ plan to repeal ObamaCare. I am going to be happy about that, for now, and go take a walk.
Corner Stone
@TenguPhule:
Don’t get so exercised about it. Trump is the best deal maker. That’s what he does, makes the very best deals. Even no less than Paulie Blue Eyes told us all that Trump is The Closer in Chief.
Don’t worry, he’s got this.
Jeffro
@debbie: nah…the Freedumb Caucus only cares about the debt ceiling if the president’s black…
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: They need to repeal the law pertaining to it. It was intended as a forcing function to make the states that had seceded to join the Confederacy pay for the Great Rebellion, now doing business as the Civil War. It was never intended to be permanent, nor to function the way it currently does.
Elizabelle
To make you smile: most recently approved comment on Fuck the Fucking New York Times story about GOP “Grasping” for votes.
These truly are the mole people.
With no disrespect to moles. Who probably serve a nobler purpose.
ruemara
Should be interesting. So, do I take my paltry savings out of the bank now and escape to NZ? Because this job isn’t going too great and I have no ties to anything.
Of course, perhaps an in depth posting on why this is bad would explain why it’s so bad.
NotMax
Ralph Fuller’s cartoon from the 1930s of two locomotives racing toward one another pretty much sums it up:
“Tch, tch! What a way to run a railroad!”
TenguPhule
@Baud: I was referring to the “if they authorized the spending, they authorized the debt for it”
It was brought up during the Obama years, but Republicans were threatening to sue if it was tried.
Again, not something you want when the ceiling is only months away (and this is after the usual tricks to stretch it out are used).
Major Major Major Major
@Elizabelle:
Not the Russian ones!
Gravenstone
@Tom: I’d rather sit him down with former KISS drummer Peter Criss. Criss is famously a survivor of male breast cancer. Rare, but it happens. Might be an eye opening conversation for Roberts.
Adam L Silverman
I’ve got to run to the store while my legal tender is still legal tender. You all try not to give in to the urge to buy survival seeds, MREs, and ammo while I’m gone.
TenguPhule
@ruemara: Its like trying to describe the results of the financial equivalent of a full scale nuclear war combined with consecutive Dinosaur killer asteroid strikes.
Sure it can be done, but the average mind simply starts to shut down at the scale of devastation.
Baud
@TenguPhule: Any challenge would be frivolous. Nothing prevents Congress from enacting such a law.
If the president declared that rule unilaterally, then I can see a legitimate challenge.
Gravenstone
@Baud: Nah, he’ll put his wee hands on the obverse. Middle fingers extended.
Pogonip
@ruemara: If you can afford to move to New Zealand, and they’ll let you stay, why not?
ruckus
@Elizabelle:
Moles absolutely serve a far more noble purpose than any republican. I can’t remember what purpose that is right now but it is far, far, that’s three fucking fars more noble.
Baud
I need to buy some bitcoins.
Pogonip
@Elizabelle: They aerate your lawn.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@TenguPhule:
If they just wanted to shrink governments the debt would be no problem at all, it’s they love their own Socialism and demand everyone else do without is why they never can come to any agreement even among themselves.
TenguPhule
@Baud: If the treasury has to do it without Congress repealing the ceiling, we hit uncharted waters. This was the problem during the debt ceiling wars when Obama was President. Given how disfunctional Congress is now, the problem is worse because its even less certain that any action would actually happen on the ceiling at all.
ETA: And this is assuming we have smart people running the treasury who know what needs to be done. Remember who’s in command of that Dept now.
ruckus
@TenguPhule:
I’m eloping with a cockroach, maybe it will improve my chances.
Baud
@TenguPhule: Agree. Wonder what Trump would do if the Freedom Caucus said no.
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: I can hook you up!
TenguPhule
@Baud: Potatoes. Potatoes are going to be the new bitcoin.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: You da man!
Miss Bianca
@Adam L Silverman:
Yeah, but all that stuff’s on sale right now! Since we got an honest-to-God White Man back in the White House, I hear that demand for guns n ammo has gone way down!
Thoughtful David
I remembered and was also puzzled by the lack of any public notice. Had forgotten about the continuing resolution running out, though.
But this a big deal, and we are doomed. The teabaggers see this as their one opportunity, and they’re going to fight like hell for big cuts. But the leadership now realizes they have No one to veto it, so they can’t allow the default.
I hope Nancy Pelosi negotiates an independent counsel on tRump in exchange for Democratic votes on the debt ceiling.
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman: Bitcoins. Email me.
Humdog
@ruemara: sorry to hear you are not liking your new job :(
schrodingers_cat
@ruemara: No country in the world would be immune. If the US sneezes the world catches a cold.
