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The stock market took a header today. The manufacturing index fell 6 points in May. Only 38,000 private-sector jobs were added in May. Home prices continue to plummet. According to a prominent analyst, ‘we’re on the verge of a great, great depression’.
And the best that our Republicans in Congress seem able to come up with is to boldly insist that any increase in the debt ceiling be matched by an equal amount in spending cuts. If you borrow $2 trillion and cut $2 trillion, all you've accomplished is the addition of a few billion to the interest payments owed.
That's not an answer.
What they need to do is not mess with the debt ceiling. They need to make interest payments on current loans. They need to pay the military, and the folks on So-so security and medicaid. And then they need to slash.
Department of Education? Gone.
EPA? Severely reduced in scope.
NLRB? Gone. And they need to keep moving on down the list.
It takes guts. It takes leadership. And if they don't have what it takes, then they need to be replaced.