"It's hard to keep your feet on the ground
'Cause when we like to party
We only want to get down
Woo-oh, what a feeling
When we're dancing on the ceiling"
The Democrats voted yesterday to suspend the Debt Ceiling but (evil music, please) the Republicans in the Senate are likely to vote it down and the US officially runs out of money at midnight. We still have a few bucks in the checking account – enough to get us through the 18th, according to our Treasury Secretary but millions of jobs are in peril but they will be Biden job losses and that's actually considered a win for the Republicans, who are doing anything they can to damage the Democrats ahead of the 2022 elections.
The House passed the debt ceiling suspension in a 219-212 vote. All Democrats except Reps. Jared Golden of Maine and Kurt Schrader of Oregon supported it. Every Republican but Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois opposed it. The Senate could vote on a short-term appropriations plan Thursday that would fund the government until early December. It would then move to the House for approval where it is expected to pass.
Republicans insist Democrats should raise the limit on their own, leading Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to introduce a motion that would allow the Senate to hike the ceiling with a simple majority. It needed unanimous consent, and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., blocked it on Tuesday. A default could delay Social Security checks and veteran’s benefits, increase borrowing costs and trigger a market sell-off and economic downturn. In 2011, when the Republicans last blocked a borrowing increase, the US lost their AAA credit rating.
Failing to act could spark an economic catastrophe, Yellen also said. “Nearly 50 million seniors could stop receiving Social Security checks for a time. Troops could go unpaid. Millions of families who rely on the monthly child tax credit could see delays. In a matter of days, millions of Americans could be strapped for cash.”
The federal debt is the amount of money the government currently owes for spending on payments such as Social Security, Medicare, military salaries and tax refunds. “Raising the debt ceiling doesn’t authorize additional spending of taxpayer dollars. Instead, when we raise the debt ceiling, we’re effectively agreeing to raise the country’s credit card balance,” Yellen has said.
IN PROGRESS