MomSense
@ruemara:
They have more sheep in NZ than people so of course you should go! Please send me some wool.
Gretchen
@Tom: twitter replied with family picture with several female family members and asked how many breasts in his family.
Baud
@Thoughtful David: I can’t imagine their funders want the economy to go kablooey though.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
/Telepathy
randy khan
@TenguPhule:
I read gvg’s comment as saying that the debt ceiling should be repealed entirely, in which case any spending would authorize debt, not that it should be ignored.
Brachiator
@Baud:
Swear to dog that the first time I glanced at this, I read the Freedom Circus.
TenguPhule
@randy khan: I read it as referring to a currently untested legal theory brought up during the Obama years the last time the debt ceiling almost blew up. One of those things I have no wish to experience again.
jl
Thanks for reminder on the debt ceiling.
I’ve been adding to my stocks of gold coins, heirloom seeds, and ammo.
Matt McIrvin
If we managed to avoid this particular meltdown under Obama, surely we’re more likely to avoid it under Trump, since Congress has no particular reason to want to destroy him. They have disagreements over policy but they’re on the same side.
Yarrow
No one is even talking about the debt ceiling because of all the other stuff happening–healthcare, Supreme Court, Russia. Do we have any sense that the administration is aware the debt ceiling is a thing? That we have to do something about it?
rikyrah
We know longer have a Black President.
Suddenly, miraculously, there will be no problem with a clean debt ceiling bill.
randy khan
@TenguPhule:
I seem to have read that the Secretary of the Treasury sent the standard “you need to do something and here’s when and why” letter to Congress, which is a good sign. He’s actually at least somewhat qualified for the job, and as a finance guy probably appreciates the value of not defaulting on a loan.
Pluky
@Tom: Lily Allen? Thought that was Millie Jackson. Perhaps a cover.
randy khan
@Gretchen:
I actually know Senator Roberts a bit because he lives in my neighborhood. That comment is, shall we say, not unexpected. Happily, the vast majority of my other neighbors aren’t like him, and he doesn’t live that close. (He actually lives closer to the house Reince Priebus just bought, which is in the next neighborhood over.)
Baud
Some people have said that the Senate Dems should filibuster the debt ceiling increase to extract concessions. That seems like it would backfire if the GOP has a clean debt ceiling bill. Definitely filibuster if they attach conditions.
trnc
I have no reason to believe Bannon’s sidekick would sign a budget bill that doesn’t do everything he wants, so the question is if there is a veto proof majority in congress to force it through. My guess is no.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: To steal your frequent comment…
Tell the truth.
sigaba
I doubt the Republicans would want the government to default on Trump’s watch, but that intention isn’t dispositive. In the event many of them will have this or that reason for not wanting to vote it up.
What the conservatives will do is bitch and moan and come up with a million reasons to not vote Aye, and Ryan will simply have to pass it with Democratic votes. And Democrats don’t want to see the country destroyed so they’ll go along with it.
Corner Stone
@randy khan:
Steve Mnuchin? Did you just seriously say this about fucking Steve Mnuchin??
randy khan
Of the two, the continuing resolution is something more of a problem than the debt ceiling – it’s sooner (the real debt ceiling date is during the summer) and the crazies may have more opportunity for mischief. I’m kind of expecting that the debt ceiling will end up being a negotiation with Pelosi, although that might doom Ryan the way it doomed Boehner, which would cause me to shed many tears.*
*Of joy. Did you think I meant something else?
Chris
This damn government may yet succeed in turning us into a 1990s-Russia level total economic disaster area.
Trump, who wanted to be America’s Putin, will have ended up being its Yeltsin.
Baud
This was the second version, I believe, without the latest sops to the conservatives.
debbie
@Baud:
A tough thing to do when they’ve wanted to raise it before. It would be an easy opportunity for the GOP to cry, “Politics! Shame!”
sigaba
@Baud: Democrats should demand the debt ceiling be abolished. That’s a concession enough.
randy khan
@Corner Stone:
Sure. He’s a terrible person, but he knows how bad it is for people to default because he exploited it to make his money.
Also, I’m pretty sure he knows that everyone would consider it a black mark for a Treasury Secretary to preside over defaulting on the U.S. debt. None of the billionaires would talk to him.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I know the fight’s not over, but I’m just gonna enjoy this
Baud
@debbie: Right. And if it’s clean, it’s easy for the to call our bluff. Or use it as a legitimate excuse to end the filibuster.
