{"id":366,"date":"2023-12-17T20:46:41","date_gmt":"2023-12-18T01:46:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/growpurpose.com\/skipjack\/?p=366"},"modified":"2023-12-17T20:46:41","modified_gmt":"2023-12-18T01:46:41","slug":"catastrophe-and-calamity-loom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/growpurpose.com\/skipjack\/2023\/12\/17\/catastrophe-and-calamity-loom\/","title":{"rendered":"Catastrophe and Calamity Loom"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m alarmed at how few people are alarmed at what is going on in Congress right now, for two reasons.\u00a0 We stand on the threshold of an international catastrophe like the world has never known, and a separate national devastation resulting from refusals to compromise.<\/p>\n

The two thresholds:<\/p>\n

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  1. President Biden asked Congress for $105.5 billion for an array of projects that include helping Ukraine in its war with Russia. Most everyone in Congress wants it — except the Republicans\u2019 far-right fringe, which refuses to let it pass unless Biden agrees to everything it wants in an unrelated bill. If the fringe gets its way and Congress fails to approve Biden\u2019s request, it will lead to a worldwide catastrophe the likes of which it has never seen.\u00a0 It\u2019s already beginning and Putin\u2019s Russians are ecstatic about it.<\/li>\n
  2. Congress must adopt a budget by Sept. 30 of each year or the government shuts down.\u00a0 It failed to agree on a budget by that deadline this year, so Congress adopted a Continuing Resolution (CR) that extended its life, in major cases, to Feb. 2.\u00a0 But there\u2019s a limit to CR\u2019s use, so if the parties haven\u2019t found a compromise\u00a0 by Feb. 2 the resolution will expire, renewal will not be possible, all discretionary spending will be automatically and indiscriminately stopped, and funding for some of the federal government\u2019s most important and most sensitive programs will lose all funding, and we\u2019ll be in a national calamity.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Okay, granted, these are worst-case scenarios.\u00a0 But unless the Republican Party decides that MAGA is not the party it wants to be, they are very real possibilities.<\/p>\n

    The problem is that Congress has been able to pass only one bill since Republicans took control of the House after the 2022 Midterm Elections.\u00a0 That was the annual National Defense Authorization Act, but now it has seven weeks in which to compromise on a boxcar full of what appear to be uncompromisable major issues, and three of those weeks are being taken up with Christmas recess.\u00a0 Is it possible to come out of this whole?<\/p>\n

    Let me expand on all that to see clearly where we are, how we got here, and what we can do now.<\/p>\n

    As for the looming worldwide catastrophe, President Biden asked Congress for $105.5 billion to support, among several other things, Ukraine\u2019s war with Russia.\u00a0 The bill\u2019s passage is mandatory for the world because if America turns its back on Ukraine, Ukraine will almost certainly fall to Russia, Russia\u2019s relationships with China and North Korea will strengthen dramatically, and an awakening and strengthening Bear will have a clear path to rebuilding the Soviet Union.\u00a0 Poland next?<\/p>\n

    What would stop it?\u00a0 The European members of NATO certainly could not trust the United States to join their defense should Russia attack a NATO country \u2013 after all, if we turn our backs on Ukraine, why wouldn\u2019t we turn our backs on them?– and NATO without the United States could not pretend to stand up to a newly strengthened Russia, especially a newly strengthened China-backed Russia.<\/p>\n

    Again, worst-case\u00a0 scenarios.\u00a0 But very possible.<\/p>\n

    Most members of both parties in Congress support Biden\u2019s request, and even though polls show that Americans\u2019 support for Ukraine might be waning, most Americans still support it.<\/p>\n

    But the House Republicans\u2019 extreme-rightwing members are refusing to let it happen unless they get every detail they want in a completely unrelated bill.<\/p>\n

    They demand an immigration bill that would significantly narrow the right to apply for asylum in the United States, even though U.S. and international law recognize that right. Their bill would prevent the federal government from permitting blanket asylum in emergency cases, such as for Afghan and Ukrainian refugees.\u00a0 It would end the asylum program that permits people to enter the United States with a sponsor.\u00a0 And it would require the government to build Trump\u2019s wall, including giving the government power to take private land wherever needed to do it.<\/p>\n

    Biden offered to compromise, but the extremists would have no part in compromise.\u00a0 They told him that if Congress changed even one word of their bill they would head home for their scheduled three-week recess and the bill be damned.<\/p>\n

