McCarthy Achieved Nothing with Debt Ceiling Deal

It’s incredible that at this point in the game, people still don’t understand how the government works.

It’s all the same party, bro. It’s the money party, it’s the war party, it’s the Jew party.

The Republicans will never do anything of consequence. They will just keep talking about Hunter’s laptop for decades.

Miranda Devine writes for the New York Post:

Kevin McCarthy trumpeted a debt-ceiling deal Sunday, but increasing debt another $4 trillion with minimal concessions is nothing to boast about. 

To be fair, the House speaker has a razor slim majority and Republicans don’t control the Senate, where Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and his sidekick Lindsey Graham have announced that the only thing they care about is Ukraine.

But McCarthy’s one dealbreaker should have been his promise to defund President Biden’s massive $80 billion to turbocharge an already weaponized IRS. 

This was the totemic centerpiece of his pitch to become speaker.

It was the most memorable promise of the Republicans’ midterm campaign to win back the House.

It struck a chord with voters, wary of funding a new “army” of armed IRS agents to harass middle-class families and small business owners and abuse their powers to target political dissidents, Soviet-style.

“Our very first bill will repeal the funding for 87,000 new IRS agents,” McCarthy vowed. 

“You see, we believe government should be to help you, not go after you.”

Sure enough, the House voted 221-210 to repeal the extra IRS funding.

…

In the debt-ceiling deal outlined Sunday and due to be inked later this week, McCarthy has allowed the lion’s share of that extra IRS funding to remain unmolested: preserving $78.1 billion of the $80 billion. 

As rebel GOP Rep Dan Bishop put it: “So there will be 85,260 more IRS agents rather than 87,000 to eat you alive. Big win.” 

Overpromising and underdelivering is what turns voters off the GOP.

You don’t mount a powerful six-month fear campaign about 87,000 new, armed IRS agents ready to break down people’s doors, and then meekly capitulate at the first sign of resistance.

Even if those fears were exaggerated, your credibility rests on delivering a lot more than 2% of what you promised.

The article goes on to explain just how political the IRS actually is, and what these new agents will imply.

In the real world, McCarthy could have gotten a better deal. It’s not like the Democrats were going to let the government default. But he just doesn’t care. Why should he?

He was just reelected. He doesn’t have to run for reelection for a long time. He does this deal with the Democrats now, and says “well, you guys gotta let me win something when I get closer to reelection.”

That’s how this works. These people are all friends. It’s all very cordial.

Then they go do interviews and make a big show of opposing one another, but just watch the way they interact with each other. They’re all good friends.

The Democrats know very well that they need these Republicans to go out there and pretend to be the opposition.

The reality is, most of the elected Republicans are people who would vote Democrat if they weren’t in the government. They ran as Republicans because that is what was available. They talk all the time about “values,” but there is no more relevant gap in values than the gap between Republican politicians and their voters.

Anyway – everyone who thought the US “might default” and went along with this stupid circus show the media was doing about something that was never, ever going to happen should be ashamed of themselves.