Baud
@sigaba: Nah. We should abolish it ourselves when we are back in the majority. Meanwhile, make noise every time they raise it.
chris
These two charts from Thomas Homer-Dixon offer some chilling thoughts about the probability of bad shit happening under tRump. Financial crisis is on the list along with authoritarianism, war and civil violence. The odds do not look good.
NotMax
@Baud
1947 George Lichty political cartoon suitable for all occasions.
trnc
@sigaba: I assume the dems will vote for it, but I’m not sure there will be enough non-insane republicans to vote with them. But maybe I’m too cynical.
@randy khan – But does Trump listen to Mnuchin when it doesn’t necessarily translate to direct profit for himself?
trollhattan
@Pogonip:
Subsurface HVAC ducting specialists.
JPL
The republicans could choose to stop funding stuff. First to go would be funding for food stamps, and other social services. Of course, they’d blame Obama.
tinkletoes
President TRUMP! is going to negotiate the debt down. 3 phase plan.
JPL
@trnc:
Bannon is running the government now.
Bill Arnold
Question to Adam from a previous thread:
Search fail on my part (only looked for 5 minutes). Do you have a helpful link? (Will continue to look.)
Miss Bianca
@NotMax: Oh my gosh, I remember “Grin and Bear It”! Ran for years in the Detroit Free Press!
Patricia Kayden
@schrodingers_cat: Just like they did for 8 years under Bush.
Kathleen
@Baud: Plus don’t Tethugs want their paychecks, insurance and retirement?
OT but I’m going to refer to Ryan as “Blue Eyed Soulless”. Or Blue Eyed Ghoul. Can’t. decide. Or type on this effing phone.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@Corner Stone:
Right… didn’t he say something during the campaign season about just bargaining down our creditors and getting them to settle for something like a dime on the dollar?
I wonder if he realizes the larger chunk of our national debt is owed to… us…
So all of you poors who are about to lose your medical coverage?
Guess what…
Patricia Kayden
@JPL: They can blame President Obama but no one except their dumb bigoted supporters would believe that. The good thing about President Obama is that he left office with high ratings. He’s only hated by the racist Right.
Mnemosyne
@rikyrah:
This is also my assumption. Trump’s skin color will wash away any hesitation Republicans have about quietly raising the debt ceiling.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@tinkletoes: he did say that, didn’t he?
Thru the Looking Glass...
@Baud:
Well damn! That’s a WIN-WIN!
Nelle
I talked to a staffer in Senator Roberts office who didn’t even attempt to defend the mammogram remark, though it was noted that he had apologized. “I can’t begin to think of what he was thinking.”
Anyway, Senator Roberts was head of the Republican party when Eisenhower was president. I told the staffer to ask the senator how he would answer his father on the whole issue of Russian collusion.
NotMax
Should whatever tainted sausage version of AHCA that makes it to he floor fail to pass, will Dolt 45 tweet about “voter fraud” in the House?
Thru the Looking Glass...
@schrodingers_cat:
Just curious… does that ‘R’ now stand for ‘Russian’?
hovercraft
@Baud:
Gold, Buy Gold, Ron and Rand told me so, it’s very convenient because it’s so easy to transport.
Adam L Silverman
@Yarrow: Mnuchin made a public announcement and called on Congress to act immediately. That’s about it.
tinkletoes
@Thru the Looking Glass…: Yeah but I don’t recall if it was a plan with many phases.
Ian
@Baud:
We should shit our britches in happiness if this occurs. A clean resolution would keep Obama era funding in place another year. No way in F it comes to the floor unless its 11:55pm and Ryan has to beg Pelosi to save his ass.
rikyrah
In another decade, they would have been lynched before the truth had the chance to come out.
Rickey SmileyVerified account @RickeySmiley
3 Black men were falsely accused of raping a teenager, and that teen has been arrested:
Adam L Silverman
@randy khan: Priebus really thinks he’s going to be living in DC past July? That guy needs to be randomly drug tested.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Adam L Silverman: I’d bet even loser washed up disgraced COS to an impeached president is a marketable resume, especially when you’re pals with the Speaker, the interim pResident and and you’ve been part of the Koch orbit for years. Waddaya gonna do, go back to Kenosha and sell shoes?
Adam L Silverman
@trnc: He does listen to Gary Cohen who is his Senior Economic Advisor.
Captain C
@Chris:
With the added drawback that Yeltsin’s drunk antics were at least entertaining if you weren’t counting on him as your President.
trnc
@JPL:
Do’h! You caught one of the rare times I referred to DT directly instead of as Bannon’s sidekick.
hovercraft
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Lies, fake news, I’m a great negotiator, I make the best deals!!
Now watch this VROOM, VROOM.
