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till November ?
( SINCE WRITING this McCarthy was ousted by
a majority of the Republicans . STAY TUNED for
more CHAOS AHEAD !!!!!)
Americans are weary but also a bit clueless.That’s what politicians are counting on. I recently said to a friend that TSA agents often live paycheck to paycheck. Their response was “well they’ll get back pay.” The only problem with that attitude is, the landlord, car payments, electric company, cell phone provider, grocery store all need to get paid immediately. Backpay isn’t that helpful.
The shutdown fight continues in November. More childish behavior from Washington to come.
THE BIG QUESTION here is . (1)>>>Did McCarthy really save the "day " but cutting a somewhat deal to avoid the Shutdown ??. We'll it's no exactly over , everything is done under a patch up to avoid anything catastrophic to the American Economy . In the end, the 45-day funding patch that is on track to keep the government open passed with more Democratic than GOP votes, in a repeat of the spring debt vote that first inflamed McCarthy’s opponents. It is probably no surprise that Republican infighting scuttled a stopgap measure on Friday in the House of Representatives, designed to avert a government shutdown on September 30.While the US Congress decides what is essential and what isn’t — the line is typically drawn at safety — no government funds means no government spending. That is the deadline to approve new budget legislation to fund the United States government over the next fiscal year — (2)>>This whole ordeal , the infighting between the MAGA Republicans , the Rino Republicans and liberal Spend and Tax Democrats is very revealing , for the first part this whole "fiasco" pretty much has to do with funding the "war in Ukraine" . McCarthy paved the way to continue funding Ukraine even thru a Government shutdown. Dems approved the CR without an Ukraine aid package on the condition that the speaker of the House will put a separate, independent aid bill on the floor for a vote within the coming months. Also, current levels of aid go unchanged. (3)>>It HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH DOMESTIC SPENDING . For the most part Republican and Democrats have the same foreign policy.Yes, its "Funnel all the money into the military industrial complex", On that they can always agree upon. I'm skeptical. His situation may be precarious, but he did manage to thwart the 'freedom caucus' and avoid the shutdown they were trying to force on purpose. I don't buy into the idea of hoping for a shutdown just so the GOP looks bad. That would hurt an awful lot of Americans. Our money is taxed before we get it, taxed while we use it, & taxed after we die...Yet they still mismanage it to the point of over (4)>>$30 TRILLION in debt, other trillions unaccounted for or lost...But there is no money to keep us going, yet cash is available non-stop for Ukraine.We have no voice. We have no recourse. Our government doesn't fear us or listen to us. They do whatever they want because they know they can. It's taxation without representation. If we lie to our government, it's a felony. If they lie to us, it's for our own good or national security, or some other lie. They do insider-trading, money laundering, secret transactions between other countries, & they turn to their own citizens, shrug and say there isn't enough money & they need more. (5)>>WE ARE IN AN ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP WITH OUR GOVERNMENT. The problem is that McCarthy instead of pandering to a select few repub hold outs he should be reaching across the isle. In order for them to remove him they would need a majority vote which I doubt would happen if he were more willing to negotiate. The way things stand now I see the Dems basically saving his ass so I don't see them being too kind if a motion to vacate were to come up. For the first time in American history , our government was & still is being held hostage by Zelensky , Ukraine, what is at stake is more than 24 billion dollars "aide" package to basically prop up the "economy of Ukraine" , rather than dealing with our own crumbling nation .
Ukraine Deficit Spending .
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| Zelensky is waiting the "next" round of Billions of dollars !? |
McCarthy is GONE but .......
