The absurdity of the moment is almost beyond belief. Almost, because as it stands now, there is nothing that is beyond belief. Consider:
The US Government is scheduled to “shut down” at 12.01 AM on October 1. But of course, the Government will not shut down. Only the services that Donald J Trump deems non-essential will cease to operate as usual—which is to say—badly. In addition, the Trump administration has served notice that it will use the alleged shutdown as an excuse to fire thousands of federal employees, thereby closing some agencies permanently.
Meanwhile the two political parties are busy acting like schoolboys pointing fingers at each other along the lines of “he started it” while trying to blame each other for the potential shutdown. Of course, there is no discussion whatsoever, none, nada, zip, about the wisdom of any of these programs to begin with.
The Democrats claim to be trying to “save” additional subsidies of Obamacare insurance premiums created by legislation passed during the pandemic. The first round of subsidies (which were supposedly due to sunset in 2022) was signed by President Biden on March 11, 2021. The bill (the American Rescue Pan) expanded premium subsides and eliminated the income cap for eligibility. The bill passed on a straight party line vote.
To the surprise of absolutely no one, when the time came for the subsidies to sunset, the spectacularly misnamed Inflation Reduction Act came to rescue. The subsidies were extended once again on a strict party line vote, this time until 2025. And the cost of those subsidies, if renewed, run into the hundreds of billions of dollars.
Apparently, in the Senate the emergency is still with us, even though Congress declared it over on April 10th 2023. In the Senate there were 68 votes to end the emergency and 23 votes (all Democratic) to keep the emergency. Schumer voted to maintain the emergency. And so here we are today.
To be clear, both parties tend to operate on what their respective caucuses can jam through. The other party is simply ignored. There is little substantive discussion about anything more important than naming post offices.
Beyond all the theatrics, there are real reasons (but not good ones) for the shutdown if it comes to pass. First and foremost, a shutdown serves the political interests of party leaders. Chuck Schumer, the Ranking Senate Democrat, is terrified of a primary challenge by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. So he has to “look tough” to appeal to the base. Mike Johnson the Republican Speaker of the House is keenly aware that his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, lost his post as Speaker because he deigned to get Democratic votes to forestall a shutdown.
Second, and maybe the heart of the issue, is the Democratic answer to the question: how much money do you need? Their answer is invariably: more. There is simply no spending limit the party knows or at least acknowledges.
But that answer is, unfortunately, becoming the Republican answer as well. The only difference seems to be the constituency being rewarded. And the one constituency whose interests are considered above all else is none other than those of Donald J Trump.
After all it is those former Constitution quoting free traders in Congress who have acquiesed on virtually every tariff that HRH Trump has announced. This despite Article I, Section 8 of the US Constitution which reads (in part):
“Congress shall have Power…To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations…”. Which is the clause that the Supreme Court will probably rely on to slap down most of the Trump tariffs.
And then there is the stake in Intel that the US is taking; the 15% of revenues that Nvidia and AMD agreed to fork over to the US as the price of their rent-seeking; the golden share that US Steel agreed to that gives the US President veto power over the firm, and the various stakes that the Trump Administration is reportedly seeking in other companies. And then they call the Democrats socialists.
That is not to mention the attack on the first amendment that the Republicans have begun, continuing on from where the Biden Administration left off. For instance, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, has all of a sudden discovered “hate” speech, which basically doesn’t exist as a legal construct in the US. But you would never know it if all you listened to were the free speech restrictionists in the respective political parties.
For that matter, consider the retribution campaign Trump launched against his political enemies, James Comey the most prominent among them, with more to come. The retribution campaign is of a piece with the lawfare that was directed against him by NY State AG Letitia James, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, or Atlanta prosecutor Fani Willis to name a few. But these actions don’t make the behavior of either the blue team or the red team justifiable. It just makes both of them contemptible.
And while all this is going on, we have amassed a huge budget deficit ($37 trillion headed soon for $39 trillion) and we are involved in two shooting wars (Israel and Ukraine), not to mention Cold War II with China. Glad to see the political parties have their priorities straight.
JFB
