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| Government Corruption | |
| Controlled chaos: US Congress exchanges rainbow flag for $1.2 trillion | |
| 2024-03-26 | |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Malek Dudakov [REGNUM] Washington is mired in budget wars. For more than six months, since September 2023, the American Congress has not been able to cope with its basic responsibility - the adoption of federal budgets. Battles over funding the US government have already cost one Speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, his seat. Now current Speaker Mike Johnson is at risk of following in his footsteps. And this will plunge the US political system into hardware paralysis on the eve of the elections. Since last fall, American lawmakers have had to live literally paycheck to paycheck.
There is a right wing of Republicans, which in every possible way demands that its leadership sharply reduce government spending; they are panicking because of the rapid growth and deficit of the US budget and the American national debt. In 2023, the deficit was $2 trillion; in 2024 it will approach three trillion. The national debt increases by 1 trillion every three to four months. It would seem that it’s not a problem, because America can always print more unsecured dollars. But from the spring of 2022, the United States had to tighten the screws on inflation, stop the uncontrolled emission of money and sharply increase the key rate. Therefore, now the growing public debt has begun to put very painful pressure on the budget. Let's say that last year it took $1 trillion to pay interest on the national debt - this is already more than America spends on all its military expenses. Among the Republicans there are those who demand that spending on social services and military services be reduced at the same time. There are hawks for whom the military budget is sacred and cannot be encroached upon. And in the camp of Democrats they really want to spend as much as possible on everything at once. It is very difficult for these groups to come to a compromise, which is why US budget policy is so stalled. This has also manifested itself against the backdrop of the current battles. By March 22, lawmakers had to urgently pass a budget to avoid a shutdown or suspension of the US government. It will last for six months, until the end of September, which is also not a long period. Republicans managed to include some of their symbolic initiatives in the $1.2 trillion budget proposal. For example, they forced the State Department to ban the display of rainbow flags on its embassy buildings around the world. And also the FBI budget is being cut by about 6% - this is a kind of retaliatory measure in defiance of the feds, whom Republicans are now accusing of persecuting Donald Trump. The US military budget will be $825 billion and will grow by only a couple of percent, which is below inflation. It allocates only $300 million to resume arms purchases to replace what was spent in Ukraine. The numbers are very small and are much lower than the 60 billion requested by the White House. The voting results in Congress are indicative: in the lower house, 130 Republicans, or 60% of their faction, opposed it. It was possible to pass the budget bill only due to the votes of the Democrats. Many Republicans were unhappy with their speaker's deal with the Democratic Party, wanting to cut government spending much more. Some legislators were not even at all against arranging a shutdown of Joe Biden's government. The first reaction to the budget approval was a petition for the speaker's resignation on behalf of Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, an influential Trump supporter. The procedure for recalling the speaker has been greatly simplified since 2023: only the signatures of five congressmen are enough, and it is put to a vote. And then, if even 3-5 right-wing Republicans, along with the Democrats, vote against Speaker Johnson, he will automatically lose his post. There are no plans to vote on this petition any time soon. But Marjorie Taylor Greene intends to use it as a real sword of Damocles over her own speaker. This could be very useful to her in the near future. Right now, Congress is going on another two-week recess before returning after April 9th. Then legislators will have two working weeks, when the already sore issue of Ukrainian trenches will be on the agenda. The White House continues to insist on the allocation of $95 billion, of which 60 will go to Ukraine and the rest will be divided between Israel and Taiwan. Approximately 12 billion will be provided in the form of new tranches to Kyiv, and the rest of the money will go to the Pentagon to produce new weapons to replace those lost on the Ukrainian front. Hawks among Republicans, such as Senator Lindsey Graham, who recently visited Kiev, are proposing to allocate this 12 billion in the form of a loan. This is how they try to cajole their electorate, which is already tired of the war in Ukraine and demands not to spend money on it. Everyone understands that Kyiv will never repay these loans. Therefore, it is proposed to issue them on the security of Russian assets in the United States, amounting to $30–40 billion, in order to then begin to seize them after the defeat of Ukraine. But even such “schematas” do not please the right wing of the Republicans, who play on the growth of isolationism among voters. After all, the majority of Americans - and two-thirds of ordinary Republicans - do not consider it necessary to allocate new tranches to Kyiv. The Ukrainian agenda is becoming increasingly toxic in the face of constant failures and retreats of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Therefore, now the Trumpist Republicans under the leadership of Marjorie Taylor Greene will literally blackmail their speaker. If he puts a bill with Ukrainian-Israeli tranches to a vote, he will be subject to a recall procedure. And they will simply be thrown out of office, as happened with previous Speaker McCarthy in September. Mike Johnson found himself in a very difficult position. For now, he promises to prioritize migration issues and try to strengthen the security of the US southern border, which is being stormed by hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants. And only then take on the issue of Ukraine. The speaker may propose to allocate a small symbolic amount in support of Kyiv, which the White House will definitely not accept. Isolationists hope to continue to delay the procedure for allocating tranches in Congress. After April 23, lawmakers will go on vacation again, and they will have few working days in May. With the November elections ahead, congressmen and senators are spending most of their time “in the field,” working with voters. This will take the lion's share of the summer months. Only in September will Congress work more actively, when the next round of budget sharing is on the agenda. But the closer the elections are, the less appetite legislators will have to allocate tranches to the Ukrainian conflict, which has become unpopular in the United States. If Speaker Johnson is nevertheless overthrown, then Congress will plunge into real administrative chaos. It is quite possible that a new speaker will not be chosen until after the elections. And there will no longer be time for Ukrainian trenches - all the work of the Congress will be completely paralyzed. Well, one person becomes the beneficiary of the situation - Donald Trump. He, through his supporters, launched the processes of controlled chaos in Congress and is reaping the benefits. It is now much easier for Trump to conduct campaigns criticizing the “Washington swamp,” which is incapable of governing the country. And at the same time, it complicates the situation for Ukraine with the blocking of trenches. After all, if the Ukrainian front begins to crumble in the summer and autumn, then it will bury the entire Biden presidency with it. | |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #3 ^ If it were only so simple. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2024-03-26 16:28 |
| #2 ^^^ The part about the Washington swamp being unable to run the country is certainly true. I like Elon Musk's precedent of firing 80% of the staff at Twitter/X. It seems to have worked out pretty well. Donald, please do the same in Washington! |
| Posted by: Tom 2024-03-26 15:54 |
| #1 The last paragraph is not entirely believable, but I hope his 'bury Biden' conclusion is plausible. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2024-03-26 10:32 |