by Senate Republicans are being dispicable as usual. They manage to combine bad intent and pathetic incompetence in a display which must delight all right thinking people. The issue is the debt ceiling. For months Mitch McConnell has asserted both that the debt ceiling shall and must be raised and that he plans to blame Democrats for raising it. Your not supposed to say that out loud Mitch. He tells journalists that he will trick voters into blaming Democrats for doing something which he agrees must be done. There were two fatal flaws with this plan. First, to trick someone, it is best not to tell them you are trying to trick them. Second almost no one is paying attention anyway. But now he has found a way to fail while failing to be
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Robert Waldmann considers the following as important: Debt-ceiling, McConnell, politics, Tricking Voters, US EConomics
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Senate Republicans are being dispicable as usual. They manage to combine bad intent and pathetic incompetence in a display which must delight all right thinking people. The issue is the debt ceiling. For months Mitch McConnell has asserted both that the debt ceiling shall and must be raised and that he plans to blame Democrats for raising it.
Your not supposed to say that out loud Mitch. He tells journalists that he will trick voters into blaming Democrats for doing something which he agrees must be done. There were two fatal flaws with this plan. First, to trick someone, it is best not to tell them you are trying to trick them. Second almost no one is paying attention anyway.
But now he has found a way to fail while failing to be deceitful. His aim was to make Democrats use the reconciliation process to raise the debt ceiling. The Democrats resisted and now he as caved completely, said uncle and bent the knee. However, in a brilliant effort to combine dishonesty, incompetence, self flattery and general idiocy, he has decided to draw out his defeat.
He will vote no on the resolution to pass the bill to raise the debt ceiling. This is already immoral because he thinks the bill must pass and pathetic, because everyone know knows what cloture is knows that the vote on final passage doesn’t matter. But he won’t even vote for cloture to end debate on whether to raise the debt ceiling, as he agrees, it must be raised. Rather he will vote for cloture to end debate on a bill fast tracking the bill to raise the debt ceiling. Rather than voting to end a filibuster, he will vote to end a filibuster on a bill forbidding a future filibuster. He (and his still more pathetic underlings) insist that this means they won the messaging war.
If they really think that, they are insane idiots. No one who notices the maneuver can possibly be tricked. The idea is that someone who understands the difference between voting for cloture to end a debate on a bill fast tracking another bill and voting for cloture to end debate on that other bill might also be convinced that there is some meaningful difference. Of course they all know it amounts to the same thing. I can’t even imagine the level of expertise and utter idiocy they would have to assume any voters they might convince combine. They won’t trick anyone. They won’t even convince themselves or each other that they will trick anyone. But they lie claiming that voteres will be deceived to journalists who know that negligible numbers of voters will be deceived and who also know that the Republican senators who are lying to those journalists know this too.
I must reivew. First they are not interested at all in making good (or even non horrible) policy — they know what must be done but are interested in something else. Second, they don’t even try to hide the fact that they are focused on politics and not on public service. Third they pretend they must know that their intricate yet obvious attempt at deceit might word. Fourth they blatantly lie to journalists claiming to believe that their effort to deceive voters will work.
How can we possibly lose to such blatantly depraved idiots ?
How can reporters listen with straight faces.
Reporters flatter the McConell by calling this dishonest and idiotic effort a fig leaf. I’ve seen fig trees, I’ve seen fig leaves, and, Senator, your maneurver is no fig leaf. Fig leaves actually cover up your junk. What we have here Senior Senator from Kentucky is an olive leaf which doesn’t hide that which I wish I had never had to see.
Also House Republicans are even worse. It has reached the point that even Politico can’t avoid committing actual journalism
“Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) said in an interview. ‘It would be a new precedent to say in a rule in legislation in the House you can set up a 50-vote bill in the Senate. That’s never been done before. It’s dangerous.’
Nonetheless, both parties have supported fast-track exceptions to filibuster rules over the years. “
That is Scalise told a blatant falsehood which demonstrates amazing ignorance, amazing dishonesty, or, almost certainly, both.
Ooops they did it again
“’We should be very principled on things we disagree with, but where we can find areas of agreement I think our country wants us to make progress,’ said Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), who represents a district President Joe Biden won in 2020.
Nonetheless, Bacon will oppose making things easier for Senate Democrats on the debt ceiling because it mixes two unrelated issues. Just like most of his more conservative colleagues.”
I admit that, true to form, Burgess Everett and Olivia Beavers wrote “because …” in their own voice as if they think that absurd quibble is the actual cause of Bacon’s cowardly unpatriotic and despicable voting intention. Of course they believe no such think and the clause ” because it mixes two unrelated issues ” is yet another lie.
Back to McConnell “’This is in the best interest of the country, by avoiding default. I think it’s also in the best interest of Republicans,’ McConnell explained. “Notice here “I think” means “I don’t think”. If he thought something he would assert that it is definitely undeniably true. He is lying about his belief about and the effects of an attempt to deceive.