Government in America: The PT Barnum Debt Ceiling Circus Sideshow

McCarthy thinks Americans are stupid, Biden knows McCarthy is stupid, and I’m thinking PT Barnum was right

You know, sometimes I feel a bit embarrassed to be an American. When I think about citizens of other countries watching the PT Barnum Circus Sideshow of our government in action, my cheeks turn red. That is part embarrassment, part fury, and part forgetting to put on sunscreen when I go for a walk to try and forget about all this BS.

As of this writing, there has been a deal announced between President Biden and Speaker of the House McCarthy to avert a debt ceiling crisis. Oh, goody. So we aren’t going to crash our economy and take down the whole world economy with us. Isn’t that good news? Oh, hurrah. Yawn.

Sorry about the yawn. I’ve just never been entertained by circus sideshows. I am unimpressed by the bearded lady and the lizard boy, and clowns are just an uncomfortable mixture of silly and creepy.

The debt ceiling negotiation as well as the agreement reached is all a show, folks. It is just a show with minimal consequential substance in the deal itself. This “deal” on the budget — to get Republicans to release our economy from their hostage-taking debt default threat — is the equivalent of a rounding error in terms of the percentage of the overall budget. It is a big pile of nothing masquerading as big news because it averted a manufactured potential disaster. Bullshit all the way around, Republicans, Democrats, everybody. I call bullshit.

It is our government pretending to do important and consequential stuff. It is just smoke and mirrors to distract you from one singular and astounding fact:

The last time Congress passed a proper budget under a proper process was 1996.

Let me repeat that as it deserves repeating:

The last time members of the House of Representatives actually did their damn job was 1996.

Here is how it is supposed to work, boys and girls. Early in the year, the president releases a budget proposal. The House comes up with a proposal as well. Appropriations committees then draw up spending bills for assorted spending categories. Each of those is individually debated and voted on. Time is allowed for members to actually read them and amend them, discuss them, think about them… you know, all those things that are kind of important parts of actually governing responsibly and sensibly. This process is supposed to run from April to October and no later than October a completed budget is passed. The following January, it all begins again with the next budget proposal from the president.

This is otherwise known as doing your damn job.

It has not happened that way for 27 damn years!

Congress has not completed all of the steps in the appropriations process on time since 1996. Many years, Congress has passed no budget resolution at all. Instead, the process has become increasingly centralized, with party leadership drawing up “omnibus” spending packages that combine all the appropriations bills into a single piece of megalegislation, which lawmakers are given essentially no time to read or debate. (emphasis added)

A hell of a way to run a country. The idiocy is entirely bipartisan, by the way. It doesn’t matter who is in the White House and who controls Congress. Both parties just keep putting on the BT Barnum Circus in place of actual governing and just count on Americans being stupid or suckers or both.

I’m sick of the BS.

So, we have a debt ceiling tentative agreement. Oh, hurrah.

Lizard boy trots out on the stage: The Republican chaos caucus is screaming because they wanted to take away the extra 80 billion given to the IRS, but the deal only takes back 20 billion. Whoop-de-bleeping-doo.

The bearded lady stomps out on stage: The Democrat progressive caucus is screaming because there are new work requirements for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Keep your panty-hose on bearded lady. All it does is take the already existing work requirements for single, able-bodied people without dependents and raises the age they have to be working from 50 to 54. Whoop-de-bleeping-doo.

All kinds of drama queens in glittering sequined tights are riding out on spangled horses: The Republican drama queens are actually drag queens (yes, I’m talking about you, Sen. Lindsey Graham). Said Lindsey about the deal:

“I will use all powers available to me in the Senate to have amendment votes to undo this catastrophe for defense,” Graham wrote on Twitter. “I support raising the debt limit for 90 days to give us a chance to correct this disaster for defense.”

I’m wondering did he have a Southern Belle’s lace hankie in his hand, wiping the tears from his eyes as he said this?

Why is Lindsey gushing so dramatically? Because he feels it is a catastrophe that under this deal defense spending rises by only 3%, which is less than the current inflation rate of 4%. Oh, the horror! I guess our military will collapse into dust because of that missing 1%, eh Lindsey? Too bad we couldn’t make more poor people get off their lazy asses and work for those Medicaid funds, eh Lindsey? Yeah, sick people with health problems really shouldn’t be so damn lazy and should be working, shouldn’t they Lindsey? We do need more tanks, after all.

The snake charmer comes out with her pet cobra: Democrats are screaming because the deal takes back unspent COVID funds. Oh yes, their snake charmer is murmuring about being “concerned about impacts to public health initiatives.” Yeah, whatever. You might want to be a bit more concerned about all the wealthy little piggies that fed at the COVID relief fund trough and scammed their way into taking a ton of government money they did not need and was not meant for them. COVID relief funds were one big case study in waste, fraud, and abuse in a poorly designed and implemented government program. Go charm your snake elsewhere. I want government funds well spent, not just spent.

So, McCarthy thinks the American people are stupid. He thinks they find this all important and meaningful and actually give a rat’s ass about his achievement of the “best deal for America.” Biden knows McCarthy is stupid, so Biden basically won across the board as far as the petty little items in the deal go, since they are just a rounding error in the overall total budget anyway.

So, was PT Barnum right? Is there a sucker born every minute? You betcha. If we weren’t suckers, we would be voting every single damn officeholder in Congress out at the next election on the simple grounds that not a single one of them is doing their damn job.

It is in the damn Constitution, Article I, Section 9, Clause 7:

No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.

To Congress, all I have to say is: Stop spending your time doing soundbites for Fox News, MSNBC, and Twitter, and do your damn job! If you love performing in a circus so damn much, you can join the circus when you retire, but not while you are employed on my taxpayer dime!