While I am in Madison I should perhaps put forward another brief miscellany in no particular order:

  • I am astounded that we are so quickly heading toward a possible sovereign default crisis here in the United States. We have stepped beyond brinksmanship and are shifting towards a “Thelma and Louise” moment.
    • We already have people saying that the chaos at the start of this Congress in the House was a good thing even though that’s where this mad scheme was hatched
    • The United States of America will hit its debt ceiling on Thursday, January 19th
    • A commentator at Fox News is already calling for a form of Gramm-Rudman-Hollings on steroids
    • Spending cuts are required under the recently adopted rules package for the House before any increase in the debt ceiling can even be considered. Yes, that means potentially cutting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid pretty hard. If we can’t cut those and we can’t cut the military then we would end up shutting down entire cabinet departments and putting large parts of the government out of business.
      • The Constitution specifies the federal government having a military and a postal system in addition to the courts as well as agencies to regulate interstate commerce.
      • Many agencies like the US Department of Education would simply have to be terminated.
      • I wish I were making stuff up but these are the sorts of things the MAGA caucus wants to do if folks like Lauren Boebert are to be believed
    • Default could happen in June if nothing is done
    • In the proposed payment prioritization plan mentioned by Yahoo! News, payments would be made for only certain critical areas while the rest would just go unpaid.
      • Social Security, Medicare, veterans benefits, and the military would be protected under such a plan
      • No other bills would be paid by the Bureau of the Fiscal Service during such a plan
      • Medicaid recipients would be left in a bad position
      • Federal civilian staff would be left unpaid
      • Air traffic controllers would be left unpaid
      • What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
  • Fundraising efforts are being accelerated for the television project
  • Life gets amusing in the weirdest ways