There is (9)>>NO ESCAPING GOVERNMENT CHAOS . Is there a vote for a new speaker? What happens when they can't pick someone? I get that Gaetz and Friends just want to burn the system to the ground, so ousting (10)>>McCarthy has always been part of the plan.If McCarthy does get ousted, a speaker pro tempore, who is picked by McCarthy is assigned to lead Congress.Then a vote for Speaker of the House is taken. Not sure who else really wants the gig at the moment. With how slim the (R) margin is, the Freedom Caucus has an inordinate amount of power as compared against their number of members.When McCarthy was elected, he had to negotiate (and the House vote) a complete set of rules for the session. If (or more likely when) there's a vote for a new Speaker, do those rules remain? Or does the House vote for a new rule package along with a new Speaker? If they can't pick someone, they vote again until they do. Electing a new speaker is only possible if either (a) the GOP votes more or less together with no more than, I think, 4 defectors or (b) some Democrats vote for the new speaker (McCarthy, presumably, but potentially some other "moderate" Republican). Democrats will presumably only do this if they got some very firm (as in, written into the rules package, as no one trusts McCarthy's word) and very significant concessions. And a Speaker who relied on votes from the opposition party would be a very weak Speaker indeed. (11)>> If Gaetz pulls the trigger [ETA: I was slightly out of date, looks like he has] and has three or four like-minded friends, it'll be a shit show, and the exact outcome is hard to predict. One possibility is that McCarthy gets the Ethics Committee to reopen the investigation into the whole underage sex trafficking thing, and maybe even toss Gaetz out of Congress (which could presumably get some Democratic votes). But can that be done while the Speakership is vacant? I doubt it. It reminds me of the debt ceiling charade that happens from time to time. The one percent that control our plutocracy didn't want that debt ceiling thing to happen, so I saw a near 0% chance of it happening. (12)>>Yes, ANOTHER SHUTDOWN IS COMING in 45 DAYS !!!. A government shutdown be as serious as a default. I don't know what the one percent are thinking, but if it was me, I would find that huge deficit troublesome to future financial stability, and would push to have it trimmed as part of any deal.One thing is for sure. The people figuring out what to do don't give a horse's patootie about what the rabble thinks.
NOTES AND COMMENTS : (1)>>>Did McCarthy really save the "day ".What a dumbass. Like, seriously, he had a lot of power and could have stayed in power but instead his ego couldn’t handle making a deal with the Democrats. But he screwed the pooch and threw his support in with the Ukraine Fascists who hate his ass. McCarthy actually made a good faith effort to keep the government open by dealing with the dems. The Dem's wanted the Biden Impeachment off his list , more money to Ukraine That likely would screwed his speakership if it weren't for the impeachment inquiry and then him turning around and trying to make it out like the GOP did all the work to keep the country open.THIS timeline McCarthy spent months unable to get agreement within his own caucus for what the hell to do, ignored the compromise the GOP and the Dems worked out in the Senate, ignored House Dems entirely, and then threw in a last second CR he needed Dems to pass, and then promptly blamed them for the whole thing even as -- and I cannot stress this ENOUGH -- he was unable to even get his own caucus to vote for anything. If I read correctly they needed 5 before. 8 republicans voted to oust him. In think there would have been 5 votes for the motion, but who knows.Turns out being a weakling who promised stuff to both sides and then breaking those promises under pressure wasn’t a great plan.(2)>>This whole ordeal , the infighting between the MAGA Republicans , the Rino Republicans and liberal Spend and Tax Democrats is very revealing. With the U.S. government due to run out of funding at midnight on Saturday, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and the Democratic-controlled Senate are at odds over priorities they would like to include in legislation that would keep the government running in the new fiscal year that starts Oct. 1. The current chaos lies in a flurry of disagreements between the Speaker and the ultra-conservative members of his party on disparate issues ranging from a “woke” military to legislative budget procedures. But both camps agree that if they ever manage to pass the necessary spending bills, the cuts to public services, including education and clean water, should be much higher than those agreed to by the President and House leaders earlier this summer .The Fiscal Responsibility Act passed both chambers of Congress with bipartisan support and was signed by the President in June to avert a cataclysmic default. As part of the deal, the White House and Senate Democrats agreed to demands from McCarthy and his caucus for significant spending cuts. That deal set specific funding levels for defense, Veterans Affairs medical care, and all other non-defense discretionary programs – programs that require annual appropriations from Congress. The deal required about $2 billion in cuts next year to non-defense, non-VA discretionary spending programs. We don’t have to be here right now. President Biden and Speaker McCarthy negotiated and agreed to a budget deal that was intended to prevent any shutdown for the next two years. Not everyone in either party was pleased with all the specifics of the deal, but it passed with large bipartisan support and would keep government services that the public is paying for up and running. While the Senate swiftly moved forward with that agreement, Kevin McCarthy’s House once again slid into disarray and dysfunction.Nonetheless, the manufactured crisis of the past few weeks may soon return because the bill is a short-term deal. The measure passed extends funding only until mid-November, and MAGA Republicans are bent on imposing their fiscal and policy views on the nation.