Captain C
@NotMax: With the added bonus of a tweetstorm of variations on:
Nelle
Sorry – I meant the father of Senator Roberts was head of Republican party during Eisenhower….
JMG
Won’t run out really until August. Dems have the whip, they should use it. Promises in writing of the NAME of the next Supreme Court justice. Stuff like that, but with pledges of personal financial loss if the President breaks his word. Let Wall Street teach them the cold hard facts of life (tribute to Porter Waggoner there).
Adam L Silverman
@Bill Arnold: You’re looking for the SCL Group. That’s the parent company. It is incorporated in Britain. The oligarch is Dimitry Firtash.
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/211152/trump-data-analytics-russian-access
Total time to completion. 1 minute 30 seconds. Total keyword searches: 2; “Cambridge Analytica parent company” and “Ukrainian oligarch cambridge analytica”.
rikyrah
Brandon FriedmanVerified account @BFriedmanDC
It’s almost as if there’s a race to repeal Obamacare and confirm Trump’s Supreme Court justice before the indictments begin
Adam L Silverman
@Thru the Looking Glass…: Yes he did.
rikyrah
he was in charge of the DAMN CAMPAIGN!!
Bradd JaffyVerified account @BraddJaffy
Spicer just demoted Manafort from “campaign staffer” to “a gentleman who was employed by someone for 5 months”
ruemara
@Humdog: I like the work. But let’s just say I was handed a bomb of a project that I could see was flawed from the beginning, which was afore my time. And my thanks for working myself sick to fix it despite lacking the resources or the tools (I had to use my own software at first), I am being dunned. I have a bad habit of being hired by the desperate, berated as I fix the problems and discarded as a terrible employee choice after the crisis has passed. The work is the good part. Sadly, they’ve failed my probation.
@MomSense: Wool it is. It’s either that or Iceland and Iceland is very cold. But has no wool.
I have to side with the general consensus. The lack of negro-ness in Trump will ensure suddenly the debt ceiling is now less of an issue. But I do predict some true believers will be angry enough to protest vote against it and grandstand in front of cameras.
Adam L Silverman
@rikyrah: Ya think.
rikyrah
David Cay JohnstonVerified account @DavidCayJ
GOP lawmakers voted ACA repeal 50x; now have a POTUS who’ll sign repeal & replace, no vote cuz have no replace. FAKE POLITICS. Sad!
MomSense
@ruemara:
Iceland is wonderful. I’ve never been to NZ so I can’t compare the two but I’d move to Iceland in a second.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@randy khan:
Yeah, but previously, both Bush and Obama were guys who paid their debts.
Twitler doesn’t – says “fuck ’em, why worry”. He figures out he’ll clear out at 15 cents on the dollar.
ruemara
@rikyrah: It is time for this bullshit to carry hate crime charges. You should not be able to get away with stoking racial animus with false accusations. Bad enough that the GOP use it to win elections.
@MomSense: My friends are very happy there. I… worry about being cold. When I get one, it can be pretty long and hard.
Adam L Silverman
Ooopsie!
Adam L Silverman
@rikyrah: Some progress at least.
jl
@Adam L Silverman: One of the bad hombres and dangerous desperadoes that the Trumpsters are deporting. I feel safe now.
Adam L Silverman
@jl: It’s those oversize steak knives they give you at steak houses. He’s armed…
Corner Stone
@Adam L Silverman: I saw that earlier. And.I.Don’t.Give.A.Fuck.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Interesting question:
Of course, “major” is subjective. Medicare Part D? the Iraq AUMF itself?
ruemara
@Adam L Silverman: I feel bad for them both but my eyes are rolling at them also.
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman: Wow, that’s a whole new level of stupid.
Chyron HR
@Patricia Kayden:
Be fair, True Progressives hate him too.
Jeffro
This is rich: MSNBC has a breaking news headline:chryon that says “trump done negotiating; demands healthcare vote tomorrow”
Yes !!!!!
Who’s up for one more round of phone calls to members of Congress ?!?
Jeffro
It gets better !!!
Supposedly budget director Mulvaney is saying that if the AHCA is voted down Trump will move on to other things and Obamacare will remain
THANKS DON!!!
It won’t buy you a minute of time off your eventual plea bargain deal Tho
Elizabelle
@Adam L Silverman: Bovine.
That’s the only word I can come up with for such delusional voters. Although cows could claim the edge on intelligence.