    After all, they don\u2019t care what\u00a0 happens to Ukraine.\u00a0 They don\u2019t want to support Ukraine anyway, so it matters not a whit to them if Ukraine loses its funding.\u00a0 Neither do they care what the grown-ups in their own party say, and neither did they care what anybody else thinks. Either accept our bill exactly as it is or we\u2019re going home.<\/p>\n

    As House Speaker Mike Johnson(D-La.) put it, \u201cWe must secure our own border before we secure another country\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

    So they went home, paralyzing Congress from accomplishing anything until members return to Washington on Jan. 9, which will be just four weeks before the national calamity is due to hit.<\/p>\n

    Democrats, both capital-D Democrats and lower-case-d democrats, hate what the right-wing fringe is doing.\u00a0 Those fringe Republicans think they are being patriotic by trying to get rid of that that communist Joe Biden, but in reality they are inflicting harm on America\u2019s well-earned reputation as a reliable global leader, and even a dependable partner, in a very dangerous world.<\/p>\n

    White House spokesman Andrew Bates said it well when he wrote in a memo, “As President Biden works hard to make American families safer every day, congressional Republicans are actively undermining our national security interests \u2014 both domestically and the world \u2014 because they\u2019d rather go on vacation than do their jobs,”<\/p>\n

    Russians are loving it.<\/p>\n

    \u201cWell done Republicans!\u201d gloated one Moscow broadcaster.\u00a0 \u201cThey\u2019re standing firm!\u00a0 That\u2019s good for us!\u201d<\/p>\n

    Another predicted the Republicans\u2019 actions would cause the downfall of Ukraine, and \u201cthe downfall of Ukraine means the downfall of Biden.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Others reveled in telling their listeners that the Republicans had given Putin a great gift, that Ukraine now was in \u201cagony,\u201d and that it was \u201cdifficult to imagine a bigger humiliation.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Viktor Orban, Hungary\u2019s far-right prime minister and friend of Putin, piled on.\u00a0 He sent allies to Washington to openly urge their right-wing counterparts in Congress to join him in backing Putin.<\/p>\n

    And it worked.\u00a0\u00a0 Their Republican comrades in America\u2019s Congress went home with\u00a0 crucial work left undone.<\/p>\n

    So much for the looming catastrophe.\u00a0 Now a few words about the pending calamity.<\/p>\n

    Among other things Congress must do by Feb. 2 \u2013 and again, no extension of time is possible \u2013 is authorize operations for three major federal programs.\u00a0 The cumulative effect of cutting for all three simultaneously would be calamitous. The three are:<\/p>\n

    The Farm Bill.\u00a0 <\/strong>The Farm Bill supports major commodity crops like wheat, corn and soybeans, and provides nutrition assistance for low-income households through programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.\u00a0 All these programs will expire if the parties cannot agree on a bill.<\/p>\n

    The National\u00a0 Flood Insurance Program.<\/strong>\u00a0 If this program isn\u2019t renewed it will not be able to provide new flood insurance contracts and neither homeowners nor\u00a0 business owners affected by flooding will not be able to repair or rebuild their homes,<\/p>\n

    The Federal Aviation Administration.\u00a0 <\/strong>When Congress allowed FAA authorization to expire for two weeks in 2011 it stopped more than $10 billion in national airspace and support projects, halted 200 FAA-funded construction projects, and withheld $2.5 billion in grants to new airport projects.\u00a0 That sort of thing would resume if its funding were cut.<\/p>\n

    Maybe the good news is that the shock of clearly seeing where our path is inexorably leading us will wake us up, all of us, but especially the rightwing Republicans in Congress.\u00a0 Hopefully, seeing that they\u2019ve run out of time to accomplish truly crucial work will force them to realize they can\u2019t play games anymore.\u00a0 Hopefully, Congress\u2019 grown-up Republicans will break the logjam in time to save the world from catastrophe, the nation from calamity, and resume doing what we sent them there to do.<\/p>\n

    All this obviously can be especially good for Democrats.\u00a0 Come November people will remember that Republicans were in control through all this and they have nothing to show for it.\u00a0 They haven\u2019t even accomplished their most basic responsibilities.\u00a0 And Democrats, including lower-case democrats, will remember which party purposefully drove us to the cliff\u2019s edge \u2013 or, who knows, over it.<\/p>\n

    Add that to the fact that lawsuits are active all over the nation demanding that the Republicans\u2019 super-gerrymandering be undone before the 2024 General Election\u2026<\/p>\n

    And things could be looking up for Democrats in all three branches.<\/p>\n

    Again, al blue tsunami is coming — if we vote.<\/em><\/p>\n

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