{"id":38658,"date":"2023-04-29T17:27:34","date_gmt":"2023-04-29T22:27:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=38658"},"modified":"2023-04-29T17:27:34","modified_gmt":"2023-04-29T22:27:34","slug":"alternative-explanations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2023\/04\/29\/alternative-explanations\/","title":{"rendered":"Alternative Explanations"},"content":{"rendered":"

WaPo’s<\/strong><\/em> Dana Milbank could be more generous<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Jen Kiggans had the haunted look of a woman about to walk the plank.<\/p>\n

The first-term Republican from Virginia barely took her eyes off her text Wednesday as she read it aloud on the House floor. She tripped over words and used her fingers to keep her place on the page.<\/p>\n

The anxiety was understandable. Like about 30 other House Republicans from vulnerable districts, she was about to vote in favor of the GOP\u2019s plan to force spending cuts of about $4.8 trillion<\/a>\u00a0as the ransom to be paid for avoiding a default on the federal debt.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Poetic, yes. But it’s worth noting that, at age 51, it could easily be that her eyesight is beginning to betray her.<\/p>\n

But I do appreciate the balance of Milbank’s opinion piece, especially this:<\/p>\n

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At the start of this manufactured debt-limit crisis, I worried that ideological extremism might drive the nation to a first-ever default. But an equal threat to America\u2019s full faith and credit may be incompetence. Those in the House majority don\u2019t know what they don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

The Treasury is forecast to go into default in June. But Rep. Tim Burchett (Tenn.), emerging from the GOP caucus meeting Wednesday morning, told a group of us that \u201cwe\u2019re not going to default.\u201d Why? \u201cI think September\u2019s the actual drop-dead date, so we\u2019re good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coming out of the same meeting, Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) still seemed confused about what happens when the government defaults. (Hint: It has nothing to do with a government shutdown.) \u201cLet the Senate shut the government down,\u201d he proclaimed. \u201cLet them take the heat for shutting it down.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the Rules Committee hearing, Rep. Tom Massie (R-Ky.) offered his view that the Federal Reserve is \u201cnot an independent agency.\u201d (It is.)<\/p>\n

And, as The Post\u2019s Paul Kane reported<\/a>, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (Minn.), Burchett and others have been erroneously claiming that they drafted the debt-limit bill using a process known as the \u201ccommittee of the whole.\u201d That is an actual procedure on the House floor \u2014 but it has absolutely nothing to do with the backroom shenanigans Republicans used to write their bill.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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Fourth raters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WaPo’s Dana Milbank could be more generous: Jen Kiggans had the haunted look of a woman about to walk the plank. The first-term Republican from Virginia barely took her eyes off her text Wednesday as she read it aloud on the House floor. She tripped over words and used her \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38658"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38659,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38658\/revisions\/38659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}