Thinking we might see political intervention on this guy’s case. Trump votin’ wife, from Pence’s state.
cain
@ruemara: no way, you need to hit Vietnam or Thailand. You’ll make oodles. :)
Jeffro
I have to believe that people mocking trumps skills as a “closer” are what sent him over the edge, demanding a vote when they clearly do not have the votes
LesGS
@Adam L Silverman: She didn’t expect a leopard to eat *her* face!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Before panicking too much, do remember Conservatives are experts at Cognitive Dissonance. Destroying your retirement, medical and economic opportunities is virtuous in their eyes because they don’t get hurt, but when it’s done to them it’s wicked and immoral. Doubtless there will be much effort excerted by the Freedum Caucus to enact the former and eventually the later will take over. The frightening bit is none of them may know how to raise the debt ceiling.
lollipopguild
@rikyrah: Eventually and sooner than later Manafort will simply cease to exist. Spicer: Who? I do not know this person.
hovercraft
@Jeffro:
I’m going to hold my breath until you do as I say. I won’t take one more breath even if I turn blue!
ETA: That’s the problem, as Hillary said during the debate, you don’t want a president who can be goaded by a tweet. Oh never mind America didn’t listen,
Carry on, just be glad that this time it may get us what we want, the next time he decides to take his ball and go home, it may be something terrible he lets happen.
schrodingers_cat
@Thru the Looking Glass…: Russian, Radical, Republican, Raving Lunatic, your choice.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Translation: He’s talking to someone who’s neither Priebus nor Pence. Bannon, Kushner? the cryogenically preserved head of Roy Cohn? Or Kitty Carlisle?
Van Buren
At my kid’s school they had a raffle and a 4th grader got to be principal for a day. Not mentioning this for any particular reason…
Corner Stone
@Jeffro: ZEGS did his absolute best to anchor Trump to this POS bill. It is going to be absolutely top notch to watch them knife fight to see who gets hung with this failure.
Jeffro
@Corner Stone: I know, right? EPIC!!
Baud
@Corner Stone: Never bring a knife to a Twitter fight.
zach
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The 109th Congress (2004-2006) had huge, united majorities in both houses. Their accomplishments were, um, the border fence, changing daylight savings time, and, uh… unpopular plans for social security reform and deteriorating conditions in Iraq derailed everything. Deja vu.
Edit: Oh! I forgot about legislation favoring compact fluorescent bulbs over incandescent… thankfully LED bulbs are saving us from that mistake now.
Steeplejack (tablet)
Corner Stone alert!
Joy-Ann Reid subbing for Chris Hayes on All In right now.
lollipopguild
@JMG: Shoutout to Porter here! Also Dolly Parton and Duz detergent, “These are the towels we use!”
Jeffro
The funny thing is that as long as he can blame someone else Trump does not give a shit about this bill …
… but to think about how the light will fade from Paul Ryan’s eyes , how his lifelong dream of stripping healthcare away from millions is receding in the distance …ahhh…
And of course Nancy smash is having an absolute blast
Jeffro
@Steeplejack (tablet): that’s what I’m watching right now too
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I have never seen Nancy Pelosi so relaxed or naturally happy as she did trolling Trump and Ryan on this train wreck (and yes I know it still might blow up on us) just now on MSNBC
Baud
Some procedural vote at 8 am tomorrow.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: My thoughts too.
ArchTeryx
I’m the one holding my breath, until this goddamned thing goes down in flames. Then I’ll not be up to feeling much more then relief. I’m just not in much of a triumphalist mood.
Though I will quietly celebrate with my best friend by going out to dinner with him. As poor as I am, it’s well worth it.
Major Major Major Major
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: it’s Thursday, so Kushner and Ivanka are trying to cram his head full of unshitty ideas with the hope that they’ll dribble out during Shabbat.
Baud
@ArchTeryx: Rooting for you.
ArchTeryx
@Baud: Whatever energy I have after I’m not worried about losing health care I’ll put toward your 2020 campaign. ^.^
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Major Major Major Major: long distance from Aspen
Can you imagine skyping or face-timing with Trump, that big stupid mug zooming in and out on you, inadvertent close-ups on on the line where his clown make up runs out toward the hairline
p.a.
Won’t this just mean they’re on to Plan 2: destroy Ocare piecemeal with administrative and appropriations sapping? If anything that way leaves fewer fingerprints come election time.
Pls show me I’m wrong; I want to celebrate too!
gene108
@ruemara:
Short answer: U.S. Treasury bonds/notes set what investors consider to be a risk-free interest rate.
For example, I am deciding whether or not to invest in Company A. My finance guy needs some point of reference to decide how much risk is involved. Step One is to look at what a U.S. Treasury bond pays in interest. That is the minimum rate of interest / appreciation an investment needs to make for taking risk, since the bond is considered risk-free.
If the investment yields more interest/appreciation than a U.S. Treausry bond, than you can decide, if the returns are worth the investment cost and risk.
