Democrats in Congress are big mad that Joe Biden might make some basic concessions on the debt ceiling. Republicans, having passed a plan to avoid a default on the national debt weeks ago, have been waiting for the White House to decide whether to play ball or not.
Meanwhile, Democrats like Sen. John Fetterman and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have been insisting that the president not negotiate and instead use the 14th Amendment. Apparently, they don’t realize that any use of such a provision, even if it’s found to be legal by the courts (and that’s iffy, at best), would only allow the paying down of current debt, not the continued spending binge Democrats want.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal took things a step further on Tuesday, though, appearing to threaten violence if radical Democrats don’t get their way. She made her comments while standing next to Ocasio-Cortez and being questioned by reporters on the Capitol steps.
Do tell me, what exactly would a “huge backlash” in the “streets” look like? Would that include rioting “in the streets?” If not, then it wouldn’t be much of a backlash, right? I mean, it is coming up on left-wing riot season, so it wouldn’t surprise me if violence was on the table. Also, how does Jayapal know that such a backlash will occur? Is she connected with various groups that would carry out this backlash?
It doesn’t matter what her intention was, though, because I’ve been assured that such language is “stochastic terrorism” and is equal to a direct call to violence. Remember when Donald Trump suggested there would be protests over his indictment in Manhattan by DA Alvin Bragg, and MSNBC, CNN, and others insisted he was calling for violence? Or when the former president used the phrase “fight like hell,” and was likewise accused of inciting a riot?
Well, the funny thing about standards is that they apply to everyone, including Jayapal. Will the FBI be paying her a visit? Somehow, I doubt it, since she wears the magical armor known as being a member of the Democratic Party. That won’t stop the rest of us from noting the hypocrisy on display.
Regardless, it’s pretty astonishing that Jayapal and others are this incensed over what amounts to locking in spending at still eye-watering, completely unsustainable levels. Freezing spending levels at 2022 baselines still puts the spending at around two trillion more than pre-pandemic levels. How exactly is that not enough to keep the bloated United States government functioning at this point? And to suggest that backlash in the streets would be justified in the event any spending cuts are agreed to just seems insane, likely because it is.
This is what Democrats do, though. When they don’t get their way, they don’t just shrug and move on. They fight, and they don’t care what levers they have to pull to succeed. Jayapal knows she won’t be held accountable for her rhetoric, even if things get violent. So why would she fear using it?