(3)>>It HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH DOMESTIC SPENDING . It's REALLY FUNNY that the Government hang up has nothing to do with domestic spending , but how many more billions can be sent to Ukraine . The MAGA Republicans are right to question how much spending is wasted , how our economy is crashing,while paying for a costly dangerous proxy war . Here is the statistics , Federal budgetary expenditures for the post-9/11 wars include many expenses far beyond direct Congressional war appropriations. The approximately $2.3 trillion in Congressional appropriations through Fiscal Year 2022 for “Overseas Contingency Operations” — which include combat in the post-9/11 war zones as well as international assistance through the State Department and USAID — are just the tip of an iceberg.Other spending directly related to the War on Terror includes additions to the Pentagon “base” budget, about $900 billion through FY2022. And while the U.S. paid for past wars by raising taxes and selling war bonds, the current wars have been paid for almost entirely with borrowed money, on which interest has to be paid. Through FY2022, the U.S. government owes over $1 trillion in interest on these wars. Even if war spending spending ceased immediately, so that expenses for Overseas Contingency Operations and the Pentagon’s base budget went to zero, spending on interest would continue to accrue, reaching at least several trillion dollars in over the next few decades. Domestic spending has gone down in the last 2 decades while military spending has out pace inflation and the national debt . (4)>>$30 TRILLION in debt, other trillions unaccounted for or lost...But there is no money to keep us going. We live in a debt filled economy. Will the US ever pay it off? - Probably unlikely. That's why it's important to leverage debt into cash producing assets, not liabilities. You would think that after having borrowed $30 trillion dollars all of our cities and towns would look like shiny, gleaming utopias. Libraries and schools that make architects blush. High speed rail networks connecting every major city, state of the art airports, brand new bridges and roads, tree lined bike paths in every city, etc...Instead we have growing homeless encampments, rising crime and crumbling infrastructure.Wonderful times. One example of why well managed debt can be a net positive for a country, even with $30T in debt. Because US treasury rate is so low compared to other countries, the US actually has a net profit on US debt owned by foreign countries vs foreign debt owned by US. Breakdown Oversimplified - We are borrowing money from China at a cheap rate to lend money to UK at a higher rate.We also have a massive ROI on domestic spending. E.g. We have a seemingly problematic relationship with defense contractors in which we spend a ridiculous amount on our military. Ignoring the need for military spending arguments, there an incredible fiscal argument for it. That spending goes to companies that use it to manufacture primarily American made products. Paying both suppliers and employees for their materials and services which they in turn pay their employees or buy things from predominately American stores. All of that goes back into the system as tax revenue.I am NOT advocating for military industrial complex, but from a purely financial aspect, the amount borrowed leads to a huge ROI in tax revenue. Now there are huge holes and inefficiencies in all of this, but it's just an example as to how meaningless the debt amount is, in a vacuum. It's 30 trillion dollars funneled straight to the top, this money isn't going into improving anything it just gets thrown around by corrupt a-holes.(5)>>WE ARE IN AN ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP WITH OUR GOVERNMENT. We are all in an abusive relationship with our governments. We need to fight back! I am so sick of this crap! That's because the amount of money circulating has nothing to do with wealth creation or improved living standards. If you want wealth you need to unleash ingenuity and allow people to direct their resources according to their preferences. This boils down to less government involvement in the economy. Politicians continue to screw over America year after year after year. The current shutdown is a great example, the politicians who are still paid get to argue like children for as long as they want without any consequences while workers go without pay for almost a month.They don't even have to worry about not being reelected because each side blames the other and their constituents will vote the same again rather than realizing everyone is at fault and all the old politicians need to be barred from rerunning.That brings me to term limits. There's no good argument against term limits for all senators and congressmen. America is just a large oligarchy with small changes. Like an oligarchy, democracy combo.Schools in America are shit. Not enough funding, outdated curriculum and teaching styles, standardized tests that DO NOT WORK, and an endless list of other issues.Our jury system, while great in theory, just becomes a likeability contest in many cases. Justice is rare in America. Not to mention for profit prisons that are full of people who did drugs, but we don't give them rehab.America is rampant with drugs, and nothing is going to change that because everything we tried failed and the American government doesn't care enough to actually help citizens.Those are just the things I thought of while typing this. There's many more.America is not the best nation in the world ANYMORE, it is horrible. So horrible I don't understand how anyone can bear to say the pledge of allegiance without feeling sick.