Now Reading
SHILLS: How the GOP plans keep the wealthy happy after a debt default

SHILLS: How the GOP plans keep the wealthy happy after a debt default

SHILLS: How the GOP plans keep the wealthy happy after a debt default

House Republicans are prepared to shut down the government and let the U.S. default on debt — but they’ll still put more cash back in the pockets of the wealthy.

The deadline is fast approaching for the U.S. House of Representatives to pass a budget, and if they fail to do so, many important functions of the federal government will shut down.

It’s a stalemate we’ve witnessed many times, with repercussions affecting government employees and the general public.

During the Trump years, Republicans had no problem raising the debt ceiling and passing budgets.

Now, they’re claiming their principles don’t allow that, and holding the country’s credit standings hostage on the insistence that President Joe Biden give in to their demands.

There’s one group, though, for whom they plan to continue offering financial boons even as they prate about the need for a responsible budget: the wealthy.

In fact, if they extend the Trump tax cuts for the wealthy, a Senate Budget report says that will increase the deficit by another $3 trillion — that Republicans won’t want to cover with another debt ceiling increase. From that report:

“According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, extending the Trump tax cuts would create a windfall for the top 5 percent of income earners, who would receive nearly 40 percent of the benefits in the first year alone, making this legislation one of the most regressive and expensive tax giveaways in history. The average taxpayer in the top 1 percent would save nearly $26,000 in just that first year.”

That’s mighty nice for the wealthy 1%, but there are whole households in the United States that don’t make that much in a year — it’s nearly the average amount that a senior on Social Security is expected to live on.

It’s also not very consistent with Republicans’ claims that fiscal responsibility is the reason for their battle over the Biden budget.

Despite this, House Republican leadership is gaslighting the American people, pretending that this is about Democrats refusing to spend less — scroll down for a clip of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy making exactly that claim.

What a default on the debt would do, though, is help Donald Trump’s campaign by providing him with an opportunity to claim that the Biden Administration just can’t get things done.

That’s a positive for his allies in Congress.

For the country, it could do irreparable harm. It could even spur a global financial crisis if the U.S. fails to pay lenders including other nations and banks, NPR reports.

At the citizen level, it could mean government contractors not being paid, money for basics like schools, roads, and national parks being absent, and payments to the aforementioned Social Security recipients, veterans, government employees, and others just not going out.

Republicans are ready to risk all that — but not to raise taxes on wealthy donors.

Stephanie Bazzle
Steph Bazzle is a news writer who covers politics and theocracy, always aiming for a world free from extremism and authoritarianism. Follow Steph on Twitter @imjustasteph. Sign up for all of her stories to be delivered to your inbox here:

© 2022 Occupy Democrats. All Rights Reserved.

Scroll To Top