Seeker
29-09-21, 09:00 AM
I get my pension (aka Social Security) from the US and my kids are American so I tend to follow what's going on over there.
The US has a debt ceiling which means, by law, they cannot exceed that financial amount. Since they are living beyond their means, it has to be raised periodically, ideally it is a bi-partisan arrangement. During the Trump years the Democrats went along with the Republicans and raised it because it's good for the country and the world economy.
The ceiling is about to be reached and the Republicans are refusing to go along with raising it which will cause America to default on its debt as well as basically shutting down most US government departments. The Republicans are risking a default (which will cause worldwide financial ripples) so they can use it as a weapon in the mid-term elections. This is an example of a political party that will risk their country's financial ruin to get back into power.
Mitch McConnell is the architect of this plan (he's too evil to even be a Bond villain) - as an example he recently introduced a bill but the Democrats liked it and were going to vote for it so he fillibustered his own bill because he didn't want to be seen helping the Democrats and his bill died.
Fillibuster is a weird US thing where someone can talk for literally hours about a bill on the Senate floor until the time for it to be voted on passes, the bill then dies. If the other party can raise more than 60 votes, it can be overruled but the Senate is split almost 50/50 and after Trump, it's rare for a Republican to vote on a Democrat bill.
In theory, Social Security payments will still be paid on a government shutdown but since it's never happened before, no one knows for sure. I think the Dems will yield and raise the ceiling on their own simply because they are the adults in the room.
The lessons we need to learn from watching this tussle is the way the Republicans are trying to manipulate the way people are allowed to vote. They already have gerrymandered districts (altered the voting boundaries to bias the voters in their favour) but they are making it harder to vote without proof of identity. The Conservatives here are trying the same thing - at the next election you will need a photo id to be allowed to vote (driving license or passport) which will put off many poorer voters from bothering. The UK does not have a voter fraud problem - there were 6 cases in the last election.
The US has a debt ceiling which means, by law, they cannot exceed that financial amount. Since they are living beyond their means, it has to be raised periodically, ideally it is a bi-partisan arrangement. During the Trump years the Democrats went along with the Republicans and raised it because it's good for the country and the world economy.
The ceiling is about to be reached and the Republicans are refusing to go along with raising it which will cause America to default on its debt as well as basically shutting down most US government departments. The Republicans are risking a default (which will cause worldwide financial ripples) so they can use it as a weapon in the mid-term elections. This is an example of a political party that will risk their country's financial ruin to get back into power.
Mitch McConnell is the architect of this plan (he's too evil to even be a Bond villain) - as an example he recently introduced a bill but the Democrats liked it and were going to vote for it so he fillibustered his own bill because he didn't want to be seen helping the Democrats and his bill died.
Fillibuster is a weird US thing where someone can talk for literally hours about a bill on the Senate floor until the time for it to be voted on passes, the bill then dies. If the other party can raise more than 60 votes, it can be overruled but the Senate is split almost 50/50 and after Trump, it's rare for a Republican to vote on a Democrat bill.
In theory, Social Security payments will still be paid on a government shutdown but since it's never happened before, no one knows for sure. I think the Dems will yield and raise the ceiling on their own simply because they are the adults in the room.
The lessons we need to learn from watching this tussle is the way the Republicans are trying to manipulate the way people are allowed to vote. They already have gerrymandered districts (altered the voting boundaries to bias the voters in their favour) but they are making it harder to vote without proof of identity. The Conservatives here are trying the same thing - at the next election you will need a photo id to be allowed to vote (driving license or passport) which will put off many poorer voters from bothering. The UK does not have a voter fraud problem - there were 6 cases in the last election.