(6)>>180 billion dollars , of that 180 billion our Washington D.C. war Hawks sent. The whole point is to use taxpayer funds to pay the defense contractors, you think those companies would allow that money to be sent to Ukraine before they collect on it? It's a wealth-transfer right in front of our eyes and most are too oblivious to see it.And if we could find a miraculous way to get out of perpetual conflict the world over, maybe we wouldn't need an $800 billion annual defense budget which would result in less taxation and more cash in peoples pockets, contrary to your sarcastic commentary. I often think we've been in a state of perpetual conflict for so long, that most people can't remember a world before it. It has become the default state of affair. Super sad. Top oversight officials responsible for tracking over $110 billion in U.S. military and economic aid to Ukraine said they would press to deploy auditors and investigators directly into the war zone to beef up monitoring as the scale and scope of American assistance expands.There’s nothing good about this conflict. People are dying and it’s costing money from the aid sent and then once again through the increased cost burden from sanctions. Nobody in a leadership position has stated a rational idea of what a peace deal looks like or a plan to return to normalcy.Know how much the average American’s life will change if Ukraine were to accept a peace deal less than retaking Crimea?None. Bills will still be due, rent and mortgage will still be paid, the sun will still riser, and the world will keep turning. This offers absolutely no benefit to the citizens. (7)>>McCarthy . IF HE DID some SECRET DEAL. Much of official Washington was stunned Saturday when Democrats backed a 45-day stopgap government spending bill that did not contain emergency funding for Ukraine, after the White House said an additional $24 billion in aid was needed. Kevin McCarthy was ousted from his leadership role is likely to have implications far beyond the nation's capital.Republicans and Democrats alike were stoking suspicion about a possible secret Ukraine "side deal" struck by McCarthy and Biden over the weekend as the California Republican raced against the clock to avoid a government shutdown.Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida invoked the alleged Ukraine deal in a speech on the House floor Monday as he began the effort to remove McCarthy from his speaker role. The House voted in favor of the motion on Tuesday in an unprecedented move that left the chamber in chaos. "...CBS News asked him on Sunday, "Are you going to be able to trust Speaker McCarthy when the next deal comes around?" "We just made one about Ukraine," he replied. "So, we'll find out." "The president himself certainly fueled the idea, when CBS News asked him on Sunday, "Are you going to be able to trust Speaker McCarthy when the next deal comes around?" "We just made one about Ukraine," he replied. "So, we'll find out." Biden just throwing straight up hand grenades into the GOP fire. (8)>>Zelenskyy that Ukraine will not receive a single cent . The military industrial complex will continue to launder the billions for as long as the US government keeps “funding Ukraine” Peace and democracy will never be found with a gun or bomb! Ukraine is funded through February, this just means the 24 billion asked for wasn't approved. They are trying to get the Ukrainian bill to the house floor by itself.....Ukraine support is like what 30 to 40 billions per year? US defense budget is like 800 billions per year?So for not even 5% of defense budget they are destroying Russia military and economy for the next decade at least. If Democrats pretended they hated aid to Ukraine, Republicans would love it. Their entire worldview is based on being the opposite of everything Democrats are, do, and support. They don’t even consider the details. If Democrats like it, it’s bad. If Democrats criticize it, it’s good. There’s no greater depth. Mitt Romney, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, and others have children/relatives who worked for Ukrainian energy companies. This war is a money laundering operation and Biden knows if this war ends his family and our entire political elite will be exposed. So what's the solution? Start WW3 over a nonNATO country and use it to postpone the election and institute a FBI mass arrest campaign most likely labeling Trump supporters as idk russian spies or some other bullsht reason.Brace for the inevitable war at the cost of innocent peoples lives caused by heartless and corrupt politicians. I just hope they get their fair slice of despair and loss. Are you greedy?