The House Freedom Caucus has simple demands for President Joe Biden in return for them agreeing not to blow up the global economy by letting the nation default on its debts. All he has to do is be Donald Trump. Go back to the last Trump budget and undo all the stuff Biden has done as president so far. See? Easy!
They will “consider” raising the nation’s debt ceiling if their 10 conditions are met, said inexplicably unindicted insurrectionist Rep. Scott Perry, but that doesn’t mean they’re being inflexible. Not at all. “Who said red lines? Did anybody say red lines?” Perry rhetorically asked Politico.
Those 10 things: reinstate the FY21 budget for discretionary spending, which was the last Trump budget; end student loan forgiveness; rescind any unspent COVID funding; agree to a cut in any spending not related to defense to 2017 levels in a short-term funding package when government funding runs out in September; rescind all the funding for the climate programs that passed last year; rescind all the funding that the Democratic-controlled Congress passed in the last two years to the extent possible; become a fortuneteller and predict inflation; end all federal regulations on energy production; rescind the $80 billion in funding for the IRS that passed last year; and make all the working people who receive food, housing, and health care assistance do the extra work of proving that they are, indeed, working.
See? Simple!
Biden was not impressed, responding in a tweet the “Extreme MAGA House Republicans are showing us what they value: tax breaks for the rich.”
He spoke briefly about their demands Friday morning as well.
As utterly bonkers as all this is from the maniacs, the basic problem is that they’ve completely coopted Barely Speaker Kevin McCarthy. He serves at their pleasure. They are embedded in all the key committees now, and have the controlling bloc of votes on arguably the most important of all of the committees: Rules. That’s where their utter absurdity become really dangerous.
When it comes to debt ceiling, it’s becoming clearer by the day that Biden really doesn’t have a choice. He has to be prepared to go it alone, and keep the country safe without them.
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