Tell Biden and our MoC's: No to the GOP Debt Ceiling Scheme

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Call Script

My name is __________. I am a constituent, and my zip code is _______. I am a member of Indivisible SF.

Thank you for continuing to steadfastly resist Republican debt-ceiling blackmail. We fully support your insistence on a "clean" Debt Ceiling bill without policy- or budget-poison pills that Republicans cannot enact through the normal democratic legislative process. America does not negotiate with violent terrorists—and we shouldn't negotiate with economic terrorists.

Hold fast! Do not surrender to political blackmail!

If MAGA extremists threaten to shatter the economy, stand up to them and play hardball:

Enforce the 14th Amendment by ignoring the debt-ceiling law rather than defaulting on payments.
Cut fraud, waste, and boondoggles from the Pentagon budget before cutting Medicaid and nutrition.
Replace current Treasury bonds with higher-yield premium bonds that bring in more from investors.
If necessary, circumvent the debt-ceiling law by minting trillion-dollar coins.

Background

Like other sovereign nations, America spends more than it receives in taxes so that it can invest in its people, infrastructure, and economy. Those investments increase national wealth—which increases future tax revenue. The shortfall is covered by investors who buy interest-paying Treasury bonds as a safe and certain way to grow their personal wealth. So long as it is not abused (which is not the case here), this system has proven to be an engine of prosperity because—contrary to Republican false analogies—governments that have the power to create new money and income-streams are NOT the same as families or businesses whose expenses cannot exceed their income over long periods.

The amount of debt owed to the bondholders is called the "national debt." Republicans enacted a "Debt Ceiling Law" in 1939 to limit the total size of the national debt because FDR had established large social spending programs like Social Security. Their debt ceiling law requires that the debt ceiling be raised from time to time to pay for the expenditures that Congress has already enacted and authorized.

This is in direct contradiction to the 14th Amendment to our Constitution, which says "The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law … shall not be questioned." The Republican purpose was to seize power to hold the economy hostage so they could slash the domestic social spending programs that they ideologically hated but didn't (and still don’t) have enough votes to overturn through the democratic legislative process. No other nation in the world has such an insane and politically malicious law.

For a Deep Dive examination of Republican lies and an explanation of tactics that Democrats could use to thwart Republican blackmail, check out the Background section of our January 24th Call To Action.

Progressive Democrats seek to alleviate poverty. Republicans and conservative Democrats like Manchin (D-WV), Tester (D-MT), and Sinema (I-AZ) prioritize increasing the wealth and power of their corporate donors.

Last week, House Republicans published their debt-ceiling blackmail demands for 2023 in a bill that they call the Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023.

Among other atrocities their ransom demands include the following:

Imposes across-the-board budget cuts to the Social Security administration, housing, and education.
Forces more low-income people off Medicaid and SNAP food benefits.
Rescinds IRS funding to catch wealthy and corporate tax cheats.
Rolls back environmental protections against greedy fossil fuel corporations.
Ends tax credits for investing in green energy.
Cuts Veterans Administration funding by 22%.
Includes the House GOP’s energy package (HR.1 Lower Energy Costs Act).

But their "cut government spending" ransom demands do NOT INCLUDE:

Any cuts to the bloated national defense budget (60% of discretionary government spending).
Any significant reduction in the agricultural subsidies lavished on giant corporate farms.
Any cuts to fossil-fuel industry subsidies.

They demand that discretionary spending caps revert to fiscal 2022 levels while limiting growth to 1 percent annually over the next decade. They simultaneously insist that defense spending, agriculture subsidies, and corporate-welfare for the fossil-fuel cartels (which in total represent almost two-thirds of all discretionary spending) not be reduced at all. Which means that social, regulatory, and climate-defense spending will have to be ruthlessly slashed. And that, of course, has been the driving force behind Republican debt-ceiling histrionics ever since FDR enraged the oligarchs of the 1930’s by sharing significant tax revenue with the poor and middle class.