richest country on earth immediately stops paying its entire civil service when there’s a disagreement on the budget which is something that literally only happens in the USA as far as I know.
I’m sure there’s some 🤓☝️ reason like the govt runs on a blockchain that uses proof-of-anti-communist-law-passing to mine new blocks or something
has anyone else seen this thing where apparently one of trump’s demands of republicans is to suspend the debt ceiling for 2 years. republicans in “safe” districts said no, so trump told them to suspend it for 5 years (double down from president deals lol). they said no to that as well and apparently trump is threatening to primary all of the deficit hawks in 2 years.
so i guess as of now, there’s a temporary funding of the government coming out of the house about T-minus 2 hours to shutdown with no suspension of the debt ceiling. probably the senate will just accept and biden will sign, but the conservative faction infighting over this seems like its gonna be significant.
Congress adopted a limit on the amount of money the government can borrow in 1939, aiming to stem the rise of government’s debt. It has not achieved its purpose, with debt soaring, fueled by Democratic-backed spending, Republican-backed tax cuts and the spiraling cost of the Social Security retirement program.
The purpose of a system is what it does–in this case, allowing for heinous shit to be tacked on and pushed through without time for debate or public scrutiny.
This is a political maneuver, not an accident. If there was a fund to cover important expenses during a shutdown, then the leverage wouldn’t kick in until the fund was about to run out, and that’s when the negotiations would start happening. We’d be in the same position.
The debt ceiling isn’t “real” it’s a self own created in the early 20th century. It doesn’t mean the government is running out of money, as the US government by definition cannot run out of money because it issues its own money by fiat. All the debt ceiling means is that the US is, for reasons unexplained, not allowed to issue more money to pay existing debts (ie bond payments) until they raise it, which usually involves a lot of theatre and horse trading.
It’s one of the sacred norms
We have so few left after the passing of Norm MacDonald
someone check on kevin bacon!
Yup. And I did read the “why” - which is the US can’t “spend” without a budget (except it still obviously does spend money, they just don’t pay federal employees lol) - but why hasn’t any big brained govt worried about losing its majority (or just a fan of not pissing 0.1% of GDP per week of a shutdown) not spare a tiny bit of a budget ahead of time to cover that risk?
Though saying all that I’ve answered my question haven’t I? Shutdowns benefits both parties at some point so they’re never gonna get rid of it just like they’ll never get rid of the filibuster. It’s just one of those things where both parties pretend to be really angry at the other for a little bit before agreeing to send another billion dollars to Israel.
Yeah it’s not in the interest of either party to get rid of it because it’s an ocassion to wrest something from each other. Neither is actually interested in good governance, if they were they’d just get rid of the debt ceiling entirely.
Why cant 1 [one) goberment save moneyy? .
Answer: None! Their too busy 🤣. their donors!!..!.🤣🤣🤣🤣
Think of the dumbest reason you can possibly fathom. That’s usually the answer to questions like this about the American government.
literally only happens in the USA
It’s not though. It’s just how supply bill works in most countries.
The Central Bank cannot create new money without the order from the Treasury, and the Treasury spending has to be approved by the Congress/Parliament, which comprise of elected representatives.
That’s how “democracy” is supposed to work, though there are many things we can criticize about liberal bourgeois democracy. In other words, the government is supposed to “work for the people” and is not supposed to create new spending without the explicit approval of representatives elected by the people. This is what would happen in a workers-run enterprise.
It’s a some bullshit rules lawyer thing like the senate parliamentarian that 100% only exist because it’s useful.
Because then they couldn’t put on this ridiculous farcical show once a year to fleece people for donations and distract everyone with the political equivalent of yelling “FORE!”
Something something China, democracy
