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Joe Biden’s agenda has collided with the Republican threat to explode the economy by forcing the country to default on its debt, and to paraphrase the famously even-keeled president: Hold on to your butts!
- In remarks at the White House Monday morning, Biden warned Americans that the GOP’s filibuster of the debt-limit increase could begin to send the economy into a tailspin as early as this week, and pleaded with Republicans to simply not do that. “Just get out of the way,” he said. “If you don’t want to help save the country, get out of the way, so you don’t destroy it.” He told reporters he “can’t” guarantee that the country won’t default, because it’s “up to Mitch McConnell.”
- With the X date of October 18 fast approaching there are only three ways the hostage crisis ends without default. One, Republicans can simply abandon their filibuster and let Democrats increase the debt limit unilaterally. Two, Democrats could change the filibuster rules and increase the debt limit on their own. Three, Democrats could initiate a brand new budget-reconciliation process, requiring senators to cast hundreds of votes over several days, simply to be able to take an up-or-down vote on increasing the debt limit.
- In recent days, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has called option three a non-starter. In a letter to Democrats today, though, he seemed to allow that neutralizing the Republicans’ default threat might take several days. “We must get a bill to the President’s desk dealing with the debt limit by the end of the week. Period,” he wrote. “Of course, if Leader McConnell and his colleagues continue to obstruct our ability to quickly resolve the debt issue, the Senate will likely be forced to remain in session over the weekend, and possibly through the recess.” ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Keeping score, Republicans would like for the economy to collapse and Biden’s agenda to fail; Democrats are solid on the first part, a bit unclear on the second.
- Schumer’s letter set a new end-of-October deadline for passing Biden’s economic agenda, in order to avoid another lapse in highway funds. “The House and Senate quickly passed a 30-day extension of the expiring Highway infrastructure program on Friday and Saturday….Our new legislative goal must be to enact the [Senate infrastructure bill] and the Build Back Better Act before the new expiration date.”
- That’ll require the Senate, House, and White House to reach an agreement on Build Back Better bill text in a matter of days. For now, though, centrists Democrats whose efforts to sideline Build Back Better have failed spent the weekend gnashing teeth. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) took a break from fundraising with corporate interests that want to kill Build Back Better to say she’s “deeply disappoint[ed] the House blocked their efforts. Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-No Labels) uncorked this
primal scream statement, after other centrists abandoned him. No Labels itself tweeted this sad thing.
The Republican threat to sabotage the economy should galvanize Democrats to abolish the filibuster, pass Biden’s agenda, and protect elections from the people trying to wreck the country. We just need a few Democrats to stop doing the dirty work of the corporate interests who like Republican tax cuts long enough to notice.
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Don’t miss out on the final episode of This Land, out now. Follow along from the beginning as Rebecca uncovers a string of custody battles over Native American children all leading back to powerful conservative forces quietly trying to dismantle American Indian tribal rights. Binge all episodes of This Land now wherever you get your podcasts.
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Meet Frances Haugen, the whistleblower behind the Facebook Files. Haugen revealed her identity in an interview with 60 Minutes Sunday night, during which she explained that her decision to turn over a large cache of internal Facebook documents and internal research to the SEC and the media took shape when the company disbanded its so-called “civic integrity” department in the immediate aftermath of the election, only to become a key incubator of the January 6 insurrection. She alleges that the company has systematically lied to its investors about the progress it’s made combating hate, misinformation, and incitement on the platform, and is scheduled to testify to Congress about these matters this week. In response to her damning allegations, Facebook and all of its affiliated apps went down for most of the workday Monday leaving employees unable to do shit about it.
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- The Pfizer vaccine provides strong protection against hospitalization for months at least, according to a new Lancet study, but shows waning effectiveness against infection (defined by positive PCR test, regardless of symptoms) in that time.
- A power shortage in China threatens to slow the country’s economic growth and the recovery of global supply chains, which could create the ripple effect of retail price increases in the U.S.
- Chinese warplanes have been entering Taiwanese airspace in record numbers, raising international concerns of a mishap that could spiral into a war.
- A pipeline off the coast of southern California spilled over 100,000 gallons of oil into the Pacific Ocean, creating a huge oil slick that reached the beaches of Orange County.
- Top State Department legal adviser Harold Koh distributed an internal memo decrying the Biden administration’s use of a Trump-era public-health authority to expel migrants at the southern border as “illegal” and “inhumane” before phasing out of his daily role and becoming a consultant for the department.
- The American right wing’s public infatuation with Hungary and its authoritarian prime minister, Viktor Orban, was bought and paid for by Viktor Orban.
- A Boogaloo Boi intent on inciting civil war in the U.S. has pleaded guilty to a count of rioting for posing as a Black Lives Matter activist and shooting into a police station.
- Former Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO), who became infamous during his failed 2012 Senate campaign when he claimed women’s bodies have ways of “shutting down” pregnancies that stem from “legitimate rape,” has died at the age of 74.
- Trump-backed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake says she would have tried to steal the 2020 election for Trump by refusing to certify the results if she’d been governor at the time.
- New “massive leak of confidential financial records” of corrupt global power players just dropped.
- New Neanderthal cave chamber in the Rock of Gibraltar sealed shut for 40,000 years just dropped.
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The U.S. Postal Service has begun a pilot program that, if successful and widely implemented, would revive a system of postal banking in the U.S. One Postal Service location in each of four cities Washington, DC, Falls Church, VA, Baltimore, MD, and the Bronx, NY—now allows customers to redeem payroll checks of up to $500 as Visa gift cards, for a flat fee of $5.95. As American Prospect editor David Dayen writes, that significantly undercuts predatory check-cashing companies that typically pocket a percentage of the cash, and is competitive with Walmart, which charges between $4 and $8 for check cashing. Building this out into a true postal banking system would require making the cards much more widely available, reloadable, and protected in the event that they are stolen or misplaced, and would go a long way toward addressing predations and social problems that stem from the large number of unbanked people in the U.S. Louis DeJoy, welcome to the resistance.
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In 2021 mental health is finally a thing, especially as people are not feeling like their normal selves. Let’s support one another and talk openly. Whether or not therapy is your thing, knowing it’s available and affordable is important, for you or perhaps a loved one.
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It’s always a good time to invest in yourself, because you are your greatest asset. See if online therapy is for you by heading to BetterHelp.com/crooked for 10% off your first month.
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