If U.S. Treausry bonds are no longer risk-free, i.e. the USA defaults in its loan payments, the world financial markets get thrown into chaos.
There are probably other downside risks, such as the U.S. dollar being accepted as currency anywhere in the world and may no longer hold that status.
But creating chaos in the financial markets is the first one that comes to mind.
Baud
@ArchTeryx: Baud!Care! will give Americans the ability to transfer their ailments to a Republican.
Jeffro
Predictions:
1) Trump goes on a Twitter tirade tomorrow night when the world goes down in flames (easy)
2) Trump returns to bashing Ryan as a typical establishment Republican especially during his next several rallies ( he’s going to need a few of them to salve his poor fragile ego )
3) Ryan tries to subtly remind Trump he has problems of his own
…
Profit!
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: you just won the 2020 primary.
JPL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: HHS secretary Price can tank parts of the ACA , and he will.
just sayin
dmsilev
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
“A woman and a black guy got this done last time. Feeling a bit inadequate, white guys?”
ArchTeryx
@p.a.: They can try. The administrative stuff is worrysome but (I’m ashamed to admit) far less threatening to me, since you can’t administratively do away with Medicaid, even Expanded Medicaid. The appropriations stuff, well, if they can’t pass it when it’s in this turkey, how are they going to even pass a budget, let alone one with that hot potato in it yet again? The fight will go on, but it gets a whole lot easier if their main-thrust ACA repeal goes down in such public flames. They’re more likely to just take their billionaire tax cuts, pass them and call it a day.
ArchTeryx
@Baud: My rewrite of The Thing will have the alien specifically attacking and absorbing Republicans. Not only will it remove a lot of them from the gene pool, it will be a self-limiting infection, as it eventually dies of the weight of its own stupidity.
Corner Stone
@Steeplejack (tablet): “Oh, beeehave!”
rikyrah
@debbie:
They pass a clean debt ceiling bill, and Democrats will be ok with that.
Baud
@ArchTeryx: I’m not sure Trump is willing to be responsible for tanking Obamacare.
Elizabelle
@Baud: I’m in. Must we designate the Republican now?
Corner Stone
“YOOOGE! MASSIVE! GIANT FAILURE!”
hahahahahahahahaha
JPL
The RNC pac has released a new ad against Ossoff.. LINK Even though the dems are not in power, Pelosi is held in low esteem here. Republicans never take responsibility for their own screw ups.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Corner Stone:
Hey, I report, you decide.
Baud
@Elizabelle: I believe in choice. Each person gets to choose their own Republican.
Corner Stone
“Hell no you can’t!”
Major Major Major Major
@JPL: their hate-on for pelosi rivals our hate-on for Ryan.
Baud
@Corner Stone: There was a sweet song made with that clip when Obamacare passed.
dmsilev
@Major Major Major Major: Sure, because Pelosi was far more effective at her job than Ryan is proving to be.
Baud
@Baud:
Found it.
https://youtu.be/fwFLeB_953o
p.a.
@Baud: They’ve set the groundwork by claiming it’s failing already. We know 27% of the voting public will claim shit tastes like chocolate ice cream if Rethugs and Fux News say so, and since Nov. 2016 we’ve found out another 20-ish% are almost that stupid too…
rikyrah
Bradd Jaffy
✔
@BraddJaffy
Mulvaney told House GOP Trump is done negotiating & wants a vote tomorrow; if not he’ll move on & leave Obamacare in place, per @AlexNBCNews
schrodingers_cat
Since I have taken a sanyas from TV news can you jackals update me on the status of the Beltway love affair with Paulie blue eyes?
Another Scott
@Gvg: I think there are some details in the Constitution that effectively means the Congress must approve every act of borrowing:
The best solution is to fix the Constitution.
Short of that, bringing back the Gephardt Rule would take care of it.
As usual, the GOP is all about appearances and doesn’t care about sensible policies.
Cheers,
Scott.
raven
Timurid
@raven: He’s going to antagonize the people who will one day be asked to impeach him. Good luck with that…
Glidwrith
Haven’t read the thread yet, but I didn’t forget and figured this would be the true test of getting rid of shitgibbon. Congress has the asshole dead to rights for impeachment. McConnell loves power and he has nothing if it all comes tumbling down. I figure if shitgibbon so much as breathes that he won’t sign off on lifting the ceiling, we will be looking at President Pence in record time.
Eta: shhhh, don’t destroy by beautiful fantasy. Kthxbye.
debbie
@raven:
Can’t wait for the Tweet storm.
