Syndicated columnist Jamie Stiehm: Gathering storm shows House Republicans have no limits
Anxiety mounted here as President Joe Biden met with four congressional leaders last week to discuss the financial crisis coming home to hit Americans. No resolution is in sight.
The global economy is also at stake, facing an emergency if the national debt limit isn't raised by Congress for the president's signing. Much depends on the anchor of the Treasury's "full faith and credit."
It's so simple. All Congress must do is vote to increase the debt ceiling for money (and tax cuts) already spent. Like always. It happens all the time, for presidents of each party, for over 100 years.
That's fair play; Democrats cooperated with former President Donald Trump. But belligerent Republicans won't with Biden. A "clean" bill, with no conditions, is the time-honored custom.
Raising the Treasury debt ceiling should not even be up for discussion. Failure to do so is a recipe for recession and a stock market in free fall. However, a rowdy House Republican crowd whose motto could be "Biden delenda" cares little for you and me. Their treacherous threat to block raising the debt limit adds up to more election denial.
One Lauren Boebert, a Colorado Republican, chillingly shouted on Jan. 6, 2021, "Madam Speaker, I have constituents outside this building right now."
Three of the four men meeting in the Oval could chart a way out of the gathering storm. That includes Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the old war horse who has seen it all come and go.
But House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, captive to the Republican hard right, is not searching for solutions. The grandstanding new speaker is scaring the wits out of those who fear he'd let the Treasury default for the first time in history. Maybe rash McCarthy really would; maybe he's not bluffing.
What's sure is McCarthy's fealty to (about 50) members who are openly pro-Trump and anti-government. He barely won the Speakership. The "Freedom Caucus" put him over the top, wringing concessions like this grave moment of danger. And so, McCarthy crafted a bill with their drastic demands - slashing climate, veterans, students and other social programs - which passed with indicted freshman George Santos, a New York Republican, casting the deciding vote.
McCarthy is passing it off as a legitimate bill to Biden in exchange for the House Republican majority raising the debt ceiling.
News: When a president is elected by the people, you can't undermine all he stands for, everything he passed into law with harsh revenge measures that have no chance in the upper chamber.
The British would say, it's just not "done" to seize the common good to blackmail Biden.
Ancient Rome's last war against Carthage, its main maritime rival, comes to mind. Rome became ruthless.
First, Carthage had to hand over 300 children. Then, trumpets sounded as its army surrendered all weapons to Roman envoys. Then the envoys broke the really bad news - the city must be destroyed: "Carthago delenda est."
Rome really meant it.
Scipio, the Roman general, lay siege to Carthage. The Romans razed and burned the shimmering city by the sea and sold its remaining population into slavery. Scipio wept at the sight.
Did someone say "siege?" I remember a siege of our own Capitol, all too well. The marble temple was built with Rome in mind. It took more than a thousand police officers to defend it.
Trump sent that armed mob to overthrow democracy. Never forget it. McCarthy and his allies are in league with him.
The historian Richard Miles observed that Carthage's fall led to Rome's "bitter discord" at home and civil war. Let's learn from the past for a change. Yet the public does not know the urgency of the peril.
Democrats are failing to get the message out that the economy could crater as early as June 1 - if the Treasury can't pay its bills.
The nation would plunge into unknown straits, with job losses, missed Social Security payments, higher interest rates and other severe consequences. Plus the global fall from grace.
Biden should wisely refuse to choose between two catastrophic choices. His only course is the clean path to raising the debt ceiling, even if he does it alone, without Congress.
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