The GOP House of Representatives, Shutting Down the Government

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   peoplepower73posted 19 months ago

   The new House of Representatives is ready to shut down the government because they don’t want to pay for the countries bills that were accrued in the last fiscal year. So they want to hold the country hostage until they get what they want, which is to lower spending for the next fiscal year. 
   
   However, that debt has to be paid sooner or later and the debt ceiling has to be raised in order to fund the next fiscal year. The National Debt is different.  When a president takes office, they assume the national debt that was created by the previous president.
   
   After watching Marjory Taylor Green, Lauren Boebert, George Santos, Kevin McCarthy, and the entire crew of the GOP Freshman House of Representatives, I can now understand their motives and behavior   It’s all about the Dunning-Kruger Effect. 
   
   The Dunning-Kruger effect is: "People with low skill levels draw wrong conclusions and make wrong decisions, but they are unable to make mistakes because of their low skill levels."
   
   Let's decipher: the lack of understanding of the mistakes committed leads to the conviction of one's own correctness and, as a result, an increased confidence in one's own decisions and in oneself, as well as the awareness of one's superiority.
   
   Thus, the Dunning-Kruger effect is a psychological paradox that we all often face in life: less competent people see themselves as professionals, while more competent people tend to doubt themselves and their own abilities fade. The lower the skill level, the greater the confidence in oneself.
   
   The starting point of their research Dunning and Kruger called Charles Darwin's famous claims: "Ignorance breeds confidence more often than knowledge" and Bertrand Russell: "It is one of the unfortunate things of our time that those who are confident are stupid, and those who have imagination or understanding are full of doubt and indecision."
   
   This explains a lot about why people who are not qualified to be in government positions were elected and are now in positions of influence, especially the GOP House.

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      wildernessposted 19 months agoin reply to this

      "The new House of Representatives is ready to shut down the government because they don’t want to pay for the countries bills that were accrued in the last fiscal year."
      
      As always the truth is the loser.  The House is ready to shut down in order to begin the end of the massive deficit spending that is killing our country...while opponents refuse to agree to anything but more spending.  The demands of the Republicans have nothing to do with past bills, but only with future spending habits.  On the other hand Democrats refuse to address the spending, demanding that bills be paid without any agreement to address a known, ruinous problem.

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      Sharlee01posted 19 months agoin reply to this

      I would think that the Government debt is getting very much out of control. We may be entering a situation that is unique, and dangerous to not only America but the world.
      
      Please consider, what could happen if the US debt keeps rising.
      The higher the national debt becomes, the more the U.S. is seen as a global credit risk.   This could impact the U.S.'s ability to borrow money in times of increased global pressure and put us at risk for not being able to meet our obligations to our allies—especially in wartime. At this point, we are supporting a proxy war. We are spending billions on the Ukraine war.
      
      So, let's consider where the US borrows cash to support our budget spending. Because this is very important and deserves consideration.
      
      Many people are under the impression that much of the U.S. national debt is owed to foreign countries. And that we have no real problems securing loans.  Yes, we do borrow lots of money from countries such as  China and Japan. https://www.statista.com/statistics/246 … sury-debt/
      
      However, the truth is that most of what the US owed is to Social Security and pension funds right here in the U.S. This means that U.S. citizens own most of the national debt.
      
      So, do you feel we should keep an open debt ceiling? Do you feel we actually can continue to spend and borrow? 
      
      Yes, we have followed this path for years --- But can we continue to follow this path?
      
      The higher the national debt becomes, the more the U.S. is seen as a global credit risk  What if it becomes a problem to borrow? What if we are charged a higher percentage to borrow?
      
      Perhaps it is not so irresponsible for the Republicans to say, we need to become more responsible with our spending, and not be on board with lifting the debt ceiling.

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         Fayetteville Fayeposted 19 months agoin reply to this

         Well they had no qualms about lifting the debt ceiling three times under Mr Trump's administration after his tax cut ballooned the deficit by 7 trillion under that administration.  So now is the time to act? More performative politics.  They need to stop playing a game of chicken with the economy.

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            peoplepower73posted 19 months agoin reply to this

            Faye;  This is to backup your comment about Trump and his Tax Cut.
            
            https://www.propublica.org/article/national-debt-trump

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         peoplepower73posted 19 months agoin reply to this

         Sharlee: 
         
         We do have a proxy war with Russia.  Would you rather have us cut off funding to Ukraine?  The alternative is we go to war with Russia.
         
         We have to pay the debt we incurred in the previous fiscal year.  I don't care how long they shutdown the government.  The government was shutdown in the past and it reduced our credit rating on the world market.
         
         The debt ceiling has to be raised in order to fund our needs for the next fiscal year.  Social Security is on both sides of the equation.  It is revenue when people pay into it, but also an expense when the treasury pays it out.  Privatizing it presents opportunity to those who take advantage of people who are not savvy about investing..
         
         The current shutdown mantra is a powerplay by the GOP house and is an exercise in futility.  Do you think Biden and the senate will approve such a bill. Each president inherits the national debt of the previous president when they take office. Trump inherited Obama's national debt and whoever becomes the next president will inherit Biden's national debt.
         
         Here is the conclusion I wrote in hub pages about the national debt in June of 2022
         
         Each president and congress talk about reducing the deficit and/or balancing the budget. There are really only two variables that have to be dealt with: income (taxes) and spending (expenses). But there is one sub-variable on the spending side of the equation and that is interest on the debt. The country is so far in debt that it can't even pay the interest on the debt. It has to take on more debt by issuing different types of bonds to various public, private, and foreign entities.
         
         Various scenarios have been put forth to reduce the deficit. They include the following:
         
         Lowering taxes and cutting spending
         Raising taxes and cutting spending
         Lowering taxes and raising spending
         Raising taxes and raising spending
         
         Conclusion
         
         All of these scenarios will have an impact on the economy and job creation. But given the amount of debt that has been created, I don't see any of these being able to reduce the deficit by any great degree. It begs many questions:
         
         Have we come to a way of life, where we will live with debt for the foreseeable future?
         
         Does it really matter that we have a debt and deficit if the government can issues bonds that create more debt?
         
         Are we in a vicious cycle of debt creation?
         
         When a person or organization cannot pay their bills, they are bankrupt. Is this country bankrupt, but the government won't tell us?
         
         Should the government be compared to a business if it can create money by issuing bonds?
         
         Here is the current national debt clock in real time.
         
         https://www.usdebtclock.org/index.html

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            Sharlee01posted 19 months agoin reply to this

            "We do have a proxy war with Russia.  Would you rather have us cut off funding to Ukraine?  The alternative is we go to war with Russia."
            
            You miss reading the context of my mention of the war. My point --- we are spending a lot of money at this point on many things that are to be considered.
            
            My comment was to point out, the buck must stop somewhere or we as a Nation will be in trouble, and could literally take down the world's economy with us.
            
            All your points are valid and make wonderful sense.   My response was just pointing out another side of raising the debt ceiling.

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   Kathryn L Hillposted 19 months ago

   uh, many politicians on the left, in front of cameras, read from their notes as though they have never seen them before. They apparently are given the words to read out loud and they read them very obediently. After all, they can read. They are that smart, after all!
   
   However, if they understood what they read and the ramifications of what they read, they wouldn't read them. So, they are not that smart!
   Am I very smart for noticing this phenomenon?
   Not really. It is very obvious to anyone who watches these politicians.

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