Senate Republicans block measure to fund government, stave off U.S. default

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Washington Post

Senate Republicans on Monday blocked a bill that would fund the government, provide billions of dollars in hurricane relief and stave off a default in U.S. debts, part of the party’s renewed campaign to undermine President Biden’s broader economic agenda. The GOP’s opposition dealt a death blow to the measure, which had passed the House last week, and now adds to the pressure on Democrats to devise their own path forward ahead of a series of urgent fiscal deadlines.

A failure to address the issues could cause severe financial calamity, the White House has warned, potentially plunging the United States into another recession. The most urgent deadline will be passing a short-term spending bill before midnight on Thursday, otherwise there will be a partial government shutdown on Friday morning. And lawmakers must act before mid-October to raise the debt ceiling, or they could risk a financial calamity that could destabilize global markets.

In the hours before the Monday evening vote, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) staked his party’s position — that Republicans are not willing to vote for any measure that raises or suspends the debt ceiling, even if they have no intentions of shutting down the government in the process. GOP lawmakers feel that raising the borrowing limit, which allows the country to pay its bills, would enable Biden and his Democratic allies to pursue trillions in additional spending and other policy changes they do not support.

“We will support a clean continuing resolution that will prevent a government shutdown,” McConnell said in a speech on the chamber floor. “We will not provide Republican votes for raising the debt limit." Democrats sharply rebuked that reasoning: They pointed to the fact that the country’s debts predate the current debate, arguing that some of its bills, including a roughly $900 billion coronavirus stimulus package adopted in December, had been racked up on a bipartisan basis. Democrats also stressed they had worked with Republicans under President Donald Trump to raise the debt ceiling even when he pursued policies they did not support, including the construction of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/09/27/senate-debt-ceiling-government-shutdown/

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[CentralMass]

1. The GOP are scumbags.

[Evolve Dammit]

2. It's a civil war. They want to burn it all down and re-create 1880.

[rickyhall]

3. Of course they are. Is anybody surprised TFG's band of thugs want crash our democracy?

[monkeyman1]

4. make sure none get pay check's or back pay !

this is on them ! 100 % on Moscow mitch !!

[Smackdown2019]

5. Let's not forget!

Let's not forget how much money we are saving NOW from not being in Afghanistan.....


Let's not forget how petty they are blocked progress, but want to outlandish our bank to bankruptcy six years ago. .

[regnaD kciN]

7. Let's also not forget one other point...

When Gingrich’s Republican Party pulled a similar stunt in 1995, it completely reversed the political environment at the time and effectively brought to an end the ascendancy of the “Republican Revolution,” leading to an easy re-election for Clinton the next year.

Turns out most Americans don’t like having their services taken away just because one party feels like holding a pissing contest.

In other words, as a guy with an empty chair once put it, “Go ahead, make my day.”

[bluestarone]

6. The oath of the 2020 rethuglicons is

Let's DESTROY AMERICA any way we can!

[keithbvadu2]

8. Another republican shutdown possible. Two under Trump?

Another republican shutdown possible. Two under Trump?

[raccoon]

9. I hate Republican Congresspeople. Nt

[Marthe48]

10. I remember having payments due and worrying about not getting to pay it

That was years ago. It got pretty rough and it was hard to see a way clear. But we didn't want to live like that forever. By the mid-80s, we had left behind the anxiety of the 70's. And we never were forced back to it, although several of our relatives continued living hand-to-mouth, living for the moment, and even now, being lucky to have a pot and a window.

I think that the distress of our country defaulting on bills must be a feeling that some people are used to. They walked away from debt in their personal lives, so no big deal if the country falls on its face. I don't want to feel anxious about money in my personal life and I don't want to feel anxiety about money because some amoral control freaks in the senate want to destroy what they were elected to protect.

I am sick of r's operating like the economy is a weapon to control policy. Especially when it is a weapon when Dems are the majority and a plaything when r's have a majority. I imagine that if this was an actual war, r's would pay no attention to The Geneva Convention.