Quite a difference between what Democrats will do and what Republicans will do

Once again Iowa’s Republican members of the US House shamed the state by voting not to raise the debt ceiling and thus cause the US to default on its debts. This was not a vote to spend more money, but to pay the bills for the debt that all congresses have run up since the beginning of the republic. 

Were the US to default on paying its bills – literally refusing to pay debt it incurred through our democratic process – it would throw the international economic systems into chaos. Voting against raising the debt ceiling is a vote against the country itself. That is what Iowa’s Republican delegation voted for Thursday evening.

Perhaps Iowa’s Republicans do not understand what such a vote means. Makes a person wonder how people who attain the power to cause such potential damage could be SO ignorant of the consequences of their votes. How can Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Ashley Hinson and Randy Feenstra be in congress and be so totally uninformed of the consequences? 

My guess is that the information they get in their lives is so slanted and false that they are incapable of making well considered decisions. If that is true then Iowa’s voters have an obligation to vote them out of office due to their own self-imposed ignorance. Iowa and the country can not continue to support such ignorance that leads to such bad decisions.

Remember that the Republican Party contributed mightily to the debt that they now vote to refuse to pay. 

• Since the days of Richard Nixon taking the Viet Nam war out of his budget to the days of 
• Ronald Reagan’s tax cuts for the wealthy and military build up that greatly increased the debt to the days of 
• Bush I’s tax cuts for the wealthy to 
• his son’s (George W’s) HUGE tax cuts for the wealthy and his wars against Iraq and Afghanistan. These were wars for which there were no taxing to pay for the wars. The first war on a credit card in our history to
• The previous president whose $1.7 Trillion tax cut for the wealthy really bumped the debt.

All those tax cuts for the wealthy have done nothing to stimulate the economy as was promised. All they have done is moved tax payer money from the poor and middle class to the wealthiest 1%. 

Iowa’s Republicans in congress ignore the massive spending, unpaid wars and massive give-aways to the wealthy to jibber-jabber about Democratic proposals to stimulate the economy. Analyses of the Democratic proposals have shown that the spending proposed and the taxes proposed will pay for the spending. They also show that real stimulation to the economy will pour money into the economy that may pay down some of the debt.

By their own votes Iowa’s House Republicans have shown themselves to be simply too ignorant of the issues – especially economic issues – to remain in congress. They are either incidentally ignorant or purposely ignorant. Either way they are too ignorant of issues to remain nonsuch powerful positions.

From Heather Cox Richardson we also are reminded of this unintended consequence:  

The struggle in Ukraine illustrates the deep connection between the strength of the U.S. economy and our national security—something to keep in mind when former president Trump calls for Republicans to refuse to lift the debt ceiling and force the country to default on our debts in order to try to kill the Democrats’ agenda.

We have a duty to remove them next fall. Iowans have excellent choices in Iowa-01 in the person of Christina Bohannon and in in Iowa-02 in the person of the highly experienced Liz Mathis.