(9)>>NO ESCAPING GOVERNMENT CHAOS . US government in complete chaos, only days after Republican leader joined hands with the Democrats to avert a shutdown. Now the spot left vacant by McCarthy, also leaves the country without a designated second in line to the presidency.The ouster may have potentially triggered a chaos in the house right ahead of the US Presidential Polls to be held in 2024.And while the US avoided one government shutdown for now , in 45 DAYS ANOTHER SHUTDOWN is possible .The two chambers of Congress are deadlocked, with a small group of Republicans in the House of Representatives pushing back against stopgap measures that would at least keep the lights on.The US has been digging their own grave with their horrendous and irresponsible fiscal policy for the last decades.This is just games and muscle flexing - once they come to an agreement, they will continue spending and printing money like there's no tomorrow. The last crash in 2008 was a direct result of adopting the USAs fiscal insanity .Just keep borrowing more if not start printing money until your currency is worthless that is bidenomics Now we are seeing a world with high interest meaning misery for those clinging on to homes that are overpriced on loans that were near zero%when they committed to 30 years mortgages that now the interest rate is crippling .(10)>>McCarthy has always been part of the plan. Kevin McCarthy COOKED his goose when he started to negotiate in "secret" behind closed doors with the Democrats , two things where on the plate , one was more Ukraine Money & to Remove articles of impeachment against Joe Biden . Remember that Democratic senators were increasingly concerned that any deal that Biden strikes with McCarthy will include major concessions to House conservatives that they would find hard to support. Now McCarthy was keeling over, kissing Biden's hand for a quick settlement of Ukraine , which Biden was trying to Push another 24 , billion dollars in aide money.Most of the MAGA Republicans were opposed to. You should realize that Biden aka "big guy" was probably trying to sway McCarthy into softening his position . Nevertheless , McCarthy was playing into the hands of the Democrats , which he was caught and ousted .(11)>> If Gaetz pulls the trigger [ETA: I was slightly out of date, looks like he has] .Gaetz and the others were specifically holding out for actual policy promises McCarthy gave them when he became speaker. He wants single issue spending proposals (ie not omnibus spending bills) and term limits to name a few I seriously doubt that anyone else in their caucus can even come up with the votes to become Speaker. They're just going to flail around, a headless golem, until someone nominates McCarthy again. It's going to be the biggest unforced error in congressional history, and I am so there for it.edit: the possibility that they'll remove Gaetz from congress is icing on the cake.The job is political suicide now. t's worth remembering that the house and senate let themselves be ruled by longstanding traditions which often serve no purpose in an evolving political system. The fillabuster for example is an accident in the rules.A little known rule in the house is the Hastert Rule which states that a speaker should only bring a vote to the floor if it has majority approval from the speakers party. Even if a bill would pass with support from the full house, speakers should only bring votes if they have a majority internally. This builds cohesion within the party and limits the power of any who seek to support minority rule by allowing a small group to overcome the will of the majority.Oh wait. Sorry missed one thing.The Hastert Rule is only 11 years old. Not a longstanding house tradition. It came from the tea party and in just 11 years it's led to the howler monkey minority gaining control by letting them shout how they'll vote things down and the spineless other 200 elected reps roll their eyes. Then the speaker says, welp we don't have a party majority guess we'll never need to vote on this.Yesterday was one of the first times actual bipartisan voting happened in the house in the last decade. Where the speaker called for a vote without having an internal consensus within their own party. Crazy, maybe he got news that if he's willing to be a leader of the house and not just kowtow to political terrorism the 200 people he pretends not to see will vote to vacate a motion to remove him as speaker as long as he, get this, acts as the speaker of the house. Not speaker for the howler monkeys. After Boehner and Ryan quit in disgust and now McCarthy possibly stripped of the gavel, who in their right mind would want the job?(12)>>Yes, ANOTHER SHUTDOWN IS COMING in 45 DAYS !!!. NOVEMBER rolls in and Congress again is at the crossroads , same shenanigans . Geez Louise . . . we just HAD a government shutdown in June, didn't we? We didn't? Okay, that was a near miss. But everyone was predicting a direct strike by an economic asteroid, which would wipe out the USA's credit rating. Because our nation is bad at money. But then . . . in the nick of time . . . President Biden and Kevin McCarthy signed a deal to increase the national debt by Trillions. We were saved from disaster! And this proved that . . . we're actually good at money? A bunch of agencies cut their ratings on US T-Bills anyway. All in all, what a long, strange trip it's been . . . So, what's all this about ANOTHER shutdown? That's what Goldman Sachs predicts. Actually, in this case I kinda do take it seriously. Evidently the US government's budget year ends on September 30th, not on a normal date like you or me, or the companies we work for. And congress is all on summer vacay now, in places like Lahaina and Greece and Australia (It's cooler there, for once). When they – our congress – return, they have to get crackin' IMMEDIATELY on solving the next/new budget crisis. Which is different from, we are told, the June crisis. Goldman's 10 second shutdown overview - Republicans want to spend less, and democrats want to spend more. Got that? Evidently none of this was settled in the June spending limit deal. That was all just a bunch of hooey, and nothing's been fixed. Why doesn't the press ever tell us the truth?Okay . . . I concede that we ARE having fun in the sun like that, right now. And there isn't even a government shutdown yet. Honestly, how much worse could it get?
