My colleague Jamie O wrote a splendid piece about this manufactured crisis this morning. I concur with everything he said but I'd like to add a couple of thoughts of my own.
First, I was a Hillary person in 2016 and was critical of Bernie Sanders during that election cycle. He does not get enough credit for being a constructive force since the 2020 election. Sanders understands the peril posed by Trumpism and has worked hard to be a team player in the senate. That's why you don't hear much about Bernie Bros any more. Senator Sanders has always been better than his worst supporters, but he really stepped up in support of the Biden agenda. Thank you, sir.
Second, several creative solutions to this GOP induced crisis were proposed as it dragged on. I dug the discharge petition myself. The other major proposal was using the 14th Amendment to allow the President to raise the debt limit without Congressional approval. This approach was supported by Larry Tribe among others.
In the abstract, I liked the 14th Amendment proposal. But it lent itself to protracted litigation and the last thing anyone on our side of the fence should want is to give the Alito Court a shot at interpreting the 14th Amendment. The slogan of the radicalized SCOTUS should be: Moderate no more.
The days of hoping that cases will hit the Supreme Court docket are over. Sam the Sham Alito & The Federalist Society Pharaohs are in the saddle now. Reasonable outcomes can no longer be expected from this court. We'll just have to work around them until the composition of the court changes. Thomas turns 75 later this month and April Fool's baby Sam the Sham Alito is 73. We want a Democratic president appointing their successors. That's why maintaining control of the Senate and White House in 2024 is so crucial.
Finally, we didn't hear much about the "fiscal cliff" this time. That was the buzz word of the Tea Party hostage crisis during the Obama administration. Hence the circa 2012 featured image and this tagline: Whatever happened to the fiscal cliff?
The last word goes to Ella Fitzgerald with a Rodgers & Hart classic:
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