We're going to default because Biden thinks the playbook that worked last time will work this time, and that he can blame one half of Congress for a responsibility that is shared by the executive.
This worked in an environment where Republicans still feared Wall Street, and where Americans still trusted the media. That gave Obama -- who scuttled a spending agreement -- leverage in 2011.
No one trusts the media, and the Republicans moved first on their own debt limit proposal, which includes a reasonable demand for spending cuts (not the parade of horribles Biden has been citing).
Biden is calculating that Republicans will be blamed for a default. I don't think that is so. People have priced in the Trumpiness of the new, working-class GOP. I think we are headed for the big cliff.
We are about to find out whether it really matters. Biden can try to blame Republicans, but he's the one who refused to negotiate -- after saddling the country with massive, new, unnecessary spending.
This week's show will be slightly different from the norm: we'll focus on clips and topics, rather than guests -- and that, hopefully, will mean more input from the callers (unless you are all watching football on opening weekend).
Topics:
- The state of the economy
- The fight against crime
- The midterm election fight
- The struggle for peace between Russia and Ukraine
- The airstrike on the Venezuelan drug cartel
- The attempt to sink Kennedy
- The war in Gaza
- The case against Harvard
- The Trump presidency
Tune in: SiriusXM Patriot 125, 7-10 p.m. ET / 4-7 p.m. PT
Call: 866-957-2874
This week's Torah portion includes several laws about conduct in civic and personal life, the common theme of which is boundaries -- setting bounds to what one may do at home, at work, and even in the battlefield.
One noteworthy passage concerns Amalek, the evil nation that attacked the Children of Israel as they made their Exodus from slavery to freedom. Deuteronomy 25:17-19 commands Jews to obliterate Amalek's memory.
The South African government accused Israel of genocide on the basis of a story about Amalek in the Book of Samuel, in which King Saul was commanded to wipe out the entire evil Amalekite nation.
Because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quoted this week's portion -- "Remember what Amalek did to you" (25:17), the South African government claimed he was commanding soldiers to commit genocide.
It was an absurd and malevolent misreading of the Bible and of Jewish tradition. The commandment, as observed by Jews today, is to remember the evil of Amalek and fight ...
