Gaetz made it clear that Kev would be kissing his ass. Message received by smoochy Kev.

[Miles Archer]

CNN
—
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and his top allies have reversed course and changed their bill for raising the nation’s borrowing limit – and agreed to make two major changes overnight in a bid to pass the package Wednesday in their standoff with the White House.

It’s not clear if even those changes will yield enough support to pass the bill, as House Speaker McCarthy can only lose four votes in the narrowly divided House. Yet, after days of proclaiming that the bill was final and that no changes would be made, leadership caved realizing that without some of these tweaks, the bill didn’t have a chance of passing.

Republicans agreed to allow proposed work requirements for Medicaid beneficiaries to be implemented on a quicker timetable – a move intended to win over GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida and others who had warned they would vote against the bill without such changes.

Also, top Republicans agreed to remove a repeal of certain tax breaks for biofuels like ethanol — an issue that prompted furious opposition from the four Iowa Republicans and some other midwestern lawmakers.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/26/politics/debt-ceiling-house-vote-negotiations/index.html

[Scrivener7]

1. Anyone else feeling this way: every damn time they get in power, the republiQans use the debt limit

to gin up hysteria in the media and consequently the populace. The media becomes packed with stories about the government going bankrupt, the credit of the nation collapsing, pigs falling from the sky, etc. It usually becomes quite the press bonanza.

But this time, it feels to me like the people ain't buying it. We know this is the dance they do and they have done it too many times. They have overstepped on EVERYTHING and if they go crazy on cuts to actual people, their collapsing support will implode.

Is anyone else getting the feeling that this hot button issue is just not that hot for republiQans any more?

(But I hope Democrats go after those biofuel tax breaks as soon as they have the majority.)

[Miles Archer]

2. It shocks me that a lot of people don't "get" or care about the Paul Ryan tax cuts for millionaires

It's not like people have to enlist the aid of a couple of sherpas and trek up a mountain to find it.

It's a Google click away. The Paul Ryan tax cuts for millionaires ballooned the deficit by $1.2 TRILLION.

And I refuse to call them the "Trump Tax Cuts," because his sole contribution was his signature. This was Paul Ryan's Ayn Rand wet dream come true.

And even thought they have come up in conversations about the debt ceiling, McCarthy's reaction has been "What part of tax cuts could possibly be "not good?" We MUST continue these tax cuts because everybody benefits!"

Yeah, if by "everybody" you mean "everybody in the top 1% of wealthy families in America).

But no...go after SNAP and Medicaid instead, and I think you're right...it's happening S-L-O-W-L-Y, but I think moderate voters and Independents are getting sick of the Republicans' con game.

[Scrivener7]

3. Exactly. I think people are slowly getting wise to this. I am hoping we see a silver

lining to the Gilead Brigade's recent overreaches on what they think they are entitled to do to my body, among other things. Their support is eroding and maybe the next election will give us majorities that can let us reverse some of this nonsense.

End the "ethanol" tax cuts, end the subsidies to oil companies, end the tax breaks to billionaires, legislatively reverse Citizens United, secure women's rights and voting rights, and bring the damn mad dogs to heel.

I hope.

[Miles Archer]

4. I think DeSantis wanting to be Trump is what brought it to a head.

"Maybe" the Ted Nugent / Kid Rock whack job faction of the MAGA movement sees Disney as a villain. I think the American public, however well-informed or misinformed as they may be, sees Disney the way Disney wants to be seen. They are a business. BIG business. And with that comes the good, the bad, and the ugly. But Disney as the poster child for DeSantis' "woke" attacks? Nope.

It's that, it's the whole anti-gay, anti-trans thing...what ACTUAL THREAT do GAY PEOPLE pose? None. If that is their chosen lifestyle, wish them well. But SOMEHOW, in a party RIDDLED with *****ALLEGEDLY***** closeted gay men, they want us to believe we are inviting HELLFIRE and DAMNATION by "allowing them" to live the lives they've chosen.

Same for women seeking abortions.

Same for kids who want to learn about slavery and Native Americans.

And I think Independents and moderates have seen this zealotry and said "This isn't America." We'll find out to what degree this is true in November 2024.

[chowder66]

5. Instead of actually doing their jobs on a regular basis they wait for the debt ceiling.

Lazy and dangerous.