Republicans Are Really Going To Crash The American Economy This Time

[Celerity]

If you think this will be a replay of 2011, where Republicans walked right up to the line and then backed down, that is not a bet I’d be willing to take.

https://thebanter.substack.com/p/republicans-are-really-going-to-crash

https://archive.ph/NCZqI



I had to explain to my daughter Anastasia last week that there’s a very good chance she won’t be able to go to drama camp this summer because we have to save up as much money as possible in case Republicans explode the economy and then shut down the government again a few weeks later. She’s upset but she remembers how bad it got when her mom stopped being paid for over a month four years ago because Trump threw a temper tantrum.

There was no way to sugarcoat it for Anastasia and there is no way to sugarcoat it for you, either: Republicans are going to do everything humanly possible to crash the economy this summer and again going into the fall. Either attempt is bad news on its own. If they manage to pull off both, it would be catastrophic and the GOP has an awful lot of incentive to go for the gold here. I’m going to explain why this is horrendous scenario is inevitable, and more importantly, what we can do about it. Because we need to get ready, and fast.

Why would they do that?

Normally, they wouldn’t go all in on this level of economic destruction, and in the past they haven’t. Republicans usually threaten to crash the global economy, but costing their morbidly rich donors trillions of dollars is bad for business so they relent. However, to the extremists controlling Speaker-in-name-only Kevin McCarthy, the only thing worse than crashing the world economy is another four years of Democrats being in power. Next year is a presidential race and Republicans have exactly two candidates of note: Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis. Neither is particularly exciting. Trump is under so many serious criminal investigations, the likelihood that he will go to prison or flee the country goes up by the day. He’s also a worn-out and, ahem, “low-energy” shadow of his former showman self. I guess adderall can only perk you up for so long?

DeSantis is younger and full of energy. Short, whiny energy. Florida loves him but he’s not exactly the swaggering manly Hollywood-esque studmuffin the GOP base demands. Also, he’s terrible outside of his protective media bubble and it’s impossible to avoid the national spotlight in a presidential race. Matched up against Biden the incumbent, a know quantity with a broad coalition of support, they are not going to fare well and Republicans know it. The planned Hunter Biden smear campaign is a long shot that could very well backfire. The Biden documents “scandal”, at best, will soften the blow for Trump’s criminal theft of nuclear secrets. It certainly won’t be enough to wreck Biden’s re-election. Barring some new massive scandal, something Biden has been very careful to avoid so far, Republicans are going to have to run on externals like the economy, immigration, or Covid. None of which are likely to do well given the current trajectory of the country.

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