Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer appeared on the chamber floor yesterday morning and delivered fairly routine remarks that didn’t generate a lot of attention. The New York Democrat did, however, flag a GOP quote that I hadn’t heard.
“During House Republicans’ annual retreat, House Budget Committee chair and other hard right-wingers said now is ‘the best time’ to double down on debt-ceiling brinkmanship, as news of [Silicon Valley Bank’s] collapse remains front of mind,” Schumer said. “That is reckless and truly clueless. … Instead of calling for calm, House Republicans are sowing chaos by threatening default at a time when banks need stability.”
This morning, the majority leader returned to the floor and reemphasized the same point. “Earlier this week, House GOP members, including the chairman of the House Budget Committee, said now is ‘the best time’ to double down on debt ceiling brinkmanship and hostage taking,” Schumer said, adding, “This is a stupendously bad idea. This is an idea that has no logic, has no linear thinking in it at all.”
I couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps the Democratic leader was taking some creative license. Perhaps the original quote wasn’t as outrageous as a three-word excerpt made it seem. Maybe the context would be more forgiving.
Or maybe not. Punchbowl News reported yesterday:
The recent collapse of two large regional banks rattled global markets, raising concerns about financial stability during a precarious moment for the U.S. economy. Would this backdrop of uncertainty, we wondered, cause House Republicans to grow wary of launching a debt limit showdown? From our conversations with top GOP lawmakers at the House Republican retreat this week in Orlando, the answer is a hard no. Instead of expressing caution, senior GOP lawmakers are leaning into their plans to demand spending cuts in return for raising the nation’s borrowing limit.
It was this same report that quoted Republican Rep. Jodey Arrington of Texas, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, saying, “This is the best time to do it.”
In case this isn’t obvious, “it” referred to the GOP’s decision to threaten to crash the economy on purpose unless Democrats agree to Republicans’ demands — demands that the party, months into the process, still hasn’t yet identified.
In other words, Republicans were already threatening to impose an economic catastrophe on Americans, on purpose, even before instability in the banking sector. Now, as it becomes painfully obvious that Congress should at least try to govern in a responsible way, key GOP officials, including the chairman of the House Budget Committee, are saying now is “the best time” for an easily avoidable debt-ceiling crisis. This comes two months after a CNBC host asked Arrington whether his party’s debt ceiling hostage strategy “could turn dangerous.” The Texan responded, “I believe it will and I believe it has to.” I’m reminded of a column The Washington Post’s Catherine Rampell’s wrote last week that the GOP congressman might want to read. A plea to lawmakers: If it was a bad idea to threaten default on U.S. debt before, it would be astoundingly, colossally idiotic now. Recent financial-market turmoil — in regional U.S. banks, as well as some of the larger European institutions — suggests there might be much more fragility in the financial system than previously understood. In a sane world, politicians might respond to this new information constructively.
Alas, as Arrington has made clear, “colossally idiotic” tactics are taking precedence over “constructive” policymaking.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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