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Ruin Kevin McCarthy's week. Tell your member of Congress to pass a clean funding bill [1]

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Date: 2023-04-25  

A clean funding bill that raises the debt limit does not authorize or allocate new federal spending; It simply allows the U.S. Treasury to borrow funds to cover spending already approved by Congress. It was extended three times during the Trump years without negotiations, because failing to do so would result in the United States defaulting on its debt.

Technically, we already reached the debt limit in January—when Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Congress we had already spent all that had been authorized. Congress should have passed a clean funding bill at the time to prevent a catastrophic default. But because they did not, the Treasury Department has been using "extraordinary measures" Yellen wrote, to prevent default—measures that will be exhausted sometime this summer.

And that's where we are, three months later. Kevin McCarthy still insists on "negotiating" a debt limit extension, which is code for demanding unpalatable and inhumane cuts. And threatening to throw our entire country over a cliff if we don't bend to his demands.

Granted, we all know how Kevin McCarthy is a puppet of Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and other MAGA extremists. But the bigger story here is the so-called "moderate" Republicans who enable this extortion. To defeat McCarthy's gambit, we need to pressure these members—make them feel the heat for enabling this extremism.

There were 18 House Republicans that represent districts that Joe Biden won in 2020. As Paul Waldman and Greg Sargent wrote in the Washington Post: "If they fear association with MAGA and the Freedom Caucus, they might ultimately support a clean debt limit hike rather than tie themselves to extremely unpopular budget cuts being used as a tool of extortion."

So where does that leave us? If you live in a Biden district represented by a Republican, we absolutely need you to send a message to your member of Congress today. Tell them these proposed budget cuts are a disaster, and you resent Kevin McCarthy's extortionist moves.

If your Congress member is a Democrat, tell them to hold firm. We don't expect any House Democrat to vote for McCarthy's outrageous stunt, but some of them are publicly saying that Biden must "negotiate"—which is absolutely not helpful at all. Seriously. WTF are they doing?

And if your member of Congress is a Republican from a Trump district, we still need you to give them a piece of your mind. Even the most extreme MAGA Republicans don't want to get pressure from actual constituents about budget cuts. And getting them to oppose McCarthy's measure (no matter why they oppose it) is good if it can deny him passage with 218 votes.

Sign and send the petition to your member of Congress: No outrageous budget cuts. Pass a clean funding bill to avert a financial meltdown, and move on.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/25/2165840/-Ruin-Kevin-McCarthy-s-week-Tell-your-member-of-Congress-to-pass-a-clean-funding-bill

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