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Oldandintheway's avatar

It’s time for President Biden to go on primetime national TV and give a speech from the Oval Office.

He has to excoriate the House Republicans for being terrorists, and wanting to destroy the government rather than doing their job of legislating. He should include the following points.

— The US is obligated to pay its debts. It’s the way we do business with ourselves and the world. Without trust, our economy will collapse.

— It’s clear these Republicans can’t be trusted. Many of them actively tried to illegally overturn an election.

— Most of this deficit was created under Trump with the Republican tax cut. They can raise taxes on those who benefited if they want to have an honest solution. Note that they never cared about overspending under any Republican administration.

— They seem to have learned their economic policies from how Trump ran his business — going bankrupt without regard to who it hurts, ruining trust, while blaming others.

— These people seem to have no idea how to legislate, and no interest in learning. They are advocating ridiculous positions that will hurt all Americans, such as getting rid of Social Security, Medicare, and healthcare.

— They are irrational, and impossible to deal with as they don’t seem to care about the consequences of their actions. They just want to get on TV and raise money.

— They are difficult to deal with because we don’t even know who they are. Some can’t even tell us where they worked or how they raised their money. Many are closely associated with white supremacy groups, the same groups that have been convicted of sedition.

— The country needs to tell these people that they swore an oath to the Constitution, not to chaos and secret wealthy donors.

Biden has to do this with a caring, firm tone. He has to start now, and keep hammering away at it so that the country knows who is creating this useless crisis.

I hope he doesn’t look too old and staggering while doing it.

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Jan 20, 2023
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rlritt's avatar

Well that's it. If we default and go into an economic depression as result, the Republican party will be finished. The trick would be to make sure Fox Nws doesn't lie about it.

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Stelladona's avatar

the entire global economy will lapse into a depression. the not freedom caucus does not understand economics at all

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rlritt's avatar

I agree

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Peter H.'s avatar

Didn't he do just that in last September's speech in front of Independence Hall? I recall the overwhelming reaction from the press was tsk-tsking about him setting the wrong tone and needing to be a uniter or some such nonsense. Probably best to let others do the dirty work.

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Jeff's avatar

I agree. Who is the messenger for this though? Former presidents? It seems every time a Republican dare speak out about the carnival of chaos, they are immediately shunned and disregarded by the base.

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Kate Fall's avatar

The Bushes aren't going to speak up. Their younger members are in on the grift.

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Jeff's avatar

Right! I can’t think of anyone that can actually change the minds of the MAGAcolytes. It’s not a logic thing for them, it’s all base emotion and lack of understanding driving them. So many would have to confront and challenge what their own beliefs are for them to change. I just don’t see anyone cracking through the cognitive dissonance armor they choose to wear.

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Oldandintheway's avatar

But there are the people who don’t usually pay attention until two weeks before an election. And there are an increasing number of folk, even on this site, who have given up on being Republican.

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Keith Sherman's avatar

I agree with you wholeheartedly. But that doesn't make it not worth doing. And it has to be Biden doing it. Nobody else has the chops, frankly . . .

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Amy H.'s avatar

This message is desperately needed for traditional conservatives and the right leaning Indies. MAGAverse will never change. Swing voters, however, decide elections. They must be reached.

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rlritt's avatar

I don't think anyone can. Look at Liz Cheney. There is not one Republican that has her sterling conservative credentials. So committed to United States law that she sacrificed her career to tell the truth. Look how the Republicans treated her. They clearly have no conservative principles.

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Paul K. Ogden's avatar

Actually most of the debt was created with all the stimulus spending during Covid-19. I'd love to blame this on Donald Trump's tax cut, but that wouldn't be accurate.

Good luck getting the American people to understand how the debt ceiling works.

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Kate Fall's avatar

Our national debt exploded under Trump before the pandemic took place. However, pandemic relief is a huge chunk of the debt. I don't blame anyone of either party for the costs of COVID relief - that's like Act of God emergency. It's just that this is the whole reason you don't multiply the debt in good times. Bad times are inevitable. https://www.propublica.org/article/national-debt-trump

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KMD's avatar

Former FL Republican Congressman David Jolly (no longer a Republican) posted this recently: “Roughly 25% of our total national debt incurred over the last 230 years actually occurred during the 4 years of the Trump administration. That’s right. 25% of our entire national debt, all during the Trump years.”

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NLTownie's avatar

The only people who would watch it are Democrats. Fox & Co. certainly wouldn’t carry it. The people who need to hear it won’t. And if they did, they wouldn’t believe it because it’s “fake news”. The Republican Party is now, officially, a cult.

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SandyG's avatar

Brilliantly stated.

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