Set it to a billion trillion quadrillion dollars and be done with it

I picked up my car today. A couple days ago I took it to a repair shop because the alternator wasn’t doing its thing. I took a day to decide I did want to repair it, even though the price was close to the value of the car. Then it took the shop two days to get a new alternator. Timing was getting tight because I had an afternoon doctor appointment I made two months ago and probably couldn’t reschedule for another two months. I was also out of time to call someone to give me a ride. Thankfully, the repair was done in plenty of time and the shop’s shuttle service was reasonably prompt. I got to the appointment in time. Then I went to the grocery. Because I didn’t have a car for three days I was beginning to run out of some foods. Hunter of Daily Kos discussed the debt limit. That’s the amount of money the government is allowed to borrow. Since Congress continually has deficit budgets (I believe the last surplus was in the late years of the Bill Clinton presidency), Congress keeps having to raise the debt limit, causing a fight each time. Which they must do again by mid October. As for this year’s game of chicken...

I'm not sure there's been any past Republican effort as lazily nihilistic as the one that's currently forming, however. The seemingly unanimous take of Senate Republicans, as guided by (of course) Sen. Mitch McConnell, is that the debt ceiling of course needs to be raised as rote responsibility of government—and that Republicans will absolutely block attempts all attempts to do so so that Democrats have to do it without them. It's not a "we must reduce the debt" stance. It's not an attempt to play chicken with the nation's credit rating or an attempt to shut down government this time around. The Republican position this time is that while this paperwork may be a necessary part of government, it's better for Republicans to not do that governing so they're just ... not going to. ... Republicans don't intend to use their position to negotiate anything. They just don't wanna do it so they're not going to. Instead, their plan is to make Democrats do all the governing, then run midterm campaigns blasting Democrats for doing it. CNN reports that McConnell's intent is to make Democrats "own" a newly raised debt ceiling by forcing them do it through unconventional means, after all but a handful of Republican senators wrote a letter declaring both that the nation "should not default on our debts under any circumstances" and that if "Democrats threaten a default" it will be their fault for not ramming it through despite Republican attempts to block it. ... So then, Democrats, just erase it. Don't just boost the cap to whatever number will put us in this same position 10 or so months from now; get rid of it. Set it to a billion trillion quadrillion dollars and be done with it. That also can be done in reconciliation, since Republicans are demanding the Democrats use reconciliation to address it, and will defuse this particular bomb so that Ted Freaking Cruz and friends cannot blackmail government every damn year in order to boost his fundraising numbers.

Kerry Eleveld of Kos reported on a new poll from Quinnipiac University. The poll showed a negative 37%-50% job approval rating of the Supreme Court. That’s the lowest approval rating for the court during the time this poll question has been asked, which started in 2004. It is also a steep drop from July 2020 when the rating was approval 52% to 37%. On Monday Eleveld reported the House Ways and Means committee released their tax plan. They say it will raise $2.9 trillion to almost pay for the $3.5 trillion Build Back Better plan it will be a part of. Other sources say the bill would raise about $2 trillion. Some of the provisions: * Partially roll back the 2017 corporate Republican tax giveaway. * An increase in taxes for those earning income over $400K * A surtax on those earning over $5 million. * An increase in the capital gains tax rate, though smaller than expected. * An increase in the minimum tax on overseas earnings. This will slow down the wealth gap, which is at levels not seen since just before the Great Depression. While the bill is a start many progressives say it doesn’t go far enough. The super rich can still pass their estate to heirs without taxes. Of course, Republicans claim it will hurt the working poor the most. Sure. On Tuesday Eleveld reported on what’s going on with that $3.5 trillion bill. There’s timing – the House is close to a self-imposed deadline while Sen. Joe Manchin complains the bill is being rushed. There’s the price – progressives and Pelosi are saying $3.5 trillion is the minimum while Manchin is saying that’s too much. And there’s the tax hikes, discussed before. Aldous Pennyfarthing of the Kos community wrote that MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan brought out a clip from eight months ago of Manchin saying the infrastructure bill might need to go as high as $4 trillion. At that time he was concerned the package might not be big enough. Pennyfarthing suggests what changed his mind is that the fossil fuel industry provided a generous lining for his pockets. Also on Tuesday Eleveld reported that the For The People Voting Rights Act has been tweaked a bit and is now the Freedom to Vote Act. The tweaking was done to please Manchin and a few other centrist Democrats, though is still robust enough that progressives will still support it. Pleasing Manchin is surely the point. He called it a “step in the right direction.” Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said that Manchin is now discussing the bill with Republican colleagues to see if he can get ten votes from them (a big surprise if he does). Eleveld listed the various components of the bill. It sets minimum standards in several areas – for 15 days of early voting, for vote by mail, for voter IDs. It also requires paper ballots, disclosure of dark money, and protection of election workers. I’m disappointed in one provision. It allows states to choose their method of redistricting, though it lays out federal mapmaking criteria that are enforceable in courts. I had hoped it would demand redistricting be done by independent citizen commissions as I helped make happen here in Michigan. The big question is whether Manchin’s investment in the bill and his inability to get ten Republicans will get him to support ending the filibuster. The independent redistricting commission in Michigan is hard at work creating new maps they’ll bring out for public comment over the next couple months. A few weeks ago the commission went before the state Supreme Court and said can we get an extension on our constitutionally mandated deadline? The court said no. The commission now just says we’re not going to make our deadline. That deadline is next week. They’re not done in time because the census data was late. Bill in Portland, Maine, in his Cheers and Jeers column for Kos, quoted late night commentary. Here’s one:

Being president isn’t a fun job right now. Climate change, murder hornets, and of course the relentlessly-maddening fact that Joe Biden has to ask people to take a life-saving vaccine. It's like if we're skydiving and he has to convince us to open our parachutes. —Jimmy Kimmel