Gary Varvel for January 30, 2023

Great analogy.

You first, Republicans. Give back the money you have stolen from Social Security, Medicare, from the taxpayers to feed your billionaires, Military slush funds, corporate welfare, religious exemptions, and unfettered access to the CBO to ferret out all the revenue congress has liberated over the years.

Then we can discuss turning off that faucet.

How far can you raise the ceiling till it all comes down?

Both. cut back on the military spending and other regressive programs and increase revenue.

Annnnd… who was it raised the ceiling, sans fuss, the last several times? (Hint: weren’t the Democrats, no , no, no.)

The Republican game plan has always been to raise the debt so high that they “have no choice” but to cut programs they don’t like rather than (the HORROR!) raise taxes.

What needs to happen is the debt ceiling needs to be eliminated. If Republicans want to slash spending do it the honest way, next time the budget comes up for a vote. If they can get themselves elected to a big enough majority to win that.

Actually, either would work – but the only thing that WILL be done is the continual screaming.

Note to tourists: If you visit Congress, watch where you step . . . It’s hard to scrape red state congressional “representatives” off the bottoms of your shoes.

The deficit is the fault of both parties. It requires that they work together to effectively run the government. While both sides share the blame, you have to admit that Republicans are very candid about not compromising with Democrats and their voters will punish them if they do. Neither side will level with their voters. the fact is we will need tax increases and program cuts to balance the budget. No politician wants to talk about that.

Gee Gary, do you get to ignore your credit card bills?

I told the electric company I won’t pay my bill until they promise to lower it in the future. They told me they’d be fine to lower it, as long as I used less electricity in the future. But I still have to pay my current bill.

Or else.

This is something that Republicans in Congress either cannot or—more likely—refuse to understand.

Republicans voted 3 times to raise the debt ceiling under Trump, they gave tax breaks to the rich and raised the debt by 25%.

Steve Bannon torpedoes RNC after Ronna McDaniel win: ‘Whatever you do, don’t send them any money’

LOL, that elephant would not be saying “turn off the faucet” or even caring about the debt ceiling if a Republican was in the White House signing spending bills…

Two. Different. Things.

Right now, just pay the d*#n bills.

Long term, how about striving for policies that allow the economy to grow? More income means more revenue with taxes staying at current rates. Add in a return to the pre-Trump tax rates for those in the top percents.

As a side note, one of the ironies of the “inflation is Biden’s fault” crowd is that when the debts are paid (bonds, T-bills, etc.) the “money” used to pay back will have less value than the “money” that was borrowed. (That goes for those who hold mortgages too.)

https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/111414/does-inflation-favor-lenders-or-borrowers.asp

Yeah Varvy, don’t pay the bills. You sound like???

Gary! Did you know that 25% of our total National debt was incurred while your orange hero was in office. 25% of our Nation’s total debt since we kicked the British out, happened under Trump’s leadership! Let that fact sink in!

Democrats just love the idea of collective lemmings.

The share of the debt for the 50% of the households that actually pay taxes is about $500,000 each. But if we taxed billionaires at 100% of their annual income, we could pay off the national debt in about 10 years, provided don’t run out of billionaires, now where did I leave my pitchfork?

Hey, what’s the biggest spending item? I’d like to see you actually suggest reducing military spending.