Republican Hostage Taking Again

The first thing to know about the “Debt Ceiling” is that it’s artificial and redundant since Congress passed a budget previously that authorized spending. Unlike every other developed nation except Denmark the United States has another step added in the process of funding government known as the “Debt Ceiling” which is simply the limit on the amount of money that the Treasury can borrow to fund government expenditures. The important thing to remember is that the expenditure was previously authorized and has already been committed or spent. It’s unfair to the employees of the government agencies and the companies that the agencies contracted with to then decide not to pay them, which is exactly why the debt ceiling is always raised in the end.

Once the federal budget bill is signed by the President government agencies then, have employees work to provide health care to veterans at VA medical centers, arrange for the construction of F-35 fighters, buy new tires for the vehicles driven by border patrol agents, contract for cleaning of government office buildings and so much more, all within the budget approved by Congress. All those people and companies then did the work they were hired to do. Those employees of both government agencies and private businesses and fairly expect to be paid for their efforts. Failure to allow the Treasury to borrow the money necessary to pay the bills already incurred is both ludicrous and disrespectful to all the workers who will be left unpaid.

Stalling and holding the debt ceiling hostage is a tactic repeatedly used by Republicans over the last 20 years attempting to revisit previously agreed to spending or as in the current case attempting to force the Democratic controlled Senate and White House to agree to accept draconian cuts to Medicare and Social Security. In the past they only thing they’ve been successful at doing is wrecking the nation’s credit rating as was the result of the 2011 standoff which led Standard & Poor's to cut the U.S.'s credit rating, a historic first. Should Congress fail to address the limit this time it will likely cause turmoil in global markets and trigger a worldwide economic downturn.

United States government debt holds a special place in the global economy due to near zero risk of default and is therefore considered “risk free”. The “risk free” status allows the Treasury to borrow at a lower rate than anyone else in the world. If the federal government defaults on its debts that special status will be lost and future borrowing will be more expensive.

Republicans want to change fiscal policy so they should do the responsible thing and pass legislation that does so without disrupting both the U.S. and global economies. Unfortunately for them the reduction in Social Security and Medicare benefits they’re pushing for are not popular with the electorate and certainly not acceptable to President Biden and the Democrat controlled Senate.

Congress should abolish the debt limit and replace it with the simple, common- sense rule that automatically authorizes any borrowing necessary to implement any fiscal legislation that affects the federal deficit. This “Gephardt rule” has been in place at various times in the past and should be made permanent.

As Nobel laureate and economist Paul Krugman puts it Biden and the Democrats should not negotiate with economic terrorists. We know we are going to have to raise the debt ceiling anyway, so why not do it without creating damage to the U.S. and world economies?

Published in the Seguin Gazette – January 25, 2023 

Rich People Are the Only Republican Priority

Just three days after Republicans took three days and 15 rounds of votes to elect Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House they spent less than three hours to pass H.R. 23 which would defund the Internal Revenue Service by $7 billion a year. The vote was 221-210, with all Republicans voting for the bill and all Democrats voting against, three members were absent and one is deceased. 8 members of the Texas delegation co-sponsored the bill.

The significance of this is that the Congressional Budget Office, a non-partisan agency that provides factual budgetary information so that Congress can make informed decisions, reported that the effect of the bill will be the loss of $18.6 billion in tax revenues so the net loss to the government is $11.6 billion. That’s money millionaire tax cheats will get away with not paying because the bill specifically takes the funds from the budget for auditing high income earners. For well over a decade you and I have been more likely to be audited by the IRS than people taking in a $400,000 or more. Late last year Congress passed legislation to significantly increase funding for staff who would be assigned to audit high income earners.

That’s right, upon taking control of the House Republicans first order of business was to protect wealthy tax cheats. Don’t let the bill’s name fool you, while the Nebraska congressman who filed the bill, Adrian Smith, named it the “Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act” nothing in the bill affects audits of small family businesses.

But that’s not the only pro-rich people action in H.R. 23, it also rescinds recently passed legislation that would require the Internal Revenue Service to allow individual and small business tax payers to file their taxes electronically directly instead of forcing us to use TurboTax or some other third party that gets to charge us $35 or more. Yeah, protecting wealthy tax cheats and big corporations’ opportunity to profit on people paying their taxes is the most immediately important legislation Republican members of Congress could think of.

