I choose the subject of this post I do out of acknowledgement of the fact that it has happened several times since the birth of my youngest son, all while conceding to the possibility — and possibly, probably even the reality — of the United States defaulting on its debt, which has never happened before in the history of the United States and is rumored to have potentially catastrophic effects both to it and to the world economy. It’s rumored that it will delay (or worse, stop, at least until it were resolved) all payments made by the government, which would include both of the boys’ disability checks and even the child support that Bub’s paternal grandmother pays for her adult son since it is almost guaranteed to come out of his paternal grandfather’s disability or retirement… whatever he’s getting. All of it comes from the same “pot”, so to speak, even if the criteria for the payment and even the reasons may be different. If the United States can no longer borrow — create new debt — to cover shortfalls in cash flow when it has more obligations than it does cash on hand, everything paid for by the government goes on the chopping block, and we don’t even know what the scope of that chopping block is yet other than “really bad” because the United States has thus far been responsible enough to avert that by ensuring that the debt ceiling was either raised or suspended. That may or may not happen this time since Senate Republicans are digging their heels in about how Democrats should raise the debt ceiling — they can’t suspend it this way, they have to raise it to a specific dollar amount — through reconciliation, which only requires a simple majority rather than sixty Senators agreeing to invoke cloture to allow for a vote. Or unanimous consent, which… isn’t happening.

However, reconciliation tends to take weeks, and Pelosi and Schumer… don’t want to do it.

Even though Senate Republicans have told them that they will not in any way, shape, or form help them raise or suspend the debt ceiling themselves. McConnell has even told them to raise it through reconciliation.

There are times that I don’t like this country, and now would be one of those times.

We are manufacturing drama for the sake of doing so to see who, if anyone, will blink. Other people suffer.