MCA1
@Jeffro: Right. Likewise the “normal” Republicans; they’ll have no qualms with raising. Nor will the Democrats. I don’t see this as a real problem unless the King of Mar a Lago starts getting in the way.
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Pretty much. They haven’t been able to pass an appropriation bill in a long time either. All they’ve been able to do is stop stuff.
Adam L Silverman
@Elizabelle: Nope.
Miss Bianca
@rikyrah: “if not, he’ll move on and leave Obamacare in place”? Say Whut?! All that agony, all that posturing, all that “my way or the highway” and then it”s like “ooh, look – TRUCK!”?
Jesus Chicken-Fried Christ…wept.
Adam L Silverman
@Van Buren: I hope that kid ordered recess for at least 15 minutes every hour on the hour and ice cream sundaes only for lunch.
Ruckus
@ruemara:
I have been to NZ. If you can go and stay (I was too old when I visited and decided I’d found my place) it is a wonderful place. There is winter weather there as well, especially on the south island but nothing like Iceland, which I’ve never been to. (I have been sailing in the North Atlantic, above the Arctic Circle in the winter months. It’s fucking cold) What I loved most about NZ was the people. It’s expensive to live there, compared to some places in the US but not bad and the wages are livable. For example there is generally no tipping in restaurants, as people make enough and so don’t have to depend on tips. I was told that in dating, men are not expected to pay for everything, most go dutch, it’s rather equalizing. All in all a great place.
manyakitty
@Adam L Silverman: It’s like you were reading my mind. Yeesh.
Adam L Silverman
@ArchTeryx: Did you get my email about ten days ago?
Ruckus
@ArchTeryx:
I’d bet that would be difficult for them long term. Because they’ve always promised something to their voters, some carrot for any tax cuts. If they just blindly cut taxes for billionaires with nothing to show for it, even if that something is a sham that fucks their voters, I think that won’t go over well. The entire scam was premised on they got to cut the taxes by taking away something/everything from the others. That’s why so many are upset about this piece of shit, non-healthcare bill. All but the very, very diehard assholes can see that they will get equally fucked if this passes.
randy khan
@Adam L Silverman:
The obvious anagram (TM Charles Pierce) already lived in the D.C. area. He just moved to a new house.
But still, it does seem kind of optimistic.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: Don’t start the whole ScarJo thing again.
Adam L Silverman
@Jeffro: The more interesting question is if this dies tomorrow, does Ryan survive? I would expect this type of failure, on a signature issue, to lead to an almost immediate resignation.
Adam L Silverman
@ArchTeryx: They’re not. They’re going to be lucky to pass a CR to take them through to the end of the year.
randy khan
So does this sound like a variation on the “one time offer” negotiating tactic? “Vote for this now or you won’t get the chance again!” It’s baloney, of course, but it has that feel.
J R in WV
@ruckus:
Moles are tiny predators who eat grubs, insect larvae in the top of the soil, eating the roots of plants that are important to us. So, they do perform an active task to support our ecology. If you believe in ecology, as opposed to a perverted Garden of Eden.
Adam L Silverman
@randy khan: From the Trump whisperer at the WaPo:
Jeffro
@Adam L Silverman: that is an interesting question and for once I could not begin to guess…
… but since opining is free I will say he does not resign. Where would he go ? What would he do ? From what other position could he possibly take away peoples health care and entitlements and bring us all back to an Ayn Rand fantasyland?
so my guess is that he stays and we start to see less cooperation with Trump… and maybe it even starts to get through ZEGS’ thick skull that the sooner Trump goes the sooner Pence can be installed, to help get us to that fantasyland.
That’s all I got
Adam L Silverman
Adam L Silverman
@Jeffro: Yep. Under normal circumstances I’d expect him to resign. But we’ve been operating with the gravity shut off for months now. That said, he’ll be a lame duck speaker.
If I were advising the Democrats on strategy, and I’m not, I would recommend the following strategy:
Schumer, with his entire caucus, Pelosi, and as much of her caucus as can fit into the room holds a press conference. Schumer then lays out the following strategy: Since the Senate is the only place that the Democrats have any ability to hold anything up with the filibuster, they should publicly, firmly, and with all sorrow and sadness, announce that there will be no cloture on any legislation or Supreme Court appointments put forward by the majority or the President until the CI investigation concludes. It would, sadly, tragically, be un-American to conduct any business until we know if the Republican Party and its Presidential candidate colluded with a hostile foreign power to steal the Presidency and subvert the Republic and if that collusion is still ongoing. Until such time as the American people can be assured that what the GOP majority and/or the President are proposing or who he is nominating are not in service of Russian strategic objectives, the safest thing we can do to protect the Republic is to do nothing. Clean budgetary continuing resolutions and debt ceiling increases will be passed with no objections. And we call on all right thinking American patriots to stand with us in these darkest of times for our Republic.