The new Republican majority isn’t done with the taxes yet though; as part of the deal that was agreed to in order for Kevin McCarthy to get the votes he needed win the Speakership he committed to call a vote on H.R. 25 by Georgia Congressman Earl “Buddy” Carter. In another episode of mis-naming bills this one is called the “Fair Tax Act of 2023” and would abolish the Internal Revenue Service, eliminate the tax code, replace income taxes, payroll taxes, and estate and gift taxes with a straight 23% national sales tax. Since most of us spend just about everything we earn that means we’d pay more national sales tax than we currently pay in national income taxes because we get deductions for ourselves, our dependents, mortgage interest, and possibly other things. Now I’ll admit that H.R. 25 has a “monthly tax rebate” that’s supposed to go back to taxpayers “based upon criteria related to family size and poverty guidelines,” but since it abolishes the IRS and doesn’t include any provision for an agency to figure out how money each person should get back or be responsible for sending them checks it just leaves working stiffs like you and me carrying all the weight of funding the federal government while the rich get off cheap.

My dad was right 50 years ago when he told me that the Republican Party is the party of the rich. They’re doing everything they can to prove him right.

 Published in the Seguin Gazette - January 18, 2023

Republican Piety Only For Show

Republican politicians love to tout their faith, Christianity, and piety as if Democrats are somehow an evil cabal set on abolishing their religion. I know lots of faithful, devout Democrats, many are Christian but many are of other faiths as well. The differences I find between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to their faiths is that Democrats are more likely to actually behave as their scriptures instruct. A prime example is “Love thy neighbor as thyself” which appears repeatedly in both the Old and New Testaments. While the Old Testament tends toward a narrow definition of neighbor the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament broaden that definition through parables like the Good Samaritan.

If Republicans like Gov. Greg Abbott were really as devout Catholic he claims to be he wouldn’t have bused over 100 asylum seekers to Washington, D.C. to be dropped off on the street outside the vice presidential residence at the Naval Observatory on Christmas Eve without any warning to officials there. The three busloads of asylum-seeking adults and children left on the street in 18 degree weather, many without coats or other winter gear. It’s just a continuation of Republican political stunts complaining about migrants on the southern border but offering no solutions.

Real people are bitterly suffering for so our governor can score political points in his likely run for president in 2024. He’s already won re-election as governor so it can’t be for that. It’s disappointing that someone who claims to be a practicing Catholic so clearly violates the one of the most fundamental precepts of the faith. The nuns at St. Lawrence the Martyr and the brothers at Archbishop Rummel made it very clear to me during my 12 years of Catholic education that kindness to all those around you even those you don’t know is a foundational principle of the faith. How Greg Abbott doesn’t see the conflict between his faith and his actions is beyond me. It appears that he has allowed his ambition to be president to override the teachings of his faith.

I’m not the first to call Abbott out on his un-Christian behavior. 150 faith leaders of various denominations from around the country, including Republican states like Louisiana, Tennessee, Iowa, Missouri, and West Virginia, sent Gov. Abbott a letter pleading with him to stop his inhumane treatment of asylum-seeking migrants.

The letter is a powerful statement and reads in part “This crisis is not the byproduct of just Democratic or just Republican issues — it is the culmination of decades of decisions, intertwined in a web of blame that seemingly has no end. Many of us have, however, spoken to the migrants who have gotten off your buses. They told us how they fled places like Venezuela, Haiti, or Honduras, where their choices were to die there or chase the promise of a better life in America. Because while the immigrants of today are crossing up to nine borders to the United States, they carry that same spirit of the people who arrived here two hundred years ago on European ships. They face the same issue of death there or struggle here. We ask: which would you choose?”

I know that Republicans are found of asking why Joe Biden hasn’t visited the Mexican border. I’d ask those politicians if they’ve visited with any of the desperate migrants so they can learn about what caused them to flee in fear for their very lives.

Remember we are a nation of immigrants.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - January 4, 2023