House Speaker Kevin McCarthy got what he wanted, and desperately needed, on the debt ceiling: An approved plan that he and others in the GOP hope will bring Democrats to the bargaining table.
It was a close-run thing. The final vote – 217 for and 215 against (including all House Democrats and four Republicans) showed McCarthy could get things done in a fractious GOP caucus.
Kudos, then to Mr. McCarthy's organizational skills. But what did he have to promise in return for that narrow victory? Among many other things, he was forced to leave the federal government's costly, inefficient and mechanically destructive ethanol subsidy program alone.
That cheering you hear in the background are Iowa Republicans cheering the fact that the corporate welfare will keep on flowing.
In a joint statement, the Iowa [congressional] delegation said this is a major victory for Iowa:
Since this proposal was unveiled, our delegation has stood united for Iowa's farmers and producers fighting to amend the bill to protect biofuels tax credits. Having successfully amended the bill to protect funding for these tax credits, our delegation will vote for this legislation, which is a starting point to avoid a default and cut wasteful spending. As negotiations continue, we have made it crystal clear that we will not support any bill that eliminates any of these critical biofuels tax credits.
Iowa farmers and producers feed and fuel the world, and we will always have their backs. Now, it is past time for President Joe Biden to stop playing politics with our nation's fiscal health, which means working with us to cut wasteful spending and prevent a catastrophic default.
The unabashed, unironic lack of self-awareness in this statement would be jaw-dropping were it not the base case for subsidies of all sorts in official Washington.
But let's not let these four Republicans off so easily. They are eager to castigate the Biden administration for “playing politics” on the debt ceiling. Fair enough – he is. They are too. But their brand of debt ceiling politics demands a payoff in exchange for their votes. It's an example of the legal plunder that is standard operating procedure for getting legislation passed in Congress.
Let's cheer these four plundering pols, then, for their audacity in demanding that an utterly wasteful, polluting boondoggle be spared. They have provided both a case study in legislative sausage-making and how Republicans are, at heart, as unserious about fiscal restraint as Democrats.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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For the DC Estd
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With all the hunger in the world you would think that there is a better use of corn than to make ethanol. I cannot blame Speaker McCarthy for trying to get the bill passed. If the other 4 RINO’s had voted for the bill, we could have saved more money by trying to shave the top off the ethanol subsidies. Who are the 4 Republicans that joined the Democrats?
This kind of hit piece is exactly why we have debt exceeding $30 trillion dollars. The author of this ridiculous article is essentially saying if we can’t get a perfect utopian bill, we should just kick the can down the road again. Never mind the fact that passing this bill has gotten the Biden administration to come to the negotiation table.
I predict Biden will close the government down for political purposes. The Democrats have done that in the past to tar and feather us Republicans. They will try it again. I hope it doesn’t work this time.
A pyrrhic victory: you won the battle, however most of your soldiers lie slain and your army is decimated and destroyed. Viva classical history!