Jeffro
Yup… politics as usual
Jeffro
@Adam L Silverman: while your writing is much better it’s almost like we were sharing a couple brainwaves there.
The only thing I would add it as sort of a postscript would be for Schumer to note how many Russia-scandal-related witnesses have been getting bumped off in recent weeks and therefore how time is of the essence in getting people like Manafort and Page sworn in and testifying.
But yeah, all the rest. We are and have been at war – nothing to lose here
Adam L Silverman
@Jeffro: Psychic, psychotic, you get the idea.
He’s already stated Gorsuch will require a cloture vote. At this point you might as well go big.
J R in WV
@ruemara:
I love you, but “@MomSense: Wool it is. It’s either that or Iceland and Iceland is very cold. But has no wool.” is just wrong. Iceland has tons of wool, how do you think they stay warm in the wintertime?
They produce 600 tons of wool annually, which is pretty good for such a small nation. There are 475,000 “winterfed sheep” which I think means sheep not slaughtered in the fall. A big herd if you ask me. Nothing compared to New Zealand, probably. There are 33 million sheep in New Zealand, mostly for mutton/lamb meat production.
And it does snow in NZ, actually.
Adam L Silverman
@J R in WV:
Snu Snu!
manyakitty
@Adam L Silverman: Can you PLEASE send this to both of them? And every other Democrat in DC?
manyakitty
@Adam L Silverman: Death by Snu Snu!
Adam L Silverman
@manyakitty: Feel free to do so if you like.
Adam L Silverman
@manyakitty: That’s what I thought of when I saw the news at the end of December that Serena Williams had gotten engaged. She’s stunning and heavily muscled. Her fiance is a twig:
http://jezebel.com/serena-williams-is-engaged-to-alexis-ohanian-and-i-dont-1790601033
J R in WV
@Adam L Silverman:
Well, yeah, under the thick wool blankets>! Or in the hot springs!!
We have a trip (our first) to Italy booked next May. I read that there are hot springs all over Tuscany. Anyone with personal knowledge of such, please post a name of the spa. Italy seems to be quite volcanic. We won’t have time to visit Sicily to see Etna doing its thing. Durn it.
Also too, WVU lost to Gonzaga, 61-58. So sad, so close yet so far. A good run, though!
J R in WV
@Adam L Silverman:
That is so good!! I think that is brilliant strategy, using a real word, although I liked W’s coinage of strategery, it should be a word, the active practice of strategy.
Adam L Silverman
@J R in WV: Why not both?
manyakitty
@Adam L Silverman: Thank you! Do you want attribution?
@Adam L Silverman: Dang. Godspeed.
Adam L Silverman
@manyakitty: If you feel the need to. I don’t think it’ll make any difference if you do or don’t. I highly doubt any elected officials from either party have any idea who I am. If you decide you need to, email me and I’ll email my official bio across.
manyakitty
@Adam L Silverman: If you don’t care, I won’t worry about it. It’s extremely bad form to take someone else’s words without at least asking. Thanks. It can’t possibly hurt.
Adam L Silverman
@manyakitty: I honestly don’t think it’ll make any difference. I’m just senior enough in the work I’ve done for the Army and DOD to not be senior enough to matter. Let me know if you get anything in the way of a decent, as opposed to pro forma, response.
Adam L Silverman
@manyakitty: Though it does look like Congressman Lieu is also thinking along the same lines:
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: Equivalent of being a field trade officer at the Pentagon?
Omnes Omnibus
@Omnes Omnibus: grade, damn it.
Bill Arnold
@Adam L Silverman:
Humbled, and thanks. :-) Had the first one, not the second.
So there is a plausible Russia->Breitbart money connection. Interesting.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: I got what you meant. No it means I’m just senior enough to screw myself for follow on work, but not senior enough to be able to pick up the phone and just arrange a follow on assignment. Especially in the budget constrained environment that is life under the sequester.
Adam L Silverman
@Bill Arnold: No worries. And yes, there’s a connection. But that connection was there regardless. Bannon’s guy at Breitbart London is a UKIP guy who briefly took over for Farage after the Brexit vote. We know that Farage and UKIP, like all the other neo-Nationalist and anti-EU movements and parties throughout Europe, as well as the Texas and Californian secessionist ones, are covertly or overtly funded by and tied to Putin.
As I keep saying: Coincidence takes a lot of work!
Pogonip
@Omnes Omnibus: Is the field trade officer also in charge of midnight requisitioning? ?