volkris @volkris@qoto.org

@YourNeighbor57

Of course Biden has threatened to default. And his treasury secretary has as well. On a daily basis, it has seemed, for months now.

I'm glad he seems to be walking those threats back a bit this week, but we wouldn't be talking about default now without Biden having put that on the table. Unconstitutionally, I might add.

The legislative branch declined to provide funding for these expenditures, and that was their choice. Had they wanted to see the spending happen then they should have offered the funding along with their appropriations. They didn't.

So no, the president doesn't have the authority to override that legislative choice, especially after he signed the legislation himself. That would be flat out clearly illegal for him to violate the law like that.

@rdfranke

Well, he was just going through the ceremony, saying the thing that a person is expected to say, for the formality.

It's simply empty rhetoric.

@gwfoto@newsie.social

Meh, it would have no chance of passing, so it's just political rhetoric. We need to keep that in context.

If it was serious legislation that would be different, and it would be reigned in to go through the actual legislative process.

But this will simply be a gimmick for both sides to manipulate their own choirs.

@bronakins

Republicans trigger this meltdown?
Democrats are the ones who passed the appropriations bills above GOP opposition, there's a Democrat in the White House who's spent months threatening default, and finally it was Republicans who passed a way out of the mess.

You're looking at the wrong party acting in this farce.

@DemocracyMattersALot

Yeah? Now tell us about the price of tea in China, as they say :)

Presidents are elected by majorities of the EC, not by majorities of people. Like many other parts of the US system it's structured based on majority of representation, not population, for very good reasons.

Popular vote has nothing to do with presidencies. They don't get to override the majority rule of electors.

@drrjv

The piece is kind of all over the place, skipping back and forth between the debt ceiling argument, tax policies, and spending policies.

And yet it ignores the most straightforward part of the whole story, the appropriations legislation passed by the last Congress and the president that set this situation up.

The author seems too busy grinding a favorite ax to really consider where we are today and why.

@David

I've always thought settling on tagging with, for example, USPolitics or UKPolitics, etc, would be a reasonable norm.

@Nonya_Bidniss

I mean yes, any and every American can refuse a request like this. That's always been the case, hence a long history of showboating around empty chairs in hearings, for example.

Congress has always been limited in its authority to haul people in as congresspeople see fit.

@YourNeighbor57

The post seemed to be all over the place, jumping around from the current debt ceiling issue to taxation and then over to spending and back again.

I found it really striking that it didn't mention the Democratic legislation that set this situation up. That's a far more straightforward description of where we are.

Anyway, yes, Biden must continue to pay US debts out of Treasury's tax receipts. He has no legal option not to, and shame on him for spending months threatening to default.

@undergrowthfeed@achrilock.social

Republicans already agreed to raising the debt ceiling.

Robert Reich hasn't been an honest speaker for quite a while now.

@jrefior

Refuse to let the US pay its bills? They already passed legislation authorizing more borrowing power so that the US could not only pay bills but take on more!

They're not refusing to let the US pay bills. They've actively worked to pay!

@ItsHammertime

No. Republicans were the ones who voted to authorize borrowing, while Biden's the one who's been threatening default all this time.

The cartoon is out of line with facts on the ground.

@DemocracyMattersALot

And it is majority rule as throughout the country officials are elected based on majorities, and in both chambers of the US Congress processes proceed based on majority votes.

@DemocracyMattersALot

Uh huh
And yet, even with all of the things that you listed there, that remains a democratic process. It remains actual humans, actual constituents, voting through democratic processes for these results.

I know you might not like it. But that's the thing about democracy: It really stinks that other people don't agree with you, but in democracy, other people get a say.

If you want to say that elections are stolen and all of that stuff, you can go down that road, but I don't think that's a particularly fruitful direction to go. You just end up sounding like Trump. It's not a good look.

@marynelson8

That take is clearly wrong because, if nothing else, it overlooks that in the design of the federal government the Treasury is in the executive branch, not the legislative branch.

I don't know who these professors might be, but we can quickly debunk the claim they're making on that point alone.

So the GOP has already voted in the House to authorize the president to borrow more money. It is really ridiculous for these professors to try to pick this hill that both confuses the legislative branch activity and also the executive branch functioning.

@Nonilex

They already voted to raise the debt ceiling